[ydl-gen] Mac mini vs Powerpc 8600=energy consumption

[Eric Dunbar]

On 1/7/06, Jim Ricken <jsac346 at hotpop.com> wrote:
> Hi all !
> Hey I know that this is a stupid question to ask but what would be
> cheaper to let run all day long
> the Mac mini or my old world powerpc 8600 w/G4 upgrade?
> sometimes I just turn on the old 8600 which has ydl 3.0 installed on it
> boot into ydl 3.0.and reminise about the good old days with ydl 3.0.

It depends what you use it for and with. Is it headless? Then the Mac
mini will probably use half _or less_ the energy that the 8600 with
the G4 upgrade (which will add to the load) would.

You could be saving on the order of $20-70/year if you were to compare
running both machines 24/7 (assuming ~50 W draw for the Mac mini (on
average) vs 150 W draw (on average) for your 8600, upgraded to G4 (the
upgrade will draw more power than the 8600 would alone)).

Add in energy efficiencies (chances are the Mac mini is being used
with a newer screen for e.g.) on the monitor and you'll be saving more
with a Mac mini + LCD vs. an 8600 + CRT (making assumptions about old
tech+old tech and new tech+new tech) (a 17" CRT itself will draw 150 W
for an annual cost of $32 at $0.075/kWh, if it runs for 8 h/d).

So, over the life span of a computer you can save on your electricity
costs (which will only continue to rise) and minimise the
environmental damage your computer use causes (each kWh = 1 kg of
CO2... a 150 W device (e.g. monitor) used 8 h/d consumes 400 kWh/a and
generates 400 kg/a or 0.4 tonnes/a (1 metric ton = 1000 kg = 2200 lbs)
of CO2 when generated from coal (and, 2/3 of US energy need is met by
coal :-( :-(.

Eric.