Orange County Register

Intel Corp.’s new Atom chip will use less power than the company’s existing mobile processors. But don’t stop at Atom. Intel’s Dan Snyder, who I met on Monday, offered his own tips for conserving energy and minimizing your computer’s impact on the electricity bill.

1. Use power management in Windows. How to links: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Apple tips.

2. Turn the computer off. The belief that leaving a computer on all night uses less power than shutting it down and turning it back on is not true anymore, unless you’re doing this multiple times in an hour.

3. Get excited about SSD’s, or solid state drives. This is the technology used in flash memory cards for digital cameras, cell phones and other small gadgets. As the capacity of these cards have increased, the technology is now being used as an alternative to hard drives in laptops. The new MacBook Air has them, as does one of Toshiba’s Portege’s. SSDs use less power and are faster than traditional hard drives.

Interestingly, as Intel is moving to a smaller-size chip, at 45nm, the company plans to use its older factories — currently building the larger 60nm chips — to make SSDs.

4. Plug all your computer gadgets and accessories (printer, external hard drives, scanner, etc.) into a power strip and when you’re done for the day, unplug it or turn it off.

FREEBIE: Dan also dropped off a bunch of orange Intel pens. Anyone want one?

Related stories:

• How much do Energy Star computers save?
• The Memory Guide: A cheap way to speed up that PC
• Intel shows off a smaller, powerfull chip named Atom

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