Comments on: Lenovo’s Latest Green PC: The M58p Eco Ultra Small

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:49:37 +0000

Bah, if you want real energy efficiency, get a MacBook. I measured mine (battery removed, of course) at 18 watts idle (screen, wifi, and bluetooth off). Screen at full brightness added 6 watts, so did maxing out both cores with two instances of ‘yes > /dev/null’. Bluetooth and Wifi were both ~1 watt.

Want a real green PC? Buy a MacBook and resell the battery, then use it as a desktop. You’d have to hot glue to MagSafe connector on, though. You’ll save $100, and don’t have to worry about the pesky disposal issues with LiCoO2 batteries. Unfortunately, the power brick pumps out 16.5 V, so you’d need a power converter to run on solar.

By: Nate

Nate — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 04:47:57 +0000

Bah, if you want real energy efficiency, get a MacBook. I measured mine (battery removed, of course) at 20 watts idle (screen, wifi, and bluetooth off). Screen at full brightness added 6 watts, so did maxing out both cores with two instances of ‘yes > /dev/null’. Bluetooth and Wifi were both ~1 watt.

By: Lenovo’s Release Latest Green PC: The M58p Eco Ultra Small | Eco Friendly Mag

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:19:18 +0000

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By: solar powered

solar powered — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:49:23 +0000

Thanks for clarification. I am leaning towards going with Mac Mini as my next desktop. I am trying to find out if it’s possible to duplicate the mini’s energy efficiency using off the shelf parts, but also achieving same performance. The reason, is that I want to use 12 or 24 VDC input power supply instead of 120 VAC, so it will run directly from my solar battery bank at better efficiency.

By: Tom Harrison

Tom Harrison — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 01:09:19 +0000

Am I mistaken, or does a Mac Mini use only around 20 Watts on standby (according to my Kill-a-watt)? This week I tried to install a Smart Strip power strip on my son’s Mini — the Smart Strip works by measuring voltage change — but turning the Mini on or off didn’t register a high-enough change to cause the Smart Stip to function. So I checked with the Kill-A-Watt, and sure enough, it uses hardly a dribble on standby, or even when full on.

By: Damien Lewis

Damien Lewis — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:07:12 +0000

The problem with “green” computers is that they tend to be underpowered. For a gamer, bigger is always better IMO. That’s why I use a very large processor with liquid cooling. Then again, I could care less if it’s energy efficient. Nice PC for the money, but not something a gamer could hatch onto. Gaming PC’s will start getting a lot more energy efficient in the future I predict. Of course, gamers will have the final say. At the end of the day for me, if you think pc’s will ever truly be like Greenpeace wants, fairy dust and pixies inside a box, then there’s really no point in anybody trying to shoot for their biased, often nonfactual “scale”.

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:50:00 +0000

The ThinkCentre M58p uses an average of 34 watts while idle, and 1 watts while in hibernation mode.

Yes, the Mac Mini is still the most energy efficient desktop computer available — it consumes just 20-28 watts on average.

See my report on the Greenest Desktops of 2008 for more info:
http://www.metaefficient.com/computers/the-greenest-pcs-of-2008.html

Justin

By: solar powered

solar powered — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:49:23 +0000

How much power does it pull on idle? That’s what really matters. Mac Mini pulls 13W idle and 43W full power. (To the author) You should be using Kill-a-Watt meter when reviewing power usage of computers, and test Watt draw in off, stand-by (sleep), idle and 100% CPU load modes. Then test power factor of power supply at idle and full loads.

By: russ

russ — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:44:14 +0000

“ThinkCentre to incorporate the Power Manager — a ThinkVantage technology that allows PC users to control their electricity consumption remotely.”

How does it do the above? What are the additional items needed?

If greenpeace doesn’t like it then it can’t be all bad!

By: Justin

Justin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:42:02 +0000

John:

The fit-pc is certainly an efficient machine (it’s in my queue for review on this site), but the specs are not comparable to the ThinkCentre.

Justin