low power computing

[Trustmeimadoctor]

so as i was looking at getting something to replace a pi 3b to run my logging and automation i started thinking how much does my desktop cost to run

its a ryzen 3600 with 32GB ram and a 5700xt 1 nvme, 1 sta ssd and one mechanical disk so nothing special

2x27" monitors they seem to use about 48W

just sat here its using about 120 watts typing this and its on 8.5 hours per day as its used for work that totals based on (incorrect 365 days) £122.98

or something like a lenovo m75q g2 with a 4750GE and 32Gb ram and obviously no mechanical uses atbout 12 W! so erm 12.30 over the same period!

the usage is pop os running vmware workstation with my work windows machine running on it and on the host usually youtube and this dark hole of a site

since i dont game on it like i was originally planing on doing, it really only gets used for work and a few labs and some photo editing and anything i find too much of a pain in the arse to do one a phone


it seems like pretty much a no brainer to sell the big box and go for something cute (it isnt) like the lenovo m75q gen2

[Lucas Ayde]

I got a tiny, fanless MeLE box to use as a low power server replacing a venerable fanless dual core celeron that's 6 years old now , but as it came with a preinstalled copy of Win11 I ended up trying it out to see what Win11 was like (my other PCs are all Win10) .. and now I use it as my desktop when not doing anything computationally demanding. It's just really handy to have always available.

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09XJX3CPQ/

Sips power and is totally silent, powerful enough to do basic jobs and I only fire up my main PC (Rzyen 5900X, 3070) if I want to game or do anything that needs grunt like re-ecoding video with handbrake, or playing around with multiple VMs. I just leave it in sleep mode when not using it.

As I recently got a Steamdeck, I may end up putting a Windows installation on an external disk for that and using it in docked mode as a 'day to day' PC and actually usuing the MeLE for the purpose I originally bought it for (small server). We'll see .. waiting for the official Valve dock. I do have a portable hub that lets me use the deck as a desktop and it's more powerful than the MeLE whilst still not actually drawing that much power and a barely audible fan. That's running in the desktop mode which is Linux, but it should make a very good Windows box too. I reckon a proper dock with Windows on a USB3 SSD attached to the dock will be a good solution.

[ARHarh]

I keep wondering similar stuff, as I have 2 pi 4's running 24/7. 1 handles pihole, media server and DHCP, the other runs home assistant. so probably 6 to 10w max. Probably similar to a NUC or thin client with a lot more grunt. But then again at 10w draw you can run them for a long time on the £100 odd a second hand NUC would cost. Need to break out my "Man Maths" spreadsheet

[Griffith4ever]

Pc with rtx 3070, two ssd and two nvme. Two 27" 2k monitors of which one goes through the ups only. So treat as one.

Ups also powers :

Synology RAID NAS with two HDDs, two external USB drives, TPlink ADSL router, and led downlighter.

Current elec rate programmed into the ups app and it tells me I use 85p a day, and it's on from 9am till 11.30pm with some sleeping here and there.

Not even worth getting worked up about tbh. Even at 85p a day.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

I dunno £310 a year is alot to idle that's almost a 1/3 of my energy usage

As there is no way it's pulling that little if your gaming on it

I suppose im annoyed mainly as I'm subsidizing my work

Also is that 85p usint he ne rates as of next month?

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Monday 19th September 08:47

[Griffith4ever]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

I dunno £310 a year is alot to idle that's almost a 1/3 of my energy usage

As there is no way it's pulling that little if your gaming on it

I suppose im annoyed mainly as I'm subsidizing my work

It is a lot, but that's not idling, it uses very little ticking over, and of course nothing asleep. My ups software works out daily totals so that includes gaming in the evenings.

In the grand scheme of things it's not much when you think I just spent £519 on the 3070.

I'm self employed so no resentment there :-)

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Just as a thought that 85p goes up to 102.65p a day next month

[RizzoTheRat]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

I suppose I'm annoyed mainly as I'm subsidizing my work

But how much would you be spending on travel if you were commuting to an office every day instead of WFH?

I have a Synology NAS that I only turn off if we're away on holiday, and is capable of running stuff in a docker so I'm considering trying Home Assistant running in there instead of my current SmartThings setup. It's apparently a maximum of 32W, but will spend a fair bit of time at much lower power so , so up to 15-20 c/day I guess

[xeny]

RizzoTheRat said:

I have a Synology NAS that I only turn off if we're away on holiday, and is capable of running stuff in a docker so I'm considering trying Home Assistant running in there instead of my current SmartThings setup. It's apparently a maximum of 32W, but will spend a fair bit of time at much lower power so , so up to 15-20 c/day I guess

It's possibly worth sticking a meter on. I have a 420J which is listed as 21.7W when accessing. I've got 4 4TB drives in there and with the disks spun up is about 35W without any I/O happening. I suspect they measure power consumption with the lowest power drives they can find.

