Mac Pro - power observations

[Celeron]

I just picked up one of these. I figured I should protect my $3k investment with a battery backup. Anyway, the thing I find interesting is the LCD on the front. It gives a handy read out of how much power is being used by the connected components.

I'm running a Mac Pro with the following specs:
Dual 2.66
2gigs ram (4x512)
Dual SuperDrives
Airport
Bluetooth
WD Raptor 150gig SATA
Seagate 320gig SATA
2x WD 400gig in RAID1 SATA
ATI X1900XT
Monitor is a Dell 2005FPW 20 Widescreen LCD

When the system is sitting idle with the monitor on it pulls just 220 watts. Turn off the monitor and that number drops to 170 watts. According to Apple, this is exactly where it should be.

As soon as I load a game, Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne, power usage jumps to 310 watts with the monitor on. 265 with the monitor off.

When sleeping, the power draw is 8 watts with monitor. Around 5 watts without.

Waking from sleep shows a max draw of 285 watts with the monitor waking at the same time. 250 watts without.

Encoding a movie in iMovie in mpeg4 format shows 270 watts with the monitor, 220 watts without.

Obviously this isn't a super scientific method for testing the power draw of a Mac Pro, but I found it interesting anyway.

 

[hayduke]

Very interesting to see the numbers. Maybe someone can translate the power differences to daily costs given the price per kilowatt. Too lazy to look it up now...

I considered that exact power supply, but decided against it because I don't really need the battery back-up. If I recall this one works in conjunction with OSX to manage safe shutdowns when the power goes out and stays out, right? How do you like it? How do the dimensions compare to the MacPro. Does it stack on top well?

 

[Celeron]

I just got the unit so I haven't simulated a power failure yet. OS X does have built in software for shutting the system down should a power failure occur. I set it up but haven't confirmed that it actually works.

The APC installation instructions do not recommend putting the UPS near the computer. It shows it 30cm away. I keep it on the floor.

 

[flappo]

got mine today , too

the migration assistant took 4 hours to transfer data !!

seems to be working ok though

not what i'd call silent - that's prob the radeon card , but nice n fast

plus it works 100% on my bravia 40" , so that saved me buying a dead pixel laden apple monitor

overall , glad i didn't bother waiting , there's always something round the corner after all..

if you can afford it , get it , life's too short