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Save energy with stand-by mode
Idle computers should
be set to automatically switch into stand-by mode after
extended periods of disuse. Stand-by mode protects the
computer’s components and helps them last longer.
It can also cut
electricity costs, reports PC Professional magazine.
Presuming one has an office computer that remains unused for
three hours a day over the course of 225 working days a
year, stand-by mode can save almost 100 kilowatt hours (kWh)
in electricity, the Munich-based magazine has estimated. At
electricity prices of between 15 and 20 cents per kWh, that
can add up to between 15 and 20 dollars per year.
The magazine recommends using the
so-called S3 mode. That instructs the computer to store an
image of the memory and processor register from the current
session in the RAM. All components other than the RAM are
then separated from the power supply. The system does not
need to be rebooted during wake up, but instead restored to
the last state from the memory.
The tests showed that the process
lasted only six to 10 seconds. The alternative S4 mode works
in a comparable way, although the system image is stored on
the hard drive and the system is completely turned off.
Waking up the system takes at least 20 seconds because it
needs to be read from the hard drive, a slower process than
reading from memory.
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