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> Servers, being larger/louder/faster than the average PC I'm not sure about larger or faster. A lot of web servers are physically smaller (i.e. they fit into

• SwellJoe 18y ago
  Perhaps, and graphics cards in high end boxes are power hogs (on top of the dual and quad core CPUs...though there's a reason why dual, quad, and more, core CPU came to the server market first, and always have...there are many servers working today that are dramatically larger and faster than even the fastest desktop machine from Dell)...but, servers still run 24/7, while PCs are mostly off or in low power modes for 14-16 hours out of each day. So, a desktop machine could be chewing