Re: lower power PCs

[Frank Olson <use_the_email_links@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan Lanciani wrote:
> For some time I've been using an old Dell Optiplex P3/600 for some home
> control and A/V functions.  It is a big tower with a number of PCI and
> ISA cards, three older hard drives, and a CDROM.  I was always pleased
> that it lights no LEDs on the power scale of the 1000VA UPS to which it
> is attached.
>
> I wanted a little more CPU power to allow for some MPEG transcoding so
> I'm replacing the Optiplex with a more modern P4/3GHz machine with
> two recent hard drives, a DVDR and an FX5200 video card.  (Everything
> else is on the ASUS P4C motherboard.  This "new" machine is a few years
> old, but much newer than the Dell.)
>
> I was a little disturbed that the "new" machine lit two LEDs on the
> UPS, so I got out my genuine glass-cased watt-hour meter.  Turns out
> that the old Dell draws about 60W while the new machine draws 140W.  Ok,
> I realize the "new" machine is a lot faster but I thought efficiency
> improvements had at least somewhat offset this.  Am I being unrealistic
> or should I be able to do better?
>
> 				Dan Lanciani
> 				ddl@danlan.*com


Core voltages have increased as have the power requirements of the
motherboard and most quality "higher end" graphics cards.  You may also
be running bigger (or more) fans as a result.  From what I gather,
"efficiencies" in design have allowed the inclusion of up to eight
processors in a single chip.  Your "P4" is definitely obsolete
technology.  :-)