cheapest way to optimize and maintain old PC as server

[Pinball Wizard]

I've got a 2 year old PC that I wish to use as a server, but need suggestions on the best and cheapest way to maintain/use it from a convenience/power consumption standpoint.

It was a DIY gaming rig using an AMD X2 4200+, an Abit SLI mobo, 2GB of ram and a 250GB HD. I've since stopped using it and have sold off the video cards, so will need to get a budget video card if I am to start using it again. It's running XP.

Obviously this baby has more than enough power to run as a server, but I'm more concerned about power consumption. What kinds of things can I do to minimize that? Things that pop to mind are changing the system power settings -- how far can I take that when being used as a server? Will the SB3 be able to wake the computer up from hibernation mode?

Also, does anyone here know anything about "underclocking"? My mobo is an enthusiast model with lots of tweakability as far as voltage and ram timings and all that stuff I know relatively little about. Would I benefit from power savings if I underclocked the computer?

Last, could anyone provide their best estimate of the power bill/usage generated from having this computer on all the time, even if most of that time is spent in standby or hibernation?

Thanks a lot!

[Mark Lanctot]

Will the SB3 be able to wake the computer up from hibernation mode?

There seem to be varied experiences on the forum about this. It looks like one of those "try it and see" things. The SB3 can send magic packets, but not all networking setups and not all NICs will respond to them, even ones that should.

Also, does anyone here know anything about "underclocking"? My mobo is an enthusiast model with lots of tweakability as far as voltage and ram timings and all that stuff I know relatively little about. Would I benefit from power savings if I underclocked the computer?

Not too sure about this, but you probably can't do anything appreciable. The only thing that might have a big effect is adjusting the CPU speed. There are smart utilities to dynamically do this (low clock when idle, clock increase when required) but the CPU needs to support it, and it's generally only mobile processors that support this.

Last, could anyone provide their best estimate of the power bill/usage generated from having this computer on all the time, even if most of that time is spent in standby or hibernation?

The million-dollar question. I have never, ever seen an accurate PSU estimator. They all give different results, some are inclined to overspec (especially ones PSU manufacturers use) and most are hopelessly out-of-date.

I tried one at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/powercalc.jsp and my best guess on your system came to 120 W.

I recently installed a UPS which will indicate power draw. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it was first at 18% of the UPS' 1200 VA capacity. Perhaps there's an efficiency number I'm missing, but 18% of 1200 VA = 216 W. I don't think UPS VA = W out, it seems to be lower but I can't find the conversion. So this would indicate I'm drawing something less than 216 W (thank goodness).

I also changed my case - my new case comes with a 500 W Antec "EarthWatts" PS. Amazingly my UPS load dropped to 9%. That seems too good to be true, and it's interesting that it's an exact multiple, but maybe something did happen. Checking the UPS load using a networked computer after the monitor went into standby showed a 3% load. That's way too good to be true, 3% of 1200 VA = 36 W, even less if there are efficiency losses. The Core 2 Duo CPU I'm using is power-efficient, but not that power efficient.

Still, a very high efficiency PSU may pay for itself in power savings if what I discovered is true.

[NigelMSB]

Also, does anyone here know anything about "underclocking"? My mobo is an enthusiast model with lots of tweakability as far as voltage and ram timings and all that stuff I know relatively little about. Would I benefit from power savings if I underclocked the computer?

AMD Athlon CPUs are good at saving power at idle, if you have Cool 'N' Quiet enabled (enable in BIOS if required, load AMD C'N'Q driver and set XP power management to "Minimal Power Management"). Once you've done that, you won't save much more power by underclocking/undervolting. That's assuming that the CPU is idle most of the time (which it is in most computers).

[Pinball Wizard]

Thanks for the replies. Even if I can't put it in hibernate, I would think turning the hard drives off and idling the cpu would lower the power drain considerably. Will look into the AMD cool and quiet driver - I think I disabled it earlier for performance reasons but no reason for that now that the computer's basically gonna be used solely to rip CD's and serve the SB3.

[Mark Lanctot]

The only time you'll need CPU power is in ripping (encoding step) and a little for rescanning. When you're just running the server, even if you transcode, it's not a big CPU load.

And yes, it looks like Cool N' Quiet is that dynamic underclocking thing I mentioned, so you're covered there.