Laptop vs Desktop power consumption

[phenom01]

Would buying a laptop save me a lot more money on my electricity bill than a desktop?

 

[Danger]

Welcome to PF, Phenom.
The simple answer is yes, but not necessarily for the reason that you're thinking of. To figure out relative cost, just look up the wattage of your unit on the power supply or OS. A laptop is probably, but not necessarily, more efficient. The main reason that a portable is cheaper is that you can plug it into someone else's mains. For instance, when I take mine to the bar, I always snag a table next to the pillar with the electrical outlet on it.

 

[phenom01]

so let's say if I am going to be using the laptop as a desktop replacement. Then that means it would use the same power as a desktop? I know that if a PSU saids it is 600W it doesn't mean it uses 600W all the time. It means that's the max it can output. I try to do some research and the average Desktop uses about 250W of power while a laptop uses 90w.

 

[i_wish_i_was_smart]

Welcome to PF, Phenom.
The simple answer is yes, but not necessarily for the reason that you're thinking of. To figure out relative cost, just look up the wattage of your unit on the power supply or OS. A laptop is probably, but not necessarily, more efficient. The main reason that a portable is cheaper is that you can plug it into someone else's mains. For instance, when I take mine to the bar, I always snag a table next to the pillar with the electrical outlet on it.

You take you Laptop to the bar? lol
Is it a great strategy to pick up?

Ask yourself if the power savings is enough to offset the money saved by puchasing a cheaper more powerful desktop that you would, generally speaking, be able to use longer and won't have to replace as fast?

 

[phenom01]

You take you Laptop to the bar? lol
Is it a great strategy to pick up?

Ask yourself if the power savings is enough to offset the money saved by puchasing a cheaper more powerful desktop that you would, generally speaking, be able to use longer and won't have to replace as fast?

That is actually my question. I am in a dilema between a laptop and desktop. My brother has a desktop but he doesn't let me use it. So I am concern if there are two desktop it would increase the electricity bill a lot.

 

[NobodySpecial]

Some actual results
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/08/why-estimate-when-you-can-measure.html

 

[phenom01]

Some actual results
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/08/why-estimate-when-you-can-measure.html

Thats a very good link but they don't not mention laptops! :'(

 

[NobodySpecial]

There is a link in the story: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/04/how-much-power-does-my-laptop-really-use.html

These are from a few years ago, a tiny new Intel Atom netbook will use a lot less power than a typical 2006 notebook, and a monster overclocked gaming rig may use a lot more than their desktop system.

 

[phenom01]

There is a link in the story: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2006/04/how-much-power-does-my-laptop-really-use.html

These are from a few years ago, a tiny new Intel Atom netbook will use a lot less power than a typical 2006 notebook, and a monster overclocked gaming rig may use a lot more than their desktop system.

lets say if we compare a mid range desktop with a mid range laptop with the following specs:
Desktop
CPU: AMD Athlon x3 445
GPU: ATI 5770
MEMORY: 4 GB DDR3 13333
Hard drive: 500 GB SATAII 7200 rpm
LCD: 1900x1600

Laptop
CPU:core i5 540M
GPU: Nvidia Geforce 425M
MEMORY: 4 GB DDR3 13333
HDD: 250 GB SATAII 7200 rpm
LCD: 1900x1600 (16:9) HD screen

 

[russ_watters]

I try to do some research and the average Desktop uses about 250W of power while a laptop uses 90w.

The desktop is probably about right - the laptop looks a little high. My 15" Dell laptop's psu is rated for 90.1W and since that needs to be enough to charge the battery and run the computer at the same time when necessary, that means the computer probably averages more like 45W.

So you save 205W by running a laptop. I just grabbed my power bill for another thread and I pay $.165 / kWh in southeastern PA. So that's $.0338 / hr. So how many hours a day do you use your laptop? Let's say you're a business and you are thinking about taking away your employees' desktops and giving them laptops (in reality, you'd probably give them monitors and docking stations, but we'll let that go...) so they'll run about 9 hours a day. So that's $1.52 / week or $76 / year (50 weeks of work). If you keep a computer for 5 years, that's $380. So is $380 more or less than the cost difference between the desktop and laptop you'd pick?

[edit] Oh, I forgot that a while back I measured my desktop computer's power usage. I'm a nerd and a gamer and so it has a video card that uses a lot of juice and multiple hard drives... and I still use a 21" CRT. The CPU uses 253W at idle and 416W loaded. The monitor uses 85 W on, 12W in sleep. So if I'm actually gaming, it's about 500W and when I'm not using it, about 265W. But a laptop cannot replace this system.

 

[G037H3]

>I'm a nerd and a gamer

>21" CRT.

Pick one

 

[DaleSwanson]

I've measured my Dell Inspiron 6000 with a Kill a Watt. While in use it averaged about 20-25 watts. It's worth keeping in mind also that a laptop is all inclusive. You should be comparing it to not just a desktop, but desktop + monitor + speakers.

 

[russ_watters]

Dale: - What is the rating of the power supply?

 

[DaleSwanson]

Dale: - What is the rating of the power supply?

Dell 65W AC Adapter Model# PA-1650-05D2
Input: 120 VAC 1.5 Amps
Output: 19.5 VDC 3.34 Amps

 

[Claref]

so let's say if I am going to be using the laptop as a desktop replacement. Then that means it would use the same power as a desktop? I know that if a PSU saids it is 600W it doesn't mean it uses 600W all the time. It means that's the max it can output. I try to do some research and the average Desktop uses about 250W of power while a laptop uses 90w.

It's really weird that they didn't mention this as an
option when I called on the tech support line, don't you think? They almost
tried to dissuade me from taking my laptop into the store.