Power Settings and MJ- What are my options?

[smaye]

I have now read a bit about thin clients, pap2 and running MJ from a hard drive. I find it all fascinating, but then realize all I want is a maintenance free telephone service.

Seems the simplist solution is to leave MJ plugged in and computer running 24/7. I can deal with that as I have a media center PC. Only issue is I would need to disable sleep. There, DONE!

But then there is the nagging question of power consumption. Using a meter the PC is using ~100 watts at idle(not sleep). And 2 watts when sleeping. Cost for running 100watts 24/7 for a month is about $6 in my area. Really not too much, but seems to be wasteful.

Does anyone have a specific power plan (i.e.shutting down hard drives etc) that they use to minimize power use, yet keep the PC on?

[VaHam]

I have now read a bit about thin clients, pap2 and running MJ from a hard drive. I find it all fascinating, but then realize all I want is a maintenance free telephone service.

Seems the simplist solution is to leave MJ plugged in and computer running 24/7. I can deal with that as I have a media center PC. Only issue is I would need to disable sleep. There, DONE!

But then there is the nagging question of power consumption. Using a meter the PC is using ~100 watts at idle(not sleep). And 2 watts when sleeping. Cost for running 100watts 24/7 for a month is about $6 in my area. Really not too much, but seems to be wasteful.

Does anyone have a specific power plan (i.e.shutting down hard drives etc) that they use to minimize power use, yet keep the PC on?

Although I have not tried this, since I prefer the thin client approach which also simplifies QoS and Process priority problems, I would think you could run MJ as a service and then just make sure to keep the NIC and USB hub powered.

[smaye]

since I prefer the thin client approach which also simplifies QoS and Process priority problems,

I thought there was some maintenance required with a TC if there are updates. In the past I have had excellent sound quality with MJ calls just using the device as shipped. Are you saying a TC is even better?

Based on what I read, it just seemed that the simplist solution was to run the device as designed; plugged in to a USB port of a running computer. Any updates come through and handled automatically.

Only issue I had with that whole scenario was the nagging waste of power.

[sabresfan]

If you don't want to go the thin client route I would just find some other ways to trim a few dollars off your electric bill each month.

[smaye]

If you don't want to go the thin client route I would just find some other ways to trim a few dollars off your electric bill each month.

Nice observation. I guess I will get over the PC running 24/7 and save $5 somewhere else.

I sometimes get lost in the details. Thx.

[telltom]

I use a thin client and my watt meter tells me it is consuming 22 watts. That's $3 a month in my area. I also checked my old IBM T23 laptop and it consumes 35 watts. Not a big difference, so you may want to run MJ on a laptop. If you choose a thin client, check out the ad for $55 thin clients. they work perfectly.
My desktop is a pig at 95 WATTS at idle.

[VaHam]

since I prefer the thin client approach which also simplifies QoS and Process priority problems,

I thought there was some maintenance required with a TC if there are updates. In the past I have had excellent sound quality with MJ calls just using the device as shipped. Are you saying a TC is even better?

Based on what I read, it just seemed that the simplist solution was to run the device as designed; plugged in to a USB port of a running computer. Any updates come through and handled automatically.

Only issue I had with that whole scenario was the nagging waste of power.

Yeah there is some maintenance required. You have to log on remotely and click "commit" after a MJ update which happens a few times per year.

But if your current setup is working fine then I firmly believe in the "if it ain't broke....don't fix it" approach. Many users find there computers/networks are busy or poorly configured and a TC helps to solve those problems.

Did you try the power/sleep settings as I suggested?

[smaye]

No, I have not yet tried the power settings. Maybe this weekend. As much as I would like to run MJ as a service the easiest way seems to defeat the software that is appealing to me, MagicFeatures. If it is between having enhanced callerid and running as a service I will have to choose enhanced callerid.