Even just going from a system with a Core 2 Duo E8400 to something more recent like an i5-2400 can result in 50W savings or slightly more at idle. This can be a

Even just going from a system with a Core 2 Duo E8400 to something more recent like an i5-2400 can result in 50W savings or slightly more at idle. This can be a big difference in areas with high energy rates (PG&E is something like $0.25/KWh) when you consider not only idle power draw, but also general improvements to performance and power efficiency making the CPU take less power when under everyday load and also returning to idle faster. You could easily save $30 or more a year, especially considering most people could get away with the iGPU and use even less power driving a PCIe graphics card. There's plenty of people offloading sandy bridge or newer systems at this point and they're dirt cheap, being that I live in Boise, ID the power savings of desktop components aren't terribly important to ME - but I realize I live in a little bubble when it comes to cheap electric rates.