[mythtv-users] Powersaving tip on Athlon PCs.

Keat Lim mythtv at keatlim.com
Thu Jul 3 15:25:38 EDT 2003


I am using the Kill-A-Watt device (basically a wattmeter device) that I
just got today and was amazed how much power my unit is costing me a
month!

My Athlon 900 (non XP version but it may apply to XP versions too)  
currently runs at around 80watts at idle and I was assuming that the HLT
on idle in the Linux kernel was working as it would bump up to 90watts
while in use (LiveTV/recording). I wasn't satisfied and kept hunting
around till I found this howto
(http://cip.uni-trier.de/nofftz/linux/Athlon-Powersaving-HOWTO.html)  and
after using the setpci command I watch it drop from 80watts to 50watts
when not in use (in MythTV menu and not recording). That is a lot of power
saving which I calculated would mean something in the range of
the usual $7-8/month to a much lower $4-5/month...

Also sensors reports temperature drops from 40C to 30C which also gives a
confirmation that the CPU is indeed not using as much power as before...

Of course YMMV but thought I'll just pass this along....



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