Re: audio / video system - & energy efficiency

[Johannes Wiedersich <johannes@physik.blm.tu-muenchen.de>]

Adam Hardy wrote:
> One question: all this has got to be relatively quiet which is difficult
> with the chips all humming away trying to stay cool, and another factor
> is the power consumption - my plan is to leave the server on most of the
> time so that the others in the house can use it without powering on the PC.
> 
> Energy consumption and efficiency are probably the other end of the
> spectrum from video performance - but I would like to get my power
> consumption under 100W - my current hardware (including all network
> hubs, modem, monitor etc) is 220W at rest. Which represents a fair
> portion of the house electricity bill if it's on 24/7.
> 
> Anyone thought about that?

Use a laptop. They are designed to consume as little energy as possible.
  An average laptop on desktop work consumes around 30W of power (with
display on).

Thinkpads are known to be quiet laptops.

Hibernate your computer, if it is not in use. Some bioses support wake
on lan, ie. they can be resumed within around 30s (depending on the
hardware and how many services they have to reactivate on resume).

A computer is not a fridge (which has to be powered 24/7 even if you
don't drink and eat).

HTH,
Johannes