Hello,

Electricity is sure getting expensive these days, especially during the summer time ($500 per month!). I would
like to see if I can keep my little 24 hours/7 days Linux desktop/workstation (also acts like a private server,
so I can ssh/VNC in from outside) from using a lot of power/electrcity when in idled mode. Currently, I told
xscreensaver (using xmatrix at slow rate -- loved the first two Matrix movies!) to put my monitor to sleep and
shut down after an hour and two hours. I do not use those 3D screen savers since they hog my 3D card and CPU, and
my room gets too warm easily.

Is there anything else to cool down? Should I really spin my HDDs down (is that a good idea and is it slow to
spin up if I need it?). I heard about athcool utility, but it sounds scary since it can cause problems, data
losses, etc. I really don't have the time to mess with it and deal with any problems that it might cause.

I think in my BIOS, I turned off ACPI(?) and APM. Do I need these enabled? How can I check if I have the required
components installed in my Debian and what do I need (apt-get install). FYI, here is my sensors -f during mostly
idled and using the box via SSH:

$ sensors -f
w83697hf-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
VCore: +1.63 V (min = +1.71 V, max = +1.89 V) ALARM
+3.3V: +3.25 V (min = +3.14 V, max = +3.47 V)
+5V: +4.97 V (min = +4.76 V, max = +5.24 V)
+12V: +12.04 V (min = +10.82 V, max = +13.19 V)
-12V: -11.87 V (min = -13.18 V, max = -10.80 V)
-5V: +3.49 V (min = -5.25 V, max = -4.75 V) ALARM
V5SB: +5.43 V (min = +4.76 V, max = +5.24 V) ALARM
VBat: +3.54 V (min = +2.40 V, max = +3.60 V)
fan1: 0 RPM (min = 10546 RPM, div = 2) ALARM
fan2: 2311 RPM (min = 1662 RPM, div = 4)
temp1: +100 F (high = +212 F, hyst = +32 F) sensor = thermistor
temp2: +129.2 F (high = +176 F, hyst = +167 F) sensor = thermistor
alarms: Chassis intrusion detection ALARM
beep_enable:
Sound alarm enabled

My detailed computer specifications can be found here: http://alpha.zimage.com/~ant/antfarm.../computers.txt
(secondary/backup computer). I also tried not to have too much stuff in my PC case. The only extra thing is I
have is NIC since I don't trust the onboard VIA NIC.

Thank you in advance.
--
"The ants sought personal revenge for my having sprayed them the day before." --Oliver Smith
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