Reminds me that I need to rebuild some of the computers that have given their lives to UD and get them going again. I could be sapphire in a few weeks if I do. I had one dual proc box burn a power supply (I have an extra) and one a chipset fan (I have an extra). I could, and should get them fixed and get myself back up to 20k points a week.
Thinking about those machines caused me to want to drag something up that I had read earlier in this thread.
Whomever said it was cheaper to leave your computer running instead of turning it off was mistaken. A moving part doesn't wear out when it is off. Your hard drives, fans, power supply, monitor, etc will all last longer if they are powered down, obviously. If you've ever replaced a hard drive that got the big click of death, leaving you scrambling for your data knows that there are costs associated with this. I'm not sure how the *proven fact* didn't take that into account. Second of all, with the CPU running at 100% (both CPUs in my case) you generate more heat. A lot of heat in a new computer. More heat means the fans speed themselves up. And maybe you need more fans. More voltage to the CPU(s) and to the fans means more draw on the power supply and more current drawn from wherever that is plugged into. Yup, raises your electricity bill. Three or 4 decent sized computers running at 100% for a month will definately make an impact on your electricity bill. One recently modern computer running 24/7 at 100% CPU will make an impact on your electricity bill.
That said, is it a LARGE cost to run several machines at your house doing UD 24/7? Heck no, it surely is not. A couple a bucks, maybe. For me, I figure the extra electricity equates to roughly the cost of one pack of cigarettes per month. The added wear and parts maybe 3 or 4 more. I can surely afford to smoke a few less packs per month and give that to medical science. Besides the obvious possible benefits for myself, if I needed a purely selfish reason, there are the numerous people that I have known or known of, throughout my lifetime that have died from cancer.
I for one, would pay the cost of a couple of packs of smokes to cure cancer. Anytime
For what it is worth, I don't think anyone here is NOT running it because it costs more in electricity. I just wanted to toss my 2 cents in.
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