How much power does a dual G5 use?

[believo]

I recently got my dual G5 and noticed a $15-$20 bump in my electricity bill. This could have to do with the summer and air conditioning use but I've heard the G5 takes up quite a bit of power. The eMac I had before this didn't seem to effect the bill that much. Anyone know how much it should effect it? Should I be turning it off all the time?
thanks

 

[Macmaniac]

I think the power supply is pretty beefy somewhere in the area of 600 Watts plus. I can't be completely certain as to the exact number.

 

[jsw]

It shouldn't consume all that much power.... Mine doesn't even begin to heat up the room, so it probably isn't using more than, say, maybe 150W or so when active.

 

[Sun Baked]

When it's sleeping the VCR and cable box probably sucks down more juice than the G5, then there are all the little power bricks people leave plugged in.

Then there are the stylish halogen torch light burning holes in people's electric bills.

Basically turning the machine off when you aren't using it won't make a big dent in the electric bill, unless you are folding. The G5 sucks down it's power when you use it.

All those little power bricks, cable boxes, VCRs suck down power whether or not they are on -- if they're usually warm/hot to the touch when off -- do suck the juice.

Knocking back some of those would impact the electric bill more than the G5.

 

[fowler.]

Mine will heat up the room no problem. It makes it hard to enjoy using it at night some times without a fan.

 

[Sun Baked]

It shouldn't consume all that much power.... Mine doesn't even begin to heat up the room, so it probably isn't using more than, say, maybe 150W or so when active.

Probably quite a bit more than that, if you use the upgraded 90+W video cards (9800/6800) or a 30" LDC (which is 150W by itself).

UPS backup suggestions

 

[thatwendigo]

Apple answers this question explicitly.

Depending on your machine, it soaks some 120 watts and 410BTU/h (the single 1.6ghz Rev. A) to 604 watts and 2060BTU/h (for a dual 2.0ghz Rev. A). They don't seem to have an easily accessed revision B chart, but there's an idea of what you might be looking for.

 

[iJon]

It's been forever since I've had a computer in my room. I hope the G5 doesn't make to much noise or get to hot when I move into the frat this January.

iJon

 

[tamara6]

Actually, you should be able to figure this out. It sounds like your machine has a power rating of 600W. Energy companies usually charge by the kilowatt-hour. Multiply 600W by how many hours you have your computer on each month. Divide that number by 1000, and that will be your energy usage in kilowatt-hours. Then just call up your power company and see how much they charge per kilowatt hour, and you should be set.

For example, if you run your 600W computer (without sleeping, or in a reduced power mode) for 24 hours a day, 30 days in a month, then you will use (600 x 24 x 30)/1000 = 432 kilowatt-hours. I believe my electric company charges $0.0396 per kilowatt-hour (April - September). So the charge would be $0.0396 x 432 = $17.11. (that is for the computer only, not including the monitor)

Now, the eMac is rated at 170W, which would come out to $4.85 (and that does include the monitor). So, it is possible that your new PowerMac is running you that much more a month. It really depends on how much you are using it, and how much energy it uses when it is asleep (I don't know that).

Tamara

 

[unixkid]

Mine will heat up the room no problem. It makes it hard to enjoy using it at night some times without a fan.

i have a dual 2.5ghz G5 and its VERY HOT! I too can almost heat up a small room. i think its a over clocked 2.0ghz with liquid cooling. When i use a temperature monitoring program it says my "CPU Die Temperature" is around 185+ºF!! and 130+ºF at idle with processor performance at low setting..

Having 2 internal Hard drives working for periods of time will make not only the HDD fan turn the speed up but it will turn on an additional HDD "BLOWER" and its VERY loud! its more annoying than the loud fans on my Quicksilver. So if u goto, "Energy saver>Sleep>Put the HDD to sleep when possible" it will solve that fan noise problem. BTW having a video card with out a fan will cause the PCI slot fan to turn WAY up and get loud in an attempt to cool down the card.