As a result, I finally fixed sleep and set a scheduled power down on it last thing at night as well. Pity I can't send a WoL from the firestick.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

RizzoTheRat said:

Trustmeimadoctor said:

I suppose I'm annoyed mainly as I'm subsidizing my work

But how much would you be spending on travel if you were commuting to an office every day instead of WFH?

I have a Synology NAS that I only turn off if we're away on holiday, and is capable of running stuff in a docker so I'm considering trying Home Assistant running in there instead of my current SmartThings setup. It's apparently a maximum of 32W, but will spend a fair bit of time at much lower power so , so up to 15-20 c/day I guess

As said that seems low unless your running ssd's spinning disks use alot of energy in comparison.

I have no use for a Nas really as I don't need a media server an SBC works well for my automation needs tbe only issue is being able to buy one at the moment.

I know I'm saving lots compared to traveling to work but still narks me it is financially better for them more than me

Also one of the main things that got me thinking about this was how warm my office gets and pretty much the only reason is because of the space heater under my desk with RGB lights on it

[RizzoTheRat]

xeny said:

It's possibly worth sticking a meter on. I have a 420J which is listed as 21.7W when accessing. I've got 4 4TB drives in there and with the disks spun up is about 35W without any I/O happening. I suspect they measure power consumption with the lowest power drives they can find.

As a result, I finally fixed sleep and set a scheduled power down on it last thing at night as well. Pity I can't send a WoL from the firestick.

I run Plex on it which I believe causes some issues with getting it to sleep so I'm not sure how much time it does spend snoozing, I need to look in to it a bit more. To be honest though even at full power all the time it's still a relatively small cost.

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Also one of the main things that got me thinking about this was how warm my office gets and pretty much the only reason is because of the space heater under my desk with RGB lights on it

You'll be glad of it come the winter

[troc]

I upgraded from an old Mac Pro to a Mac Studio this year which saves me something in the region of 400W when playing world of Warcraft!

[snuffy]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Also one of the main things that got me thinking about this was how warm my office gets and pretty much the only reason is because of the space heater under my desk with RGB lights on it

That is exactly how mine is used in the winter. I don't have the radiator on in my office because PC keeps it warm. And it also has RGB lights as well !

3 x 32" 2K monitors @45w. Say 300w for the PC on average (might be a bit high, it's a bit of a guess?). On from say 8 till 11, 7 days a week; 435x16 hours = 7kWh per day, which at 35p/unit is £2.45 a day.

But that would come out at 2540 kWh for the year, and since my annual consumption is 2900 kWh, my figures looks a bit wrong !

[xeny]

snuffy said:

Say 300w for the PC on average (might be a bit high, it's a bit of a guess?).

A reasonably set up in any way modern PC should be under 100W when idle/web/office apps, potentially as low as 30W if you don't have a discrete GPU.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

snuffy said:

That is exactly how mine is used in the winter. I don't have the radiator on in my office because PC keeps it warm. And it also has RGB lights as well !

3 x 32" 2K monitors @45w. Say 300w for the PC on average (might be a bit high, it's a bit of a guess?). On from say 8 till 11, 7 days a week; 435x16 hours = 7kWh per day, which at 35p/unit is £2.45 a day.

But that would come out at 2540 kWh for the year, and since my annual consumption is 2900 kWh, my figures looks a bit wrong !

yeah id say your way out i really need a smart plug to chart a real days usage and i worked it out at 365 days a year and thats obviously way too much for me

365-105 weekend days - 8 bank holidays - 30 days holiday = 222

so a more realistic fig is £74.79 for the pc and a low power one £7.48 based on 222 days and usint next months energy unit rates

[snuffy]

Yes, my figures do look a bit to cock. It is on pretty much all year, every day because I work from home, and it is Office/internet/VPN to work's servers, and then it says on in the evening.

I do play games on it, but many are not that graphically intensive. The GPU is a 2060RTX and the CPU is a 3900XT. The 45W for the monitors is from the manufacture's website, so that should be correct.

I think I do have a power monitor now i think about it, I'm going to go and track it down and see what it says. I shall report back !

[Alex Z]

RizzoTheRat said:

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Also one of the main things that got me thinking about this was how warm my office gets and pretty much the only reason is because of the space heater under my desk with RGB lights on it

You'll be glad of it come the winter

Yep, every watt you are using on the PC is energy you don’t need to use on the central heating.

[Dave.]

I’ve recently bought a HP thin client, that uses between 30 and 36 watts doing the same as the previous PC which used around 100-120w.

[xeny]

Alex Z said:

Yep, every watt you are using on the PC is energy you don’t need to use on the central heating.

only issue is KWh for KWh, heat from oil/gas is about 3 x cheaper than heat from electricity.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

xeny said:

only issue is KWh for KWh, heat from oil/gas is about 3 x cheaper than heat from electricity.

indeed
and i hope with my new boiler it will be using even less than i was using before

ive already told the mrs no heating until october the 18th as thats when it was turned on last year

ive just bought some smart energy monitoring plugs so lets see what i can see regarding usage