I couldn't find any concrete numbers from a resource I trust, but a quick search reveals a few articles: This claims that the idle power consumption of the Qua

I couldn't find any concrete numbers from a resource I trust, but a quick search reveals a few articles: This claims that the idle power consumption of the Quad Core 45nm Nehalems is around 17 watts: http://www.lostcircuits.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=8 http://www.lostcircuits.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_conte... And this one is about a 32nm Westmere (dual core) where the entire system draws 27 watts at the wall when idle: http://anandtech.com/show/2846/4 http://anandtech.com/show/2846/4 Not great considering that the chip isn't doing anything, but definitely not the 40+ you're claiming.