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| Huskerfan:
What do you guys think about leaving your arcade machine on all the time? I was once told that a computer uses about as much electricity as a 60 watt bulb and the flourescent light wouldn't consume much power. I was also told that it is worse to power on and off your computer if you're going to use it fairly often. Not to mention, every time I go downstairs I see my marquee and the Donkey Kong screen saver playing. Makes me proud that I created such a nice project. What do you guys do? p.s. I also think I will have my machine multitask and put in a wireless network card and back up files to this hard drive. |
| Buddabing:
If you have internet access you can run some kind of distributed computing application which runs in the background, such as folding, seti, etc. If not, I'd say just set your power settings to minimal power usage when idle. |
| ahofle:
It's the monitor that uses the most power, so don't forget to factor that in. Depending on the type of display you are using, you may also have screen burn to worry about if you plan on leaving the same game running for weeks. I usually leave everything off unless I expect company, in which case I leave it running all day. |
| RandyT:
Mine stays on. I consider it a night light and a piece of dynamic art. Use a screen saver that pops up screenshots or videos from the games, or that cool rendered arcade video that everyone likes. But if you are concerned about longevity of the components, by not shutting it down, the monitor, the bearings on the hard drive(s), the bearings in the fans on your CPU and video card (if it has one) and your power supply are all taking a beating. If you turn it off and on 3 times a day, just leave it on. If you turn it on twice a week, leave it off. Anything in-between is up to you to decide. RandyT |
| FrizzleFried:
Two of my cabinets have a separate power switch installed ONLY for the monitor. When I leave mine on, I tend to turn off the monitor (as it is the single most power sucking item in the cabinet). |
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