[mythtv-users] Backend hardware advice - Power usage - RESULTS

dave johnson DJ4904 at hotmail.com
Sat Aug 5 06:19:30 UTC 2006


after reading your response on the laptop, i realized an oversight on my part... i hadn't waited for the flourescent backlight to shut off on the laptops.  i went back and measured them and they were each about only about 5w lower, at 20w and 29w respectively.  remember, these measurements weren't "at idle" (what would be the use ?) but "in use" and these babies are running Windows 2003 and XP respectively.  Hell, the W2k one runs at approx 20% cpu usage just doing nothing at all really (266Mhz doesn't give a lot of processing overhead for today's OSs).  although, the Tecra i don't quite get as it runs a lower cpu usage and isn't doing much.  perhaps it's just that these old laptops were always power mongers and only recently since the wave of super-efficient power manager chips became standard fare did they get efficient.   i know that my old apple 3400 lasted about an hour on a full charge while my iBook lasts about 3, and on a battery 1/2 the size.

-=dave

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brad Templeton" <brad+myth at templetons.com>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Backend hardware advice - Power usage - RESULTS


On Thu, Aug 03, 2006 at 12:48:50AM -0700, dave johnson wrote:
> So to recap:
> 
> Storage system: approx 195W

It's the 1ghz processor that's saving you most of your power.  All those Intel 3.4ghz systems etc.
have really hot CPUs.   In theory the new core 2 duo generation should cut how much power we
spend to get MIPS.

> D950 3.4x2 Intel system: approx 200W
> X2 3800+2.2x2 AMD systrem: approx 120W
> PII 266Mhz laptop system: approx 25W
> Toshiba Tecra 8200 750MHz laptop: 34W

That's a lot for a laptop of that speed.  My own measurements of old laptops, when idle, has run
more in the 12-15w range of DC power.   You are measuring the AC power, which could imply a very
inefficient power supply, or a hot laptop, or perhaps you didn't wait long enough after plugging
it into the killawatt, and it's still doing some battery charging?

My Kill-a-watt has my Mythtv backend (with 3 drives) at 122w with Athlon 3000.
My SFF Athlon 3000 runs 102 watts including an ATI x1300 card (not doing polygons.)
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