Peter Smithson wrote:

In article <AGQed.361$lv.337@newsfe1-win.ntli.net>, ml_news@ddnospamddml1dd.co.uk.dd says...

Note that your computer will become obsolete long before it fails!

Good point but in our cash strapped company, most us are using obsolete hardware!  I've had a fan replaced and someone who sits near me had a laptop which made a horrible noise all day when the fan bearing went.  We were all happy when the fan finally packed in!  Another guy had to sit

Fans and then HDDs are the most unreliable of the PC hardware, followed next by PSUs. The standard trick is for a server to have been running unmolested for a year or two, to be then shut down for an upgrade, to then find that the fans and a HDD or two don't restart...


[...]

but I'm not sure that this enegery saving mode actually involves powering anything off.

Transistors or some other relay physically switch off the power supply to various parts, or an equivalent to the CPU halt instruction is issued to put systems 'to sleep'. Either way, current consumption is stopped and parts cool down (and spin down).

Also, increased heat increases wear (If I remember my electronics correctly) - I'll agree that it's fractional and that the system will be obsolete before it wears out. (but see above!)

The significant aspect of temperature is that increasing temperature increasingly slows transistor switching. Lifespan is indeed reduced but this is negligible for normal PC examples (other things will fail before the electronics).

Running SETI@home will undo all of AMD's hard work mentioned here -

http://www.amd.com/us-
en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_9487^10272,00.html

If this is about power management, then yes if you keep your system 100% utilised! Power management (and on demand speed-stepping) is only useful for laptops. It is also a good marketing gimmick to very _ineffectively_ save the Earth from us.

If you've got the hardware, you get better returns for Mankind and Earth by thrashing it 100% or more for maximum gain before obsolescence!

(The green power-down stuff is of use to mitigate against those ignorants too lazy to turn off unused equipment overnight.)


[...]

It's not going to stop me running SETI@home but I was interested in knowing if the FAQ entry was accurate.  I think I've got the answer for Intel & AMD but I've no idea about the other machines.

This FAQ is a difficult one to answer accurately yet concisely and in an understandable way... Would you like to script your take on what you've found?


Regards,
Martin