How to slow down my desktop

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Rustom
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2014 9:21 am

How to slow down my desktop

Post by Rustom » Tue Apr 08, 2014 9:35 am

Hi
First post out here :-)

I want to run my desktop (running linux debian testing) cool and silent.
Slow is not a big issue.
[Just for context it is 40 deg C or 104 F out here nowadays!]

Now Ive done this in the past with various laptops:
cpufreq-set -u something
This clamps the highest clock freq to whatever is given.
Thereafter the laptop runs slightly slower but much cooler and less noisy.

However with my desktop this is not working.

Output of cpufreq-info is

Code: Select all

$ sudo cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 008: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq..., please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
  hardware limits: 2.40 GHz - 3.00 GHz
  available frequency steps: 3.00 GHz, 2.40 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: userspace, conservative, powersave, ondemand, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 3.00 GHz and 3.00 GHz.
                  The governor "userspace" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 3.00 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).
  cpufreq stats: 3.00 GHz:100.00%, 2.40 GHz:0.00%
analyzing CPU 1:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 1
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
  maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
  hardware limits: 2.40 GHz - 3.00 GHz
  available frequency steps: 3.00 GHz, 2.40 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: userspace, conservative, powersave, ondemand, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 3.00 GHz and 3.00 GHz.
                  The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 3.00 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).
  cpufreq stats: 3.00 GHz:100.00%, 2.40 GHz:0.00%
Now this suggests that this cpu should be able to run at 2.4 as well as 3 GHz.
However I am unable to set it to 2.4 GHz

Any ideas?

Regards,
Rusi

HFat
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:27 am
Location: Switzerland

Re: How to slow down my desktop

Post by HFat » Wed Apr 09, 2014 8:59 am

I don't know what CPU you have, what other software you might run and so forth... but it looks like the minimum freq is set at 3Ghz so you might have to set it lower before you do anything else. And you should be setting policy on both cores.

None of that may suffice since you apparently can't go under 2.4Ghz. So you might also want to use ACPI throttling or something.

pan3
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 8:49 am
Location: Italy

Re: How to slow down my desktop

Post by pan3 » Thu Jun 05, 2014 1:15 am

just run, as root user, these two commands:

cpufreq-set -c 0 -g powersave
cpufreq-set -c 1 -g powersave

the 'powersave' governor chooses always the lowest frequency.

ciao

idsocho
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2015 10:04 pm

Re: How to slow down my desktop

Post by idsocho » Wed Mar 11, 2015 10:47 pm

3Ghz so you might have to set it lower before you do anything else. And you should be setting policy on both cores?

quest_for_silence
Posts: 5275
Joined: Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:12 am
Location: ITALY

Re: How to slow down my desktop

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:46 am

Also, using fancontrol or FanCon might help you.

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