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

[Eric Dunbar]

On 1/9/06, H. Apfel <linux at apfel-edv.de> wrote:
> >>  >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.
> >>
> >>  Nononono! I measured a Mac mini (1.42 - 1 Gig) at 27 W (Typing) / 35
> >>  W (with optical drive on).
> >
> >A few questions:
> >
> >How did you measure usage?
>
> Power meter at the AC power input - so it includes converter losses.

What brand of power meter? (listers, please yell if you're not
interested in seeing this on-list... though, it's a really cool topic)
Or was this a home grown affair? I've been scouring the web and found
this neat little page on monitoring power consumption:
<http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/measure.html>

> Uh,oh <blush> I remembered wrong. After consulting my spreadsheet the
> mini uses 18 W idling / 32 W with optical drive on/ '0' (< 1.5 W)
> 'off'.
> For comparison: My Dual G5/1.8 needs 130 W idling / 200 W 'SETI'ing /
> 2 W 'off'.
> Er, and I measured an old G3/300 as well: 41 W/ 45 W/ 3.6 W.
> 7600/132: 55W / 2.5 W. (even more than a G3!)
>
> So from a energetic point of view: get a stack of minis!

PS Solar energy would be a neat option (& it seems Norberto lives at
roughly the same latitude I do... except I don't have a house yet ;-).

Eric.