Just wondering if anyone knows roughly what the power consumption of a PC is while idling. I want to turn my old machine into a file server and leave it running 24 hours a day so I can access files remotely. The machine is question is a 2.6 GHz pentium with a fairly crap graphics card and no monitor.

I manage this computer by remote desktop, if I enable standby mode or some of the other power saving options like turning the hard disks off after a certain period, would it still be possible to 'wake it up' remotely?

Wake On LAN

I thought Wake on LAN only worked on the local network?.. This page says they can be routed and has a demo.

http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/woli.aspx

Your processor may be a real power hog... the Pentium 4 line uses much more power than the "Core" line or an Athlon64... and all of these use more than a good laptop chip like Pentium-M, and all of these use way more than what is in one of those little embedded router or NAS devices.

I've heard it said that desktop harddrives may draw about 15W, per drive. A good low-power desktop processor is in the 30W range when clocked down and idle, and closer to 100W when running full tilt. (A small router might only draw 5-10W total.) I think some of the Pentium 4 line can draw significantly more than that!

If you cannot get your hands on a current meter to actually judge how much the whole system draws, you might try to judge how much heat it is kicking out... if you run it in a small room or closet, how fast does the space warm up? Maybe compare it to an incandescent lamp if you want to be really geeky about it...

Just wondering if anyone knows roughly what the power consumption of a PC is while idling. I want to turn my old machine into a file server and leave it running 24 hours a day so I can access files remotely. The machine is question is a 2.6 GHz pentium with a fairly crap graphics card and no monitor.

I manage this computer by remote desktop, if I enable standby mode or some of the other power saving options like turning the hard disks off after a certain period, would it still be possible to 'wake it up' remotely?

My guess would be anywhere from 50 - 100W, based on the fact that the P4 is a right power hog. Crap graphics card is good but not as good as using chipset graphics eg no graphics card.

I am not sure newer P4s have power saving modes... turning HDs off is definitely OK, I don't think you can do standby though. Also many desktop systems use almost as much power in standby as in running mode.

Thanks. I set the power management to turn off the hard disks on the server after 20 minutes, and to go into standby after 30 minutes so it will spend most of its time sleeping. I still seem to be able to connect via remote desktop and wake it up no problem.