[mythtv-users] Power Saving Frontend Ideas

[Rick Hudson]

DISAFAN wrote:

> I'm curious for input on the issue of power saving in a frontend. What 
> techniques people have used, setups, etc.
> 
> Do you shutdown your frontend when not in use, put it in power-saving 
> mode, leave it on?

How little power is considered "saving power"? Less than 1W like a properly 
designed embedded device? Some computers still use alarming amounts of power 
even while in standby. I had a computer that drew like 20W when it was 
supposedly off!

I have a combined frontend and backend so so my requirements are slightly 
different so my solution is to have an efficient computer and leave it on. My 
whole computer only uses about 15W (measured) when it's idle with the HDD spun 
down (OS is on flash drive) and I figure that's reasonable provided all the 
other theatre gear (monitor, amp, sub, etc) have sub-watt standby modes - 
which they do.

Yes you could probably obtain a slightly lower mean power consumption by using 
suspend-to-RAM or something but it's just too much hassle to try and put a 
linux server into standby mode.

-- 
Rick Hudson