 

[garybUK]

I live in England and we don't really have great weather over here but during the summer, we finally got a few weeks of glorious sunshine around 20degrees and I had to turn my g5 off at night because it was heating my bedroom up far too much. I have also seen an increase in the 'leccy bill - around £20 increase. It's also blown a few fuses in the plug, had to replace the 5amp fuse in the mains lead for a 13amp because it was drawing too much power off the circuit (We like in a old house with dodgy wiring).

 

[sausages]

semi off topic

could somebody provide information about powermac g4 power consumption, to get some sort of comparison with the g5s?

from memory, the G4 in the mdd use 2w-15w (idle - full load)...and the entire box with one hdd, one stick of ram, radeon 9000 and one optical drive 155w-181w
could anyone add / correct / back that info up?

i'm switching to a mac in about a weeks time by buying a second hand dual 1.25 mdd. a main reason why i'm doing this is because, as we've seen, the g5 pull a huge amount of power, and i don't see any reason why energy prices would level off or decrease in the future. (yes i'm very environmentally conscious)

edit: the 181w figure was based on the assumption that the 155w was amount of power used when idle
this page here
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43110-
says the 'max watts' for 'macintosh server g4' ' 'G4, 450 or 500 MHz' is 155w...i'm not sure wether this would be the same as mdd...lets discuss

 

[RGunner]

Welcome to the Mac club Sausage.

Kudos to you for wanting to save some power.. however... the MDD version of the G4 has a PSU rated at 360 watts (output) this is compared to the 600 (output) watts of a Dual G5. Having said this, keep in mind the G5 chip is a tremendous piece of engineering work. It actually throttles to the users needs. The G4 (MDD) and all other variants do this as well, but not nearly as well. My guess is you are actually using more power by "computing" with a G4 (dual of course, than with similar components to a G5). Keep in mind, you will be getting work done faster, and thus not having the machine 'on' as long.

My G5 (dual 2.0) lights up 1 LED on an APC 1500 UPS, vs. 2 LED lights on the same UPS with a MDD Dual 1.25 .. interesting eh?

Another point I might add. The MDD has not been a tremendously reliable machine (have watched many sell on Ebay in a disfunctional state). I do not know if the G5 will have the same issues, but dollar for dollar... buy a G5 - 1.6 single and you will be much better off ($1299 or so).

Hope this helps, and its only my opinion .

Best

 

[sausages]

thanks for your input RGunner

My guess is you are actually using more power by "computing" with a G4 (dual of course, than with similar components to a G5). Keep in mind, you will be getting work done faster, and thus not having the machine 'on' as long.

that's an important point for those who want to applications that take a long time to compute stuff, but i mainly use my computer for basic stuff like web surfing and internet chat. That sorta stuff should compute almost instantly, so getting a really buff G5 wouldn't have enough benefit to warrant the extra can in the initial outlay and power bills

My G5 (dual 2.0) lights up 1 LED on an APC 1500 UPS, vs. 2 LED lights on the same UPS with a MDD Dual 1.25 .. interesting eh?

can you elaborate?

 

[RGunner]

power usage (my experience)

sorry, that was not very clear to anyone not familar with UPS's or battery backup systems.

i use an uninterruptibtle power supply (a UPS) to support several machines. this model, an APC 1500 has a bank of LED (lights) which indicate the amount of amperage draw (basically a system to ensure one does not overload the 1500 VA rating).

when my previous machine was used (solely, a MDD dual 1.25 it would frequently light two bars on the scale, at idle not being pushed by folding). when the G5 (solely, 2.0 dual) it shows a consistent 1 light, until you start folding or surfing then it jumps to two. G5 is set for automatic process adjustment.

this has led me to believe the power consuption is basically the same as the previous generation for most tasks, if you are gaming 24/7 or running Folding or some other heavy CPU task, the G5 will most likely use more power. BUT i might be willing to bet a single 1.6 or single 1.8 would consume less than an MDD 1.25 Dual.