[geeks] New Intel Atom-based barebones system

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Jonathan Groll <lists at groll.co.za>
>Date: 2008/08/20 Wed AM 06:02:58 EDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] New Intel Atom-based barebones system

<snip>

>What sort of power factor (ball park) do computer power supplies have?

Well, Antec makes a big deal about their new, power-efficient, 80+ percent efficient power supplies, so I infer that "normal" power supplies are less than 80% efficient (that means the power supply takes 100 watts from the wall to produce 80 watts, correct?).

When I've measured systems, I simply use a kill-a-watt meter [0] and take the big number for everything on the power strip (system unit, monitor, etc.), because I care about the system, not the component-level power consumption.

Lionel

[0] http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html