31–40 of 77 posts
auto sleep your computer after x minutes of idle. done.
Can you wake it up with an IR remote? If not, then auto-sleep is a non-starter for a set-top box. Just for example.
A few people are debating the numbers, but I think there's a much more important message here. Consumers rarely factor in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a computer, and only look at the retail price. I used to think this way, particularly because I didn't have much money, so I needed to buy the cheapest computer I could at a given time, resulting in paying more over the lifetime of the computer (which might not…
It varies greatly, but $10 million dollars worth of servers, network gear, and storage might cost $25k/mo in power. Shaving 5% or 10% off that bill is practically meaningless. You can save a lot more money in other ways.
Obviously at massive scale (think Google) it's a different story, but for the average small-medium company it's not even worth thinking about until you've gone after everything else.
Side benefit of low power: low noise. That's actually the first thing I check when buying a new computer. How silent is it?
He might have saved even more electricity had he gotten a laptop with the same specs as the mini. My Dell Inspiron 1525 has a 65W power supply, vs the similarly-equipped Mac Mini's 110W, and that 65W includes the screen. Adding an LCD to the Mac Mini adds another 30-50W.
Is that the Mini's power supply max rating, or its average power draw? I'm guessing the mini has a bit of extra power for USB devices and when the processors really kick it up. Would be fairly easy to test... where's my multimeter..
edit: and then you need a display of some kind ;)
A few people are debating the numbers, but I think there's a much more important message here. Consumers rarely factor in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a computer, and only look at the retail price. I used to think this way, particularly because I didn't have much money, so I needed to buy the cheapest computer I could at a given time, resulting in paying more over the lifetime of the computer (which might not…
Saving on power in the datacenter is one of the worst ways to try to save money, in my experience. It varies greatly, but $10 million dollars worth of servers, network gear, and storage might cost $25k/mo in power. Shaving 5% or 10% off that bill is practically meaningless. You can save a lot more money in other ways. Obviously at massive scale (think Google) it's a different story, but for the average small-medium c…
Would love to know what his KWH consumption is per month. His electricity bill is 1/2 mine. Is electricity generally cheap in North America?
He might have saved even more electricity had he gotten a laptop with the same specs as the mini. My Dell Inspiron 1525 has a 65W power supply, vs the similarly-equipped Mac Mini's 110W, and that 65W includes the screen. Adding an LCD to the Mac Mini adds another 30-50W.
Quite so, my Studio 1555 is a 65W unit and my LCD monitor is now aging. Even with my 60W Acer AL1916W drawing power I use less than the Mac Mini would. And when I don't need it I turn off the LCD. Doing a little math based off my electrical bill, my laptop and LCD (together) cost me $112.57/yr USD. At roughly $240/yr for the Mac Mini alone ... I'd say that my Dell laptop wins out.
"The mini uses only 15W while idling in our tests, and a low 34W while running the CineBench benchmark test. This is the second lowest active score, after the 18W observed on the Asus Eee Box nettop."
Moral of the story: Don't judge power consumption by power supply capacity.
Where is the wasted energy lost to? If it is lost to heat and you have electric heating in your house, would that lead to a correspondingly lowered heating bill?
Long answer : in a certain limited case, it could be different. Maybe you are using your PC mostly during the day, and your house is badly insulated so most of the heat from the PC is lost. At night, you turn on the heating. Using the PC during the day has no influence on the amount of heating in this case.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is that the Mini's power supply max rating, or its average power draw? I'm guessing the mini has a bit of extra power for USB devices and when the processors really kick it up. Would be fairly easy to test... where's my multimeter..
That is the max. it actually slurps about 35W under load edit: and then you need a display of some kind ;)