[mythtv-users] Re: Energy Usage of MythBoxes

[Brad Templeton]

On Sun, Mar 20, 2005 at 08:11:25PM -0900, John Andersen wrote:
> On Sunday 20 March 2005 19:40, Brad Templeton wrote:
> > Well, no, that is indeed what many always-on servers with 3 disk drives
> > and a high speed processor and a fancy graphics card and various other
> > cards do indeed draw, all day long.  
> 
> No its not. Measure it and you will find out.
> 
> Specs don't mean didly squat.   Follow the thread.  What you read
> on the back of the machine is not what it consumes in actual use.
> 
> Unlike others here, I DID measure machines routinely as part of
> my job.   A high end Zeon rack mount server would draw half an amp
> with a three disk raid spinning while copying data from the CdRom.  
> 60 watts.  They have gotten much better of late.


This is a reply to a message from here from 2 months ago.   I actually
am running right now off of batteries and the power meter on my inverter
is reading 120 to 130 watts running the computer (with 3 disk drives,
a GPU, an Athlon 3000 not doing much and a few other minor peripherals.)

My power's out because a car smashed into the power pole in front of
my house!!!

Thus it got me to get around and measuring it as you challenged.  My
feelings about the power usage were correct, and I don't think it's
unusual for desktop systems like mine, nor do I think you must be wrong
about your rack mount server, which is probably designed for better
power efficiency.