Power saving tips for computers

bwana said:
These days a laptop sure is the way to go even when you have power.
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IMO, anybody who still buys a desktop system for common office work needs to have their head read.

What this report does not say that if you are in an industrial area and you have cheap UPS you are likely to go down anyway. Yes, the UPS kicks in but is often not fast enough because all motors in close vicinity feed power into the grid resulting in a relatively slow dropping power which many cheap UPS's do not detect early enough.

BTW, anybody who lives in Gauteng and does not have a UPS with surge protection does not deserve that their computer system survives even the first lightning storm.
 
I have close on 15 pc's and 8 laptops at home, laptops are harldy touched at the moment as we are a graphic design company and have you tried rendering 3d animations on a laptop (just does not work)
 
My telephone lines have been struck twice by lightning a few years back. The first time I was on Dial-up. It fried my usb dial-up modem, motherboard, tv card and power supply. The second time I was using a usb adsl modem, this time frying the usb adsl modem and motherboard. I didn't have a lightning protector. I know - STUPID.

I've got lightning protection on my ADSL router. Is this sufficient? Is a UPS essential for protecting the PC from power surges? How likely are power surges to cause damage to pc's?

I think my fridge needs a UPS more urgently. Fridge compressors are notorious for giving up after constant power outages.

It's amazing that lot's of people don't have any form of lightning/surge protection.
 
R500 UPS (~600VA) for router and laptop is just fine for an hour or two. Just router, many hours. If you want PC connected, make that 5 grand worth of UPS (at least). Better plan is to get a genset and keep your critical devices on UPS. AND... it is not really the "VA" rating (don't get fooled) - it is the size of the battery in the UPS. Connect a car battery or two and watch it improve. Of course, you then need to buy a car battery charger... thanks Eskum for all these needless pieces of trivia I've been collecting for 2 weeks here in the darkest Sandton.
 
aadil said:
I've got lightning protection on my ADSL router. Is this sufficient? Is a UPS essential for protecting the PC from power surges? How likely are power surges to cause damage to pc's?
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Surges can cause damage to any electrical equipment. Worse are the spikes/dips in current which is getting more common. A decent UPS has a fuse for lightning protection. Advantage of getting a UPS is that your computer shuts down cleanly, and avoids the power spike when eskum power is back. I am going to UPS my expensive LCD TV as well.
 
RoganDawes said:
Just avid the Powercom UPS's, since the bundled software is so bad. There is no option to suspend/hibernate, so whatever you were working on gets forcibly killed when the computer shuts down. What crap!
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I can second that one: about the only way to get anything to work is to get the program (UPSMON) to execute your own batch files to shutdown/hibernate. I do also love the Powercom manuals, written in an odd Chinese-English hybrid! They are fairly cheap though.
 
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Take a male to female power cord for a PC, cut the female part of (the side which does not fit in to the UPS) and then you make yourself a plug which will allow you to plug things like an ADSL router in. I did it to power a switch and router.
 
Car batteries are not deep cycle batteries, which means when you run it dry once, you have ruined the battery and need to buy a new one.
 
QX6700RULZ said:
I have close on 15 pc's and 8 laptops at home, laptops are harldy touched at the moment as we are a graphic design company and have you tried rendering 3d animations on a laptop (just does not work)
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Agreed, that is why I wrote "common office work" by which I mean wordprocessing, spreadsheet work, maybe a little accounting and database stuff.
If you are into graphics design then it is a different story.
 
lsuacner said:
Car batteries are not deep cycle batteries, which means when you run it dry once, you have ruined the battery and need to buy a new one.
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Agreed if you want to be technical. I was merely illustrating a point with a layman's term. It will cost you a great deal to UPS your PC(s), you might as well get a genset. Even 'deep cycle' batteries go kaput after some time and have to be replaced. Gensets need maintenence etc. so there is quite a debate but it's up to the individual and his pocket.
 
aadil said:
(Off topic) Here's something interesting I just read from IOL.co.za

"Customer usage - Some 36 percent of all Eskom power is consumed by the country's mining houses, which account for about 0,1 percent of Eskom customers. Domestic users, who make up 96 percent of the customer base, consume 12,2 percent of the electricity produced."

If households only 12,2 per cent and all households cut usage by 25% (a tall ask), that only adds 3% back to Eskom for their reserve capacity. We're doomed !!!!!!!!
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Yeah - well - this is a sick thing to say, but maybe now that the mining industry is shutting down (god, what a huge catastrophe), maybe there'll be a bit more for households again ...
 
Is there any way to get a PC to notice when it's been switched over to UPS? My dad is thinking of getting a little UPS for his office, one that will just give him enough time to shut down his PC; problem is, half the day he's out of the office, so won't be there to shut down.
 
Cathryn said:
Is there any way to get a PC to notice when it's been switched over to UPS? My dad is thinking of getting a little UPS for his office, one that will just give him enough time to shut down his PC; problem is, half the day he's out of the office, so won't be there to shut down.
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Yes, or at least you can with a decent UPS; The UPS is connected to the PC by either a USB or RS232 cable and you can monitor the state of the power via provided software. You can choose to have the machine suspend/hibernate or shutdown after some predetermined period in the case of a power failure.
 
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Cathryn said:
Is there any way to get a PC to notice when it's been switched over to UPS? My dad is thinking of getting a little UPS for his office, one that will just give him enough time to shut down his PC; problem is, half the day he's out of the office, so won't be there to shut down.
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Nice price I found: 600VA UPS with USB and RS232 available from Telkom direct shops for R359. Will probably be just enough to save your work and shutdown. But still a very good price. (Funny: Telkom and good price in one sentence!)
 
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