I figured this machine would be running 24/7 since it's my development, downloading, browsing, media library, and media center PC.
Right now I have a compile running in a virtual machine XP that is almost maxing 1 of the 4 cores. Another core is at 15% handling the media center which is currently playing a 1080p movie for my wife and daughter on the Tv in the living room. 1 core is at 30% handling everything else and the 4th core is idle.
Since I knew I wanted/needed to do all of this for fun and work I dropped an extra $150 in costs and built as efficient of a "power" machine I could. It's an athlon 900e for the processor and everything else I added was low power usage or very efficient. The end result was a new machine that uses 80 to 100 watts continuous. This replaces 3 old machines that ran 100 watts each and it's a hell of a lot better then all 3 combined.
Interesting note - I've been surplusing old machines on a contracts here. According to the killawatt some of the P4's circa 2005 use 180 watts while idling. I've also found laptops that used 90 watts and had warnings not to place on bare skin due to possible burns. New machines are vastly superior in energy usage.
The major issue is getting sleep set up on here. Two of the old machines would be in standby most of the time so power usage wasn't too insane.
At the moment the printer, and scanner are unplugged. It'll be nice to get powersave working and get the monitor and speakers connected to that smart bar.
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