What does everyone do with their NUC at night ... run, sleep or off?

[ClariceStarling]

It doesn't use much power, so it seems the best choice is whatever is going to make the machine last longer, right? 

So wouldn't it be best to let it run 24/7?  Or is sleep better?  It boots so fast you could turn it off also, but assume that's harder on the machine, no?

[AlHill]

Whew...   At first, I thought that was going to be a personal question.<G>

I leave all of my machines on.   With the amount of maintenance Windows does in the background, they need that time.

Doc (not an Intel employee or contractor)

[ClariceStarling]

Hi Doc - Interesting.  I didn't think about the maintenance thing.  So that eliminates off.  Maintenance setting still has the "Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer from sleep" option if one enables it.  It looks like by default it's off, so most people probably have it off.  Then I have to test if it works.  (A lot of windows things don't seem to work like they tell you.)   If it works, sleep and maintenance could still be an option.  Every time the computer wakes though it's probably more wear and tear than leaving it running.

The only thing about leaving it running is I'm worried about getting hacked.  I could leave it on and disconnect from the Internet, but it seems like the maintenance probably doesn't work properly if it's disconnected.  I did get hacked a couple of times at work, and I know because one time I was working on my computer when it happened.  But if you're not looking at your screen all night, you could be getting hacked at night and not even know it.  But I'm going to say hacking risk probably isn't that high for most people at home ... I hope! 

So, if one uses a NUC everyday, it's probably better to just leave it running.  I understand a NUC doesn't use much energy.

[LeonWaksman]

I agree with Al, it is personal preference. I leave most my computers OFF during the night. I prefer well initialized system after power ON. In today electronics there is nothing that makes it "harder" to the machine while you are powering it ON. However, one of my NUCs (which is located in inconvenient to switch it ON place ), I leave in S3 sleep state, in order to be able to wake it using wireless mouse.

Leon

[ClariceStarling]

Leon - I hear you.  It does seem to do this maintenance thing for about fifteen minutes at night if you leave the default setting at 2 a.m. - you can see the orange light start flashing like crazy.  If it doesn't get the chance to do it at night, then it's not clear what happens.  Windows just says it will try to do it later when your computer isn't in use - but not sure how it knows when you're going to use it.   Maybe all the gamers that are complaining about slow performance have their automatic maintenance come on?     

[ClariceStarling]

Here's another thing I learned.  If one checks the box for "Allow scheduled maintenance to wake up my computer from sleep" , it probably doesn't really go to sleep - more like hibernation - so I would eliminate that as an option.   

[ClariceStarling]

Does the fan run when a NUC is sleeping?  If you have a quiet fan, how can you tell?  Since the fan is most likely to wear out first, that would enter into it too in my opinion.   

P.S. I see the instructions for replacing a fan on a NUC ... it doesn't look easy!

[LeonWaksman]

Well, I'm not enabling the Automatic Maintenance feature and never have problem in any of my computers to be not updated. The Update are downloaded during the day (when I'm working) and the computer is restarted manually when I see the icon on the Task Bar requesting restart. 

You are right, replacing or cleaning the cooling blower requires some skills, since the board need to be removed from the NUC case.

To answer to your question - the blower is OFF during sleep.

Leon

[ClariceStarling]

Hi Leon,

I think Doc is talking about the daily Automatic Maintenance feature under "Security and Maintenance" on the Control Panel.  It doesn't look like there's a way to turn if off.  (You can only turn off the wake my computer from sleep to perform maintenance.)   I have never seen an icon pop up for daily Automatic Maintenance.  (I've seen the icon for monthly updates.)  One can also activate Automatic Maintenance manually on the Control Panel to run once on demand - it takes about 15 minutes.  It also shows the last time it ran.

I'm not sure how important Automatic Maintenance is.  (Maybe Doc will let us know if he reads this?)  On the one hand, it seems like a reason to leave the  computer running at night so Automatic Maintenance will come on, but the potential to wear out the fan when one's  NUC runs 24/7 seems like a good reason to turn a NUC off at night. 

Many thanks for your help!

[ClariceStarling]

When I turn my NUC off, I still see a green light on inside.  Is that okay ... or should I change the settings?  Don't I want it completely off?

[n_scott_pearson]

That green LED indicates that the NUC's power supply is plugged into A/C power and that its providing the NUC with a tiny trickle of power, called standby power, that is used to maintain state. This is perfectly normal and expected. It is much like the tiny trickle of power that your TV and DVD player draw when off to support quickly turning back on in response to a remote control.

...S

[ClariceStarling]

Okay, I see ... they call it "vampire" energy use.   "This idle power usage accounts for about 10% of residential electricity use, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. That can add up to more than $100 a year in energy costs."

[n_scott_pearson]

The only way to avoid it is to unplug your equipment. This adds significantly to the time necessary to get things going. You can't win...

...S

[ClariceStarling]

On a NUC, there looks like several sleep options, but I don't see anything about off.  Is there some way to go into the bios and set it to turn completely off?

[n_scott_pearson]

No. Only unplugging the power supply takes it completely off. The normal Off state is S5, which still has the trickle of standby power flowing.

...S

[ClariceStarling]

According to my research, plug pulling isn't recommended. Electronics in the computer can be damaged by voltage spikes and the off/on cycle from wiggling plugs. Wiggling power plugs can also cause arcing, which eventually damages the receptacle.

[LeonWaksman]

Only to complete Scott's answer, I'm adding a link to the Technical Product Specification. @ClariceStarling  please read para. 1.14.2.8 on pages 32-33 to see the location and explanation for the 5V Power Standby LED. In para. 1.14.1.1. and 1.14.1.3, pages 30-31, you will see Table showing estimated Power Consumption in S5 state (which is < 5W depends on wake-up devices used). So if you are disabling or not setting the RTC wake-up, LAN wake-up, USB and PCIe wake-up Consumer IR wake-up in S5 state, the Power Consumption will be very close to zero.

Leon

[ClariceStarling]

Thanks, Leon!  As a general rule, it seems better to use the default settings, so if it doesn't make much difference, I am going to leave it alone.  As Doc said, the genesis of a lot of problems is messing around with the settings when one doesn't need to!

[LeonWaksman]

I agree, leaving default settings is a good choice. However, I prefer to disable the LAN wake-up at least. I don't want to leave the possibility that my NUC can be switched ON from LAN/Internet and I don't want to see the LED on Ethernet Connector blinking at night.

Leon

[ClariceStarling]

Okay, I changed "Wake on LAN" to stay off.   Should I check the box for deep s4/s5?

[LeonWaksman]

I'm not enabling Deep S4/S5. In my BIOS this field is grayed out, since the Advanced>Power>Primary Power Settings  is set to Max Performance Enabled. In order to enable Deep S4/S5 I need to set this field to Low Power Enabled (which I don't want). I'm not aware if it is the same in your NUC.

Leon