5 ms·

A laptop would consume significantly more power than an RPi.

by comprev 4y ago

kube-system 4y ago
However, you can buy a lot of electricity for the price of a scalped RPi these days.
- timeon 4y ago
  This is true. But some people are not concerned just about the price.
  - tasuki 4y ago
    What are you concerned about?
    - SkyPuncher 4y ago
      The feeling of waste when I'm running a 20 watt laptop in the corner 365/24/7.
      - tasuki 4y ago
        20 watt is very little. Are you sure it's more of a waste than buying a brand new energy-efficient device?
        kube-system 4y ago
        Depends on the use case and your perspective. If you want to run a few dozen lines of code to do something like monitoring a sensor and calling an API endpoint -- a microcontroller can do that with milliwatts of power.
BlackLotus89 4y ago
Depends on the laptop really. Got enough laptops that use 1W idle with display off while the pi seldom idles because every process is work
geocrasher 4y ago
I hear this argument all the time. But unless you're doing something that's solar, battery, RTG or otherwise non-grid powered, then what does it really matter? At what scale is a person running so many old laptops that they need to switch to RPi's to save power? And if that person can afford the Pi's, they can afford the power, so there's no point quoting power costs.
- justeleblanc 4y ago
  I can also afford to let my faucet run 24/7. Should I do it to avoid needing to turn the knob when I need to wash my hands?
  - comprev 4y ago
    Here in Ireland water (to domestic properties) is free - as I embarrassingly discovered when phoning them up to setup an account :) In theory, I could leave all the taps on 24/7, however that’s A) abuse of a free service, and B) a complete waste of resources. Even cleaning the car I’m very strict about turning the hose off when I’m using the sponges.
    - justeleblanc 4y ago
      Good, you understood my point. Using an overpowered device is a complete waste of resources.
  - geocrasher 4y ago
    I didn't say that having resources meant they should be abused. I said that if somebody can afford $150 for a RPi can afford $2.50/mo for power instead of $0.50/mo for power, and that as a result, factoring in lower power use is a poor reason for buying something you don't otherwise need, especially when that power is easily available. If that power were coming from locally finite source such as solar or wind, or battery, it's a different story.
    - justeleblanc 4y ago
outworlder 4y ago
> A laptop would consume significantly more power than an RPi. Not necessarily true. Even some of the TinyMiniMicros mentioned in the article have a single digit W consumption when idle (because they are basically laptop parts). Now, when loaded this would be true. However, their higher processing power also means tasks get completed faster, so they don't stay at the higher power states for long.

A laptop would consume significantly more power than an RPi.

kube-system 4y ago

However, you can buy a lot of electricity for the price of a scalped RPi these days.

timeon 4y ago
This is true. But some people are not concerned just about the price.
- tasuki 4y ago
  What are you concerned about?
  - SkyPuncher 4y ago
    The feeling of waste when I'm running a 20 watt laptop in the corner 365/24/7.
    - tasuki 4y ago
      20 watt is very little. Are you sure it's more of a waste than buying a brand new energy-efficient device?
      - kube-system 4y ago
        Depends on the use case and your perspective. If you want to run a few dozen lines of code to do something like monitoring a sensor and calling an API endpoint -- a microcontroller can do that with milliwatts of power.

BlackLotus89 4y ago

Depends on the laptop really. Got enough laptops that use 1W idle with display off while the pi seldom idles because every process is work

geocrasher 4y ago

I hear this argument all the time. But unless you're doing something that's solar, battery, RTG or otherwise non-grid powered, then what does it really matter? At what scale is a person running so many old laptops that they need to switch to RPi's to save power? And if that person can afford the Pi's, they can afford the power, so there's no point quoting power costs.

justeleblanc 4y ago
I can also afford to let my faucet run 24/7. Should I do it to avoid needing to turn the knob when I need to wash my hands?
- comprev 4y ago
  Here in Ireland water (to domestic properties) is free - as I embarrassingly discovered when phoning them up to setup an account :) In theory, I could leave all the taps on 24/7, however that’s A) abuse of a free service, and B) a complete waste of resources. Even cleaning the car I’m very strict about turning the hose off when I’m using the sponges.
  - justeleblanc 4y ago
    Good, you understood my point. Using an overpowered device is a complete waste of resources.
- geocrasher 4y ago
  I didn't say that having resources meant they should be abused. I said that if somebody can afford $150 for a RPi can afford $2.50/mo for power instead of $0.50/mo for power, and that as a result, factoring in lower power use is a poor reason for buying something you don't otherwise need, especially when that power is easily available. If that power were coming from locally finite source such as solar or wind, or battery, it's a different story.
  - justeleblanc 4y ago

outworlder 4y ago

> A laptop would consume significantly more power than an RPi. Not necessarily true. Even some of the TinyMiniMicros mentioned in the article have a single digit W consumption when idle (because they are basically laptop parts). Now, when loaded this would be true. However, their higher processing power also means tasks get completed faster, so they don't stay at the higher power states for long.