[oneplane]

As fun as this is (and as much as I appreciate putting good old hardware to use and as much as I like PPC): the power consumption alone wouldn't make this a winner :(

I have a PowerBook G4 DVI, iBook G4, B&W G3, GbE G4, Dual G5 here, I want to get rid of them but I like them too much. Yet I can't run them for fun all day long either because the amount of power they eat >:( The problems of a hardware connoisseur.

[classichasclass]

Author here. Power consumption on this unit is about 21W.

Is the CPU/watt ratio less than later units? You bet. But it's not bad, it's free, it's not in a landfill, and it's more than enough grunt for the basic tasks it's doing.

[oneplane]

Yeah, those Mac Minis can go quite low. But still the CPU power from any PPC vs. an ARM or low-end x86 is a bit inverted. A low-end ARM or x86 that is faster than any of the PPCs while using less than half the power (in the 1W to 8W range) does make a dent.

[dvdbloc]

I have the same problem with two G5 Xserves. They’re just too cool to get rid of.

[oneplane]

Yeah, same problem here with some older Xeon Xserves. Still running (but Linux and Xen at this point). Without macOS you lose the cool CPU LED indicators at the front, but you still have everything else, including IPMI. They are way too neat to get rid of, specially when they still run (which for this 1U deal is fine because the power cost is fixed anyway).

[WWLink]

o_O Compared to what? G3s and G4s are pretty light on power usage - IIRC they use around 10-15w? The G3s were even less.

The i7 in my desktop uses at least 95w, and some reviews suggest it's more like 140w lol.

Edit: Unless you're pairing them with CRT monitors...

[oneplane]

Compared to say.. a 1W ARM CPU. Those are faster and use less energy.