Hopefully I'll get my flat screen back soon from repair. I guess those use
less power, right?
I remember having this conversation with someone not too long ago, and our
consensus was that flat screens used just as much power as tube monitors. Don't
hold me to that, though, I don't seem to remember our testing technique as being
very ... uhm ... "scientific".
No need to guess, use an amp-meter. :-)
Radio Shack and the like will sell something with male and female plugs that will measure both voltage and current, and give you the current power load in Watts. Smart UPSes may also have a similar capability.
Also, a 1.8GHz Athlon won't use any more power than necessary during idle time, right?
Different processors are different. Many newer CPUs will throttle their power
consumption while the machine is idle, but most older ones can't do this.
You'll need to research the specific CPU + motherboard to see if this is
available or not, but (as far as my lousy memory serves) Athlons in the 1.8G
range don't support reduced power during non-usage, and will consume just as
many watts while the system is idle as while it's doing a buildworld.
A 1.8GHz AMD is likely to be a Barton, or possibly a later-model Thoroughbred. The CPU should have AMD's PowerNow! capabilities if APCI is enabled, and they should also significantly reduce power consumption if the OS runs the HLT instruction in the idle loop.
I have one machine with an AMD 1800+ (1.54 MHz T'bred-B), which runs at perhaps 48 or 50 C if the system is idle. If I run something like [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a day or so, the CPU will go up to around 56 or even 57 C as a result of the load. The difference in thermal output due to load is very obvious.
-- -Chuck
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