| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 86076 | 2008-01-02 23:29:00 | Power Settings | Pato (2463) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 626776 | 2008-01-02 23:29:00 | If I set "Turn of hard disks" to "After 20 mins" What actually happens with the hard drive?. PC world seems to suggest you save a lot of power but is it worth it?. |
Pato (2463) | ||
| 626777 | 2008-01-02 23:58:00 | I never have and never will, but on a laptop if your trying to save battery it could be worthwhile. Basically it shuts off power to the HDD, causing it to stop spinning, and leaves whatever's in the memory available for use. Fire the laptop up again, the HDD starts spinning and your back where you left off. I'd rather just turn the laptop off. |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 626778 | 2008-01-03 00:29:00 | I never have and never will, but on a laptop if your trying to save battery it could be worthwhile. Basically it shuts off power to the HDD, causing it to stop spinning, and leaves whatever's in the memory available for use. Fire the laptop up again, the HDD starts spinning and your back where you left off. I'd rather just turn the laptop off. Thanks for the info. I am using a desktop. Would that mean that it would extend the life of the HDD. I don't think it is worth it just to save power but can see the advantages with a laptop. |
Pato (2463) | ||
| 626779 | 2008-01-03 00:31:00 | For a desktop I'd say it would be more likely to shorten the life of the HDD if anything. The power saving would be minimal. Turning HDDs on and off regularly is a lot worse for them than them being on all the time. Always make sure it's nice and cool around the HDDs aswell, HDDs really don't like being hot. |
wratterus (105) | ||
| 626780 | 2008-01-03 01:18:00 | For a desktop I'd say it would be more likely to shorten the life of the HDD if anything. The power saving would be minimal. Turning HDDs on and off regularly is a lot worse for them than them being on all the time. Always make sure it's nice and cool around the HDDs aswell, HDDs really don't like being hot. Cheers. That has cleared that up for me. Thanks for your help. |
Pato (2463) | ||
| 626781 | 2008-01-03 02:31:00 | No worries mate. Have a good one. :thumbs: | wratterus (105) | ||
| 626782 | 2008-01-03 03:40:00 | Turning HDDs on and off regularly is a lot worse for them than them being on all the time. Always make sure it's nice and cool around the HDDs aswell, HDDs really don't like being hot. That is arguable, and has been argued recently here on PF1. There is no great strain in powering up or powering down, and from the disk's point of view, power supplies "soft start" so there's little strain there. Disks have a finite life in terms of bearing wear etc (measured in 1000's of hours) so reducing their on-time by one third by leaving them off overnight is not a bad idea. I have always switched off each night and have had no disk problems at all. Some of my older disks (<2GB) are still going strong after 8-9 years of daily use. Another benefit is the clean boot every morning, blows the cobwebs out and everything is at its best. Then there's the reduced wear and tear on power supplies and mother boards etc (heat is the enemy and the less time exposed the better) and of course there are the power savings. Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 626783 | 2008-01-03 04:37:00 | Thanks BillyT, So there would be an advantage in setting the Power to "turn off HDD after 20 mins"? What do you have yours set at?. I do turn the PC off each night |
Pato (2463) | ||
| 626784 | 2008-01-03 07:56:00 | I just leave them running: on all day, off all night. Cheers Billy 8-{) |
Billy T (70) | ||
| 626785 | 2008-01-03 11:37:00 | I turn my PC off if I'm going to be away from it for more than about 3 hours, more or less. Otherwise it stays on all day, and switched off completely at night. This has been my habit for about 12 years. Haven't had a hard drive failure yet. |
Greg (193) | ||
| 1 2 | |||||