Re: Slightly off-the-wall idea for getting a new Mac...

T i m <news@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> >Hmm, about half that of my G5 at idle then.
> 
> I haven't tried putting it to sleep and not sure if the Intel C2D's
> adjust their clock etc. That was with the 2 x 250G SATA drives (Raid1)
> , Floppy (idle) and the Audigy panel (it uses the floppy size power
> connector). PCIe x16 with GeForce 6800GT and 4 ****t USB, Pinnacle DTV
> card and Audigy cards in PCI slots. We didn't have a optical drive in
> at the time (gonna get a SATA DVDR) but were using a external USB one.

No, I meant 'idle' not sleep. The machine is sitting there, running, but
no work is being done in any apps.

[..]
> >> The PF of the whole lot was about .6 if that helps?
> >
> >PF? (According to Wikipedia it means 'Packet Filter')
> 
> ;-)   Power Factor, from memory summat about the power being drawn in
> phase with the voltage or not. Like if you have a pure resistive load
> you get a PF of 1. Something offering a more capacitive or inductive
> load would be less than 1 (ie, my .6). The lower the number (tending
> towards 0) the worse way the energy is consumed, therefore less
> efficient therefore more expensive to run.  That's why PF should be
> taken into account when working out the metered 'cost' of a load.
> 
> So, if you take Jenny's new PC. If it is using 140W the actual £ cost
> would be that of 240 VA (Volts x Amps = Watts but only into a pure
> resistive load, for AC this all is of course) so because her PC isn't
> a pure resistor it cost more than the displayed 140W to run.
> 
> Or summat like that!

Well, you got me looking this up... And your PF of 0.6 is pretty poor
according to these:

<http://www.cip.ukcentre.com/Power%20Factor.htm>

<http://www.energy-in-motion.com/PFC.html>

Reading those sites indicates that this calculation has limited purpose
in domestic usage, and seems to be more commonly used with three phase
setups.

> PC / SM PSUs are notoriously bad re this and we are going to fit an
> "80+" PSU when we know the total load.

Righto.

-- 
Andy Hewitt
<http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/>