Power efficiency - laptop vs desktop

[nutball]

Someone told me that laptops use more power than desktop PCs and I could see how that would be true

I think such a statement is vague enough to be true! But it's also so vague as to be meaningless.

It's quite possible to build a decent performing desktop (ie. run Vista, play 1080P HD) with a power consumption in the 20-40W range, excluding the display. Likewise I'm sure it's possible to find laptops which consume more than this. It's not obvious what this proves though

 

[L233]

An affordable low-power PC:

Compucase 7630 microATX case + 250W PSU - €70
Intel Atom 1.6 GHz + Intel Mini-ITX mainboard - €50
1 GB RAM - €15
500 GB HDD Western Digital Green Power - €55
DVD ROM - €10

Total: €200

It sucks prolly around 30W from the socket in low-to-medium-load scenarios like P2P or as media server or whatever.

A slightly more expensive, higher energy consumption and much higher performance option would be an AMD X2 4050e, a good 350W PSU, 2GB RAM and a AMD 780G based mainboard for ~€270. It would probably consume about 50W under low loads.

Currently, I'm using an old P4 Northwood 2.4 Ghz, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD and GeForce FX5200 for that, which consumes ~70W under these types of loads (tops out at ~200W under full load, which never really happens). Even with the assrape energy prices nowadays (€0.19 per KWh... jeebus), the €200 investment would take 3 years to break even. Not really worth it.

 

[Skrying]

Uhm, thread started in August 2007.

 

[nutball]

Uhm, thread started in August 2007.

Gah. That's what happens when posting on the internet happens before morning coffee.

 

[limerick]

Uhm, thread started in August 2007.

after electrcy prices rises , this subject become famous again

use less electricy save the trees.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

gf8800gtx uses about 280W alone it self, or hd4870 using about 300w itself, i got these numbers from many other review and forum pages

I see English is not your native language so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume you just mis-interpreted total system power consumption for graphics card power consumption. There isn't a consumer graphics card on the market that is even capable of drawing 280-300W (not enough power can be supplied via PCI-e slot + power connectors), let alone one that actually does.

 

[limerick]

shaidar haran, english is my 3rd language not native, your name also doesnt sound to me native enlgish or american

let me explain this way, pci card provides 75watt max, and hd 4870 sits on it and this monster card has not one but two power leads connecting to it, each 75watt again,
so 75x3 = 225 watt this card socks very clear, i dont know myself also why and how ppl says on there forum and review pages that this card using 300 watt, instead of 225 watt.

when i find out i will write it here,

 

[Skrying]

Reviews and forum posts list a systems total power draw from the wall. No video card even comes close to drawing 300 watts, high end complete systems under full loads with a HD 4870 draw around 350 watts.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

shaidar haran, english is my 3rd language not native, your name also doesnt sound to me native enlgish or american

let me explain this way, pci card provides 75watt max, and hd 4870 sits on it and this monster card has not one but two power leads connecting to it, each 75watt again,
so 75x3 = 225 watt this card socks very clear, i dont know myself also why and how ppl says on there forum and review pages that this card using 300 watt, instead of 225 watt.

when i find out i will write it here,

It's a very simple arithmetic problem, one which you have already solved (there are no additional variables that can alter the equation in this case). It is as you have said, 75x3 = 225. There's no magic power fairy that will allow such a card to draw more power than its physical maximum

 

[Thorburn]

Just as a point of reference, at work a Q6600 + 3870 idles around 100W (basic config, single 7200rpm HDD, DVD-RW, P35, 2GB DDR2) and peaks around 200-220W.

My personal laptop (ThinkPad T61, Core 2 Extreme X9000, GM965, 7200rpm HDD, 4GB DDR2, etc) idles around 30W with the LCD at mid-brightness, peaks at maybe 60-65W playing games.