running a pc 24/7

[starbuck]

thinking about running my pc 24/7 as i will be able to do a lot of video encoding overnight and access music via my squeezebox without having to remember to switch my pc on.

couple of questions I have.

1: do I need to change any settings on the pc so it runs efficiently this way?

2: how can I quieten my system as much as possible(see my system left) as I think this will be the main prob with leaving my pc on 24/7. Biggest prob being my graphics card(as it's running on stock cooler as I don't think there is a quiet aftermarket yet available).

[peterb]

1. No, but turning the monitor off will save a bit of power.

2. Your system description didn't say much about system cooling. Others are better placed to help there, but the consensus (and common sense) seems to be that large (120mm) fans running slowly are quieter than small fans running fast. Removing the case altogether and disabling case fans might be quieter, but if you can monitor system temps, yu can experiment to see what works best for a given level of noise.

[arthurleung]

A few things I would suggest:

1. Enable Speedstep / Clock Management (I recommend RM Clock), that will make the system use less power (hence less noise) when it is not encoding, however it may affect your overclockability

2. Set HDD spindown. If your RAID0 can be spinned down (i.e. the chipset support it, and it is not OS disk), use your 320GB for both source and destination so that power usage / heat output is minimized. Anyway just keep minimal number of hdds active.

3. Set you AiQuiet profile to quiet. I would against slowing down non-controlled fan as it may cause overheat in a gaming session.

4. DON'T REMOVE THE CASE! The case absorb some radiation and reduce noise. It also minimize the dust your components are gathering. However if your case resonate due to 3 hdds (all my cases does with 4+ hdds), you may need to come up with some solutions to dampen the resonance. It is quite annoying when you sleep :S

Consider you are using a E6600, may be you should invest in a cheap C2D notebook that you can do the encoding on? They are a lot more power efficient (usually 40W with CPU at 100&#37, could be as quiet as your desktop gonna be, also you can put it anywhere you want.

[peterb]

A few things I would suggest:

The case absorb some radiation and reduce noise. .

Er - what radiation???

I used to regularly remove the case on my 24x7 server to keep the temperatures down (until I got round to tidying it up inside and improving the airflow. Even now running it without the case on drops the temperatures!

[Andy3536]

Er - what radiation???

I used to regularly remove the case on my 24x7 server to keep the temperatures down (until I got round to tidying it up inside and improving the airflow. Even now running it without the case on drops the temperatures!

There is no rediation, thats why there are cheaper plastic cases being sold.

Look at the fans on the case and get ones that size that run slower. If your case doesn't have rubber feet, you could try that too.

[peterb]

There is no rediation, thats why there are cheaper plastic cases being sold.

Precisely! (Unless of course he is using a small thermo-nuclear generator to power a vastly over-rated PSU for extreme overclocking! )

On a serious note - I suppose the poster could have meant non-ionising radiation (RF interfence) which would be no risk anyway.

[Jay]

heat is radiation....

[Gerschwin]

The whole hdd vibration thing can be fixed if you use rubber grommets between the drive and screws - same for other drives.

[Andy3536]

heat is radiation....

Errr, no it isn't. Heat can raidiate, but it isn't radiation. There is a big difference.

[Jay]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_radiation

[Lucio]

Errr, no it isn't. Heat can raidiate, but it isn't radiation. There is a big difference.

Sorry, but I don't think you're right, heat is a type of radiation as it's part of the EM spectrum. Whilst in every day use people will typically use radiation to mean ionizing radiation, it doesn't mean that heat doesn't behave like radiation

That's the whole point of the term radiate, it's the term to refer to how radiation moves.

[Andy3536]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_radiation

Thermal radiation is not the same as radiation, it's only called radiation as it disipates in the same way.
Thermal radiation and radiation are not the same.

[kalniel]

However you'll get done if you emit sufficient amounts of EM radiation, which is why motherboards have to come with EMI shields in the EU.

Other thing is don't leave it plugged into the internet if you don't need to.

[schmunk]

Anything radiating is radiation, by definition...*


*No, smartasses, I don't mean anything giving off radiation, I mean anything which is being given off by radiation.

[Andy3536]

Anything radiating is radiation, by definition...*


*No, smartasses, I don't mean anything giving off radiation, I mean anything which is being given off by radiation.

There's no need to resorte to name calling when it's just a discussion!

[schmunk]

There's no need to resorte to name calling when it's just a discussion!

It was pre-emptive namecalling, for anyone who was going to say "my radiator radiates, so does that mean it's made of radiation. Hur hur hur."* I haven't called you any names, so wind your neck in.


*Yes, I know that radiators convect far more energy than they radiate, smartasses.

You see, I just did it again. Learn to read, dumbass.**


** Oops, I did just namecall then. There there, I'm sure the hurt will go away in a few weeks.