[MPlayer-users] How to pause mencoder

[rcooley]

On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 14:07:47 -0500
D Richard Felker III <dalias at aerifal.cx> wrote:

> As for seti/distributed.net/etc., you should think about
> whether you really want to pay a higher electric bill 

> "Spare" cycles aren't spare; when they're not used, the cpu powers
> down and conserves a lot of energy.
> 
> Rich

That's true for something like a notebook, but I haven't seen anything
like that with desktops.  I've thoroughly tested my Athlon XP 2000+, and
the difference between completely idle vs. a maxed-out processor is a
matter of less-than 5 watts.  Considering that the system is using
nearly 90watts just sitting around idle, I wouldn't consider that 5W "a
lot of energy."  That's not to say that I encourage use of
seti/distributed.net/etc at all.