PC systems Fast PCs and speedy cars have one thing in common: high speed means high energy consumption. While a car consumes no fuel when the ignition is turned off, a PC still uses electricity even after it is shut down. You have to  switch off the mains to cut off the supply totally. The amount of electricity required by a PC in the so-called ‘soft-off’ mode depends on its power supply unit. A really good SMPS can make do with less than 1 Watt. A poor quality one, on the other hand, can use electricity to the tune of 20 Watts in standby mode. It makes practical sense to use a multi-way connector or power strip with a master switch, which also switches off the monitor, printer and other peripheral devices. We recommend programmable master-slave type plug sockets: All other devices (slave) are switched on or off with the main device (master)—when the master uses minimum electricity. If a PC goes into the standby mode with a power consumption of 5 Watts in the lunch hour, then the slave devices such as the printer or monitor are automatically switched off. Energy can be conserved even when the device is in operation or in standby mode. The power saving schemes in Windows allow you to configure settings such as switching off the monitor or the hard disk, and activating the standby mode of the PC—after a predefined period of inactivity. The power-saving options in Windows XP can be found in the Control Panel. Windows Vista has them in the Control Panel under the ‘Hardware and Sound’ menu. You can also examine the BIOS settings: In most PCs, the BIOS is not optimized for energy conservation. To access the BIOS you need to press the [F1] or [Del] key when the PC starts. The correct key to be pressed is displayed on the screen. The standby mode is optimized when you activate the S3-mode (Suspend-to-RAM) in BIOS. All system information pertaining to configuration, open files and applications is stored in main memory (which remains powered), while other components are switched off to save energy. This way the computer gets activated within four to eight seconds and requires only 3 Watts in the sleep mode. On the other hand, when the BIOS is set to the energy-gulping S4 mode (in ViiVPCs, for instance), the computer requires at least 65 Watts (latest processor models) even under the best conditions, and 120 Watts (in an older Pentium D version, for instance) in the most unfavorable conditions. The economical S3 mode is a good choice if you want to access a Windows computer through the network. Activate the ‘The computer can activate this device from the standby mode’ option under ‘Energy options’ in the device manager of the network card. Now activate the standby mode in the Windows energy options. You will now be able to access the PC through another device, such as an Xbox 360, in a few seconds.