I was dismayed to learn the other day that my precious G5 (just the tower itself; no monitor) consumes power like a mofo. Idling it uses 140W; fully pimped out—all PCI slots used, stuffed to the gills with RAM, etc.—it’ll consume just over 600W. One guy’s estimate of average consumption, which seems reasonable, was 300W.

For comparison’s sake: the miniMac sucks up 85W. I could power somewhere near four Mac minis with the same amount of juice that my G5 draws—and four minis would take up about half the volume that the G5 takes up. (N.B.: I know next to nothing about electricity, and so there’s probably something horribly wrong with my statement. I’ve been repeatedly exposed to electrical concepts and equations over the years, but nothing ever sticks—save for the “five rules about downed power lines.” You know: do not touch them.)

Mind you, I’m not really complaining. My G5 performs well, and does (er… can do) much more than a mini can. Still, I’d like to conserve where I can.

I was greatly heartened to learn, in contrast, that my (admittedly old) powerbook draws 45W—and that includes an LCD display that the mini does not. So, if electricity ever becomes damned expensive… you know which screen I’ll be huddled over.