[mythtv-users] Power recording rule for night time preference

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/09/2010 03:08 PM, Ronald Frazier wrote:
>> My PC is using 290W permanently (if not recording and throttled down) 290*24
>>
>> This means that I would pay around 500$ per year to run my FE/BE if night
>> time power was not at 60% of the daytime price.
>>      
> If powering it down and scheduling for night time doesn't improve
> things for you significantly, you may want to look at the possibility
> of building a PC based on something more energy efficient. My
> diskless, basic core2 duo systems are about 35 watts at idle, and 65
> at full load. Add another 6-10 watts per hard drive, a couple extra
> watts if you have a lot of memory (mine is 2GB). A GeForce G210 idles
> about 11 watts, or a G220 is about 20-30 watts (I think). It shouldn't
> be at all unreasonable to build a system with about a third of your
> system's power consumption. It could easily pay for itself in a year
> or 2 at the prices you are talking about.
>    

Agreed with everything--especially the suggestion that Atom/ION is not 
the only way to get a power-efficient system!  (And using a Core 2 Duo 
or similar, you actually have a "real" CPU that's actually useful when 
you need it.)

Only thing I have to add is to make sure you get a power-efficient power 
supply (go 80 PLUS).  
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/393806#393806

Mike