Speeding up computers

[russellhltn]

I currently set them to go to sleep after 1 hour; maybe I should extend that?

I'd suggest hibernate instead. The problem with sleep is if it loses power, it's effectively a crash. With hibernation, it doesn't care what happens to the power.

[drepouille]

In addition to the power usage, I'd think the heat generated by a computer on all the time in such a small room would make it uncomfortable. I didn't know it could wake itself up to check for updates in suspend mode; I thought it couldn't do that and always wondered why not. That would work well. I currently set them to go to sleep after 1 hour; maybe I should extend that?

I also did not realize that PCs could wake themselves up from Suspend mode until I configured a couple home computers with tuners and Windows Media Center. The computers woke themselves up from Suspend mode about five minutes before each TV program they were set to record.
As Russell says, hibernate is safer, but it doesn't allow the computer to awake as needed for scheduled tasks.

[russellhltn]

There's also the CMOS timer - that will boot a computer that is completely off (as long as the power strip it's connected to is on).

[blm768]

I'd suggest hibernate instead. The problem with sleep is if it loses power, it's effectively a crash. With hibernation, it doesn't care what happens to the power.

There's a good hybrid solution if you're willing to dig through the advanced power settings. Set it to sleep after about an hour and hibernate after 12 hours or so. I found that feature while troubleshooting a "power supply issue" with my laptop; it was just hibernating after 3 hours on battery.

[sbradshaw]

In addition to the power usage, I'd think the heat generated by a computer on all the time in such a small room would make it uncomfortable.

Computers don't generate heat when they're sleeping. If that were the case, it wouldn't be safe to put a laptop into a briefcase.