Power consumption in desktop computers

[Erich Dollansky]

Hi,


Martin Cracauer wrote:

> Tim Kientzle wrote on Sun, Dec 28, 2003 at 11:22:10AM -0800: 
> 
>>Ouch!  I've tested a bunch of 'business-grade' desktops around
>>my office, and they all run 40-60 watts during normal use (not
>>including monitor) with peak power at boot time up to 70-80 watts.
>>This includes some P4s with lots of memory, CD-RWs, etc.
>>(The one exception is an AMD Duron system; it seems that
>>the AMD processors are uniformly power-hungry.)
> 
> 
> I wonder how that works.
> 
> I finally got ahold of a datasheet of P-4 power consumption:
> http://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium4/sb/CS-007999.htm#Table2
> 
The table shows the Processor Thermal Design Power. The CPU will 
dissipate much less during normal operation and can dissipate even 
a bit more as worse case. This number is important to the hardware 
developer only.

The actual power can go down to less than 10% if the CPU is idle.

> Are these business-grade ones maybe equipped with mobile P-4s?

No, it is just the fact that modern CPU are most of the time just 
idle.

Erich