mschilling Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 I have a gadget that measures power consumption of electrical appliances and thought I'd check out the power requirements of my laptops. The old Dell D600 I have running as a downloader uses 25W running. When I used the default screensaver flurry, the power went up to 30W. I tried the basic, name of the computer screensaver and the power went back to 25W with screensaver on or off. Good to know. When I turned the screen brightness up to max, the power was 30W, and even higher with flurry going. Then I tried my 17" Gateway and it uses 30W. When I plugged in all the usb devices I had, about four of them, the power was 38W. It didn't use more when the screensaver flurry was on, so I left it. I also tried my external usb hdd. It uses 10W when on and disk spinning, regardless of whether it was copying files or idle. When it powered down after some minutes in the power save mode, it went right down to 2W, which is very low. Low enough to leave on without worrying, I think. When I switched the hdd off, and the adapter was still plugged in, the readout said 0W, so no parasitic draw, even with the little indicator light on the adapter showing on. Then I tried my Brother cheapo laser printer, and it used 6W when left on, in the sleep mode, pretty good. Very similar to leaving a night light on. I am curious as to the power consumption of a desktop for comparison, but I don't own one to try. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/101735-power-consumption-on-your-laptop-running-osx/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superhai Posted April 27, 2008 Share Posted April 27, 2008 If you have the top of the line equipment you would easily have an average of 300W on a dektop, peaking at maybe 500-600 if you have heavy gfx card usage and a few hds and dvd-rom, and two gfx cards and overclocked top of the line cpu a peak of close to 1kW!! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/101735-power-consumption-on-your-laptop-running-osx/#findComment-725915 Share on other sites More sharing options...
mschilling Posted April 27, 2008 Author Share Posted April 27, 2008 That's probably higher than actual usage. Those are the max ratings for a device, like a power supply unit at 300W. It will only draw a fraction of that at idle. It needs to be rated higher for the peak usage at startup, etc. I would like to see someone try a digital gauge like mine with their desktop to see if I'm right. The gauge only costs $25 and can really surprise you at what uses the most energy in your home. http://reviews.canadiantire.ca/9045/0528851P/reviews.htm Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/101735-power-consumption-on-your-laptop-running-osx/#findComment-726109 Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazytim77 Posted May 29, 2010 Share Posted May 29, 2010 I have a desktop and find that it generally uses around 100 - 120W on average (measured with watt meter). plus another 50W for the 24" monitor on the other hand my dell mini 10v uses just 17W Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/101735-power-consumption-on-your-laptop-running-osx/#findComment-1477795 Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtopman Posted May 29, 2010 Share Posted May 29, 2010 I have an iMac Graphite (G4 400MHZ) and it draws 54-64 watts when idling, 10-25 when sleeping (can't remember), and up to 83 when active and intensive. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/101735-power-consumption-on-your-laptop-running-osx/#findComment-1478045 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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