UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

MrBungle · 31st Jul 2017, 9:50 pm

Some figures to back my assertion up...

If that's a Core 2 Duo 1.93GHz that's 65W TDP which isn't terrible really for a desktop. Probably 150W flat out for everything. Desktop machines are REALLY expensive to run though.

However your 800MHz G4 has an idle power consumption of around 120W and peak consumption of 300W!!! PowerPC processors were very inefficient.

Assuming 200W power which is average normal use on these (I had one back in the day), 8 hours a day which is average load then that's £7.49 a month gone. That's £177.36 over two years to run your G4.

Compare to my ThinkPad T440 which is a very power efficient machine, the average consumption is merely 15W! Over two years that's £17.76 in electricity!

Assuming your G4 was free, TCO over 24 months for the G4 is £7.39/month.

Assuming your T440 cost £249, TCO over 24 months for the T440 is £11.12/month.

For that extra £3.72/month you get an SSD, 4Gb of RAM, current software compatibility. That's less than a fiver a month.

Running old kit energy inefficient kit doesn't make sense really for every day use.

31st Jul 2017, 9:50 pm	#12
MrBungle Dekatron Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: London, UK. Posts: 3,687	Re: "Vintage" PowerMac G4/800 (2002) Some figures to back my assertion up... If that's a Core 2 Duo 1.93GHz that's 65W TDP which isn't terrible really for a desktop. Probably 150W flat out for everything. Desktop machines are REALLY expensive to run though. However your 800MHz G4 has an idle power consumption of around 120W and peak consumption of 300W!!! PowerPC processors were very inefficient. Assuming 200W power which is average normal use on these (I had one back in the day), 8 hours a day which is average load then that's £7.49 a month gone. That's £177.36 over two years to run your G4. Compare to my ThinkPad T440 which is a very power efficient machine, the average consumption is merely 15W! Over two years that's £17.76 in electricity! Assuming your G4 was free, TCO over 24 months for the G4 is £7.39/month. Assuming your T440 cost £249, TCO over 24 months for the T440 is £11.12/month. For that extra £3.72/month you get an SSD, 4Gb of RAM, current software compatibility. That's less than a fiver a month. Running old kit energy inefficient kit doesn't make sense really for every day use.