Greenjobs Blog

Another IT post focused on energy saving. These tips will be useful for both laptop and desktop computer users, but you will really notice their effects on laptop battery life. However, if you have many computers (for example in your company) and you apply these tips, the difference should be widely noticeable, making you save valuable energy and money. You already know how to make a energy efficient desktop computer, now let’s go for some tricks to save more energy.

1. Turn the computer off when you don’t use it.

It may be obvious but there are people who leave their computer turned on for hours, even when idle. A medium-end computer uses up to 80W when it’s idle. That’s a lot of energy that can be saved just by turning the computer off. If you are leaving your computer alone and idle longer than 30 minutes, consider switching it off.

2. Set an automatic turn-off for your screen.

Set your software configuration so that the screen automatically turns off, instead of using a screensaver. A good period is 3 minutes before switching off.

3. Reduce the brightness

Computer screens use more energy when high brightness values are set. Reduce it in order to narrow the energy use. Some people report battery life increases about half an hour when they lowered their brightness level. For desktop computers, you can still apply the same. Screens use a reasonable amount of energy, so it’ll be good if you can lower it in any way.

4. Disconnect external peripherals

In a laptop, use the touchpad instead of a mouse. That won’t make a really large difference but it will help. Plug off everything you are not using at the moment: USB devices also drain energy from your computer in order to work. This can be also applied to printers and other hardware.

5. Use HDD, not CD/DVD

Don’t leave any disk in the CD tray in laptops as it will do unnecessary spins which will shorten the battery life. If you have to use a ISO image file, consider using some software like DAEMON Tools, which allows you to mount it from the hard disk. It’ll make you save some energy as well.

6. Defrag your disks

The more fragmented that your disk is, the more energy it needs to get data ready. So defrag your hard disk when possible, especially when you are using the plug adaptor.

7. Turn off wireless and other devices

If you are not using them, turn off WiFi adaptor and Bluetooth, and the same with the sound. Why keep it on if you don’t need it?

8. Update your software and drivers

This won’t make a real difference, but sometimes latest the latest driver updates can improve the amount of energy used. Latest versions of some programs also bring optimizations so they use less CPU to get the job done, which means less energy used. It’s also useful to avoid compatibility and stability issues.

9. Reduce process list

Try to use some startup program manager software such as Ccleaner, which will allow you to decide which processes to start when the OS boots. You can reduce disk operation and CPU and RAM use this way. That will make you save energy, of course.

10. Deactivate fancy effects

Windows Vista Aero interface is serious eye candy, such as Mac OS or Linux with KDE desktops, but they drain more energy than “ugly” settings because of a higher CPU and graphic card use. By deactivating them or just lowering their “visual quality” settings you can save valuable energy, and also increase your system speed.

Please consider applying these tips to your computer - especially if you have more computers at home or in your office.

If you want to save energy (and save money too!) with a new computer you are about to purchase, we will give you some steps to follow. They will help you to buy an energy efficient computer so you can save energy when using it. By saving energy you can also save money because of a lower energy bill.

1. Do you really need a desktop computer?

Laptop use less than half of the energy a desktop computer use, and they produce less heat too. So your room will be up to 4 degrees cooler while you save valuable energy. A laptop must be enough for office, Internet and middle requirement work, so if you don’t need serious horsepower consider buying a laptop.

2. Buy an energy saving processor

One of the components which use most energy in a computer is its processor. i7 and Phenom II quad core processors are very nice and very powerful, but they use too much energy (more than 120W). Try to buy a processor which suits your requirements with the lowest energy consumption possible. Two processors which use very few energy are the Core 2 Duo E7200 from Intel and the Athlon 64 X2 5050e from AMD.

3. Can I save energy with RAM, Motherboard and hard disk?

Well, not really, these components won’t make a big difference, but you can follow some guidelines. First, less RAM modules = less energy use, so buy just 2 (to enable dual channel) and no more. Motherboard won’t give you more than 1 or 2 watt saving.

Hard Disks; I would seriously recommend Seagate 7200.12 series, which offer great performance with very good energy consumption. There are some “eco” and “green” models out there, but sometimes they have poor performance and they don’t make a big difference from other hard disks. SSD may help you to save some energy (sometimes they use less than 1W, regular hard disks use up to 5W), but they are very expensive.

4. Graphic card for low energy consumption gaming

Graphic card is the other component which drains a lot of energy in your computer among the processor. Let’s see some tips to choose the most efficient one for you.

First, if you are going to use your computer to play games, the most powerful model I would go for is the Radeon HD 4770 (78W peak), which has a great performance per watt. If you want to play but not too serious, I’d go for the GeForce 9500 GT (with DDR3 memory, 38W peak). If you need dedicated graphic card but won’t use it for playing at all, I’d go for the Radeon HD 4350 (15W peak). If you don’t want to play games, just buy a motherboard with integrated graphics card.

You can check graphic card energy consumption here.

5. Energy efficient power supply

Now you have a general idea about which pieces to buy for your next computer to save some energy, you must choose a very important part, the power supply. Always look for efficient ones (80+ certification).

There are some brands and models you can trust, they are not just efficient, but very good quality PSUs: Corsair (VX 550, HX 750), OCZ (Stealthstream 500), Seasonic… For an efficient computer, 550W must be more than enough. You may want a list of efficient PSUs. Check it and look for PSUs with 90% efficiency if possible.

In two years you will have saved the cost of a good PSU in energy saving and lower energy bills. Consider avoiding bad quality or cheap PSUs as they have very poor efficiency (70% or less).

Now you have an idea about what to buy to get an energy efficient computer. Coming soon, how to save energy by optimizing your laptop and enhancing its battery life. Also valid for desktop computers.