“Before I ever tested the Intel-based iMac, I already had the number I needed to be throughly impressed: 120 watts. That’s Apple’s rated maximum power consumption,” Tom Yager writes for InfoWorld. “I have a duty to report that this figure is inaccurate. Results of the measurements I took on a 20-inch iMac were better than Apple’s specs.”
“At typical interactive use–both hands in constant motion, flipping among 6 or so open apps–iMac draws 80-85 watts. With both of Core Duo’s cores cranked to 100 percent utilization, I got a steady 95 watts. Lightly or heavily loaded, you can use iMac as a reading light and still save on your electric bill,” Yager writes. “To approximate the power the 20-inch iMac’s would consume if it were a generic headless PC, take iMac’s loaded 95 watt draw and subtract 32 watts for the display. That leaves you with a 63 watt personal computer… PC types, here’s a homework assignment for you: Please point me toward a desktop PC, sans monitor, that hits these specs. No embedded, industrial, notebook or homebrew machines. Don’t forget those two cores, now. If it can’t run OS X, I’ll let that slide.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “Kevin” for the link.]
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This is important when you consider it reduces global warming.
Especially when you consider that G5 based Macs were very much contributing to global warming…
Considering that the point of having a thermostat is overlooked by people in the office who believe in wearing multiple sweaters all winter and who are always “hot” and turning down the thermostat, the G5 has eliminated the need for me to use a portable heater.
Proving once again that it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity.
my powerbook G4 15inch gives off enough heat to keep an apartment warm, to say nothing of the dual G5 tower in the other room….
ok so it isnt global warming but it is apartment warming
Love it! Apple is brilliant with more than just operating systems and iPods.
My Quad draws 242 watts (measured) so in the winter it contributes to the heat needed in here to keep me warm. In the summer it obviously won’t, so that would be a yearly average of 121 watts expended that otherwise wouldn’t be.
As far as global warming goes, I’ll play this game. Since it took the sun’s energy striking the earth to create that coal the power company burns to give me power, all I’m doing with those 121 watts is returning it to the earth where it belongs.
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How much would schools saves by switching to iMacs in energy cost every year? Would some of you geniuses figure that out in dollars and cents? I like to take that to the next school board meeting.
Waz
Fried apricots tarnish linoleum sprouts. After theater moth salad?
Dashing sparrow leaflets! Elevation!!!
How come it’s only a PC_User that can say something that makes any sense? We Mac users are shameful! Shameful!!!
Okay, i think you folks are making fun of the heat issues, but just in case anyone is taking it seriously: As a “heater,” a G5 (or one of the Intel or AMD chips with a big ol’ honking fan the size and shape of the Empire State Building on it) is far less efficient than your space heater. So from an emissions standpoint, you’re better off with a computer which draws less power, and use a space heater (or whatever) to heat your apartment. Better still, build a “green building” for your Mac.
Of course in the summer, if you use air conditioning, you also have to factor in the heat from the processor as part of the load.
RC,
Hahaha! Very funny!
Actually, when I mention lower power consumption as a reason to switch to the Mac platform (reason #126) most people are really surprised and are actually very positive about it (vs. apethetic).
Yet another reason!
Hey, uhhhh . . . WHERE’S “MACDUD” WITH HIS COMPLAINTS ABOUT THIS?
Hello?
MacDud? (And yes, I mean you MacDude, in case you don’t understand sarcasm.)
So, uhh, MacDud . . . where’s the problem with this aspect of Apple’s offerings?
Hmmmm?
[crickets]
PC–User has given us a code to figure out, or he/she is 39 years late with a Magical Mystery Tour lyric!
OK, so put a laptop CPU in a desktop computer along with a bottom end graphics card and just enough memory to run the OS and you have a competition.
I wished Apple has gone with the AMD cpu’s they are far more energy efficient and fast. Apple hardware is nothing special technically. Pretty and compact but not awsomely powerful. OSX on the otherhand is brilliant.
I run both MacG5 and PcAMD.
TT
Yeager is in idiot and so is anyone who doesn’t blindly chant the wintel fan-boy mantra. Yes wintel PC’s (at least till this point) are cobbled together pieces of dog poo. But if you want can assemble this poo your self (though you will spend hours debugging no compatible hardware and software by hey that’s part of the fun and while you are wasting all your free time remember of the couple dollars you saved). Now we have so know-it-all upstart company actually designing (rather than just cobbling together a bunch of parts) and even… gasp… innovating with intel based design.
Well I for one don’t like it I just makes it all the more apparent how big a pieces of (IS) manure we wintel users have been using all these years. Don’t fall for it! Badly designed equipment running a malware and bug infested OS has been good enough all these years why even consider anything else. So it saves a couple watts psfffft. What is that in comparison to all the fun you can have whiling away the hours removing malware?