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About power consumption

P

powermi

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 6, 2013
179
14
Avila (Spain)
Hello folks, have you ever meter how much energy does ours machines use? i have some Quicksilvers and never worried about the power that they need, but i have a 24/7 turned on GE G4 dual 500, as a file server, and maybe it would be better to get a cheap Intel PC like a NUC for that uses. I know that newer Intel chips are around 15 wats on load, like the 2820 Celeron. I don't know how much would be the G4 tower.
What do you use as a server?
 
powermi said:
Hello folks, have you ever meter how much energy does ours machines use? i have some Quicksilvers and never worried about the power that they need, but i have a 24/7 turned on GE G4 dual 500, as a file server, and maybe it would be better to get a cheap Intel PC like a NUC for that uses. I know that newer Intel chips are around 15 wats on load, like the 2820 Celeron. I don't know how much would be the G4 tower.
What do you use as a server?
Click to expand...

Yeah, a Mac Mini is definitely a great choice for a server. We have a 2009 Mac Mini running in our basement, and it does the job nicely. It's really hot down there, but the machine chugs along just fine and uses little electricity.
 
I use a Linux box as a server. I don't know how much power it consumes, but it handles all of its duties handily.
 
Every Mac and PC I have ever owned has remained powered on all the time. I simply sleep my machines.

Even my G5 when I had it at home, one of the biggest power suckers remained on.

My gauge as to power consumption is my monthly bill from SRP.

I don't worry about it.

What I DO worry about is the immense power my air conditioner sucks down in August in Phoenix where I live. 100º+ days start in April and don't let up until late October. In fact, on Wednesday this week we set a record for 80º - in January!

Compared to the around $300-400 electric bills I get in the summer months because of my A/C, the power my Macs draw while sitting on 24/7 is negligable.
 
I have an HP ProLiant DL360 G5 server and a Mac Pro 5,1 running 24/7 in my basement. I didn't notice any tangible increase in my electric bill since putting them into constant operation. IMO, unless you live in an area where electricity costs a lot, I wouldn't worry about running them 24/7.

If you're truly interested I could put my G5 (or the Mac Pro) on my Kill-A-Watt meter and provide some actual power consumption numbers.

Likewise neither of these systems are generating any significant amount of heat. Placing my hand behind the ProLiant I do feel some warm air. I can only feel cool air when doing the same behind the Mac Pro.
 
The only computers I worry about running up the power bill with are my rack mount servers with their dual 850w PSUs.

A friend of mine has two servers that are the same model as mine(I got them all dumpster diving, and gave him a couple after he helped me set up the ones I'm using) and he can't power both on at the same time without tripping a breaker in his apartment.

I've had one of my G5s on pretty much 24/7 since April and have noticed no difference in the power bill. The HVAC is a much bigger draw, especially when it hits 100 like it did for a couple of weeks this past summer, or when we have a week where the high is 20 and the low is below zero like this past week(I'd kill for a gas furnace, especially when temps are this low).
 
you can look up the Power consumption of each Mac on the apple support sites, search via google. They are actually pretty close!

I once tested it with a wattmeter, though.

I have a Sawtooth with the same CPU the Quicksilver uses (as an Upgrade) and when I run iMovie, it runs between 90-100W, as more as the poor Apple-PSU heats up the consumption rises to 110W. Doing nothing it sometimes drops to 70W (IIRC).

I did a test with a G5:

PowerMac G5 2x 2,3GHz late 2005
Testsample: 23min. DV movie (documentary captured from VHS, forehand).

Handbrake 9.0.4 (10.5):
x.264 preset "Normal", 2pass, 2500kbps
time to complete 1:09h
0,260kwh

iMovie06 (10.5):
h.264, no internet/streaming, 2500kbit/s
audio PCM high quality
3:18h
0,708kWh

That doesn't help for a server, I know, since that is probably not doing these intensive tasks.


An ibook G4 1,33GHz (late2005) took 12:30h for the same file in iMovie. Consuming 28-30W. iMovie running but with blackened screen got 23W. Not running anything was 17W.

Ah, found it in Detail:
HD 160GB (IDE 5400rpm Samsung)
off 2,35-2,6W
on (idle) 17-18W
screen darkens a little bit 13,5W
screen off 10W
iMovie 28-30W
iMovie+black-screen 23W

SSD 256MB Crucial via mSATA adapter
2,1-2,6W, 17-18W, 25W darkended screen, 30W, 22,7W black (though I don't know

An ibook G4 1,2GHz took the same, but 30minutes more. This is very interesting I think, that 0,11MHz more save 30min.


My recommendation as a server:
- HP Proliant N54L (loud, so change fans)
- Intel Celeron G1840 costs a bit less than the HP box and you can costumize your build more (like absolutely silent), also it is more powerful, if you once want to do more with it.
 
I have a couple of HP Microservers, one of which functions as a server running SL Server. That has six hard drives inside and probably peaks at under 60W but usually much less.
 
G4 and G5 are huuge power vampires. These machines definitely not good option for server roles. NUC will be the perfect solution as server - i belive it's power consumption will be around 6-9 W as file server and 27 W at full load like prime 95. While g4 will cost around 110 w in idle and 220W at full load.
Sorry for my bad english.
 
My little cluster of 8 G4 mini's uses 250w when loaded and around 60w when idle. This is not counting the switches or losses inside the power supply. My house is electric heat, so I'm going to be using the electricity during the winter anyway...

oqesyq.jpg
 
flyrod said:
My little cluster of 8 G4 mini's uses 250w when loaded and around 60w when idle. This is not counting the switches or losses inside the power supply. My house is electric heat, so I'm going to be using the electricity during the winter anyway...

Image
Click to expand...
Nice. If you ever need someone to take those Minis off your hands I'll quote you a fair price for it! :D
 
flyrod said:
My little cluster of 8 G4 mini's uses 250w when loaded and around 60w when idle.
Click to expand...
Wow! How could it be? Apple site says one G4 mini uses 32W when idle :eek:
You have 8! According to apple`s support site your cluster should use 256W when idle and 680W at max load.
 
I use a Dell PowerEdge T610, it pulls about 160 watts when I'm running Folding on it, maybe 120 when it's otherwise idling. Right now it's running a Windows release directly on the hardware, but I intend to move to Windows with the Hyper-V role and put actual tasks in virtual machines once that happens. Then, I'll have a Debian or similar VM for netatalk use with my older Macs.

ctmpkmlec4 said:
If I were a Phoenician, I'd be looking for a home in northern AZ.
Click to expand...

Flagstaff is totally where it's at. (Also, where I am at.)
 
asvensen said:
... and 680W at max load.
Click to expand...

Well, the little power brick that came with the mini originally is rated for 85w, so I suppose they are saying you could load it down with bus powered USB and firewire devices until you got to 85w. I think later mini power bricks were rated for 110w.

I've got them on a single bench supply that's at 18.5v and a little less than 14A with them all cranking. I'm sure it would go up some if all the DVD drives were active too.
 
I measured the power draw of my PowerMac G5 over a 24 hour period of time and it consumed 2.33kWh worth of power. It is probably one of the minimalist configurations for a PowerMac G5. Single 1.8GHz, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD. This power consumption was sitting idle for the entire 24 hours.
 
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