Power Settings - Sleep/Standby Modes

[Oliver]

Hi all,

I don't know if this is a silly question, but...

What are the best power settings for media centre use, I understand it is different for everyone, I'd like to hear what other people are using and what you might recommend for me.

I currently have my power settings set to high performance, which is probably not good.

I want to be able to leave my VAIO on 24/7 for recording TV shows and perhaps running UTorrent, I don't want to leave the VAIO in a standby mode and find my programs didn't record.

Any help would be much appreciated,

Oliver

[IT Troll]

I leave my VGX switched on 24/7. Primarily this is because it runs a number of server services. Remote Potato for mobile devices, Twonky for my kitchen radio, and regular Windows Media Server for other PCs in the house. The trouble is there is no way for these clients to wake a sleeping server and so the only option is to leave it on. To make the most of this I then schedule Windows Updates and Media Center maintenance tasks to run in the early hours to keep the machine running smoothly. I have considered running some ad detection/removal software overnight but have't got around to it yet.

I have an overall power saving plan of Balanced which is then tweaked in advanced settings so that the PC never sleeps or hibernates. I also have it set so that the display never turns off. This means that when I turn on the TV it immediately displays Media Center. Using the balanced setting still allows hardware components to enter a low power state where possible; e.g. hard disks spin down.

[Oliver]

Thanks for the tip Woody, I found adjusting the settings to be quite simple. No idea how much power it might save, but its surely better than the settings I had.

If anyone can suggest any other settings that could help, without effecting TV recordings please let us know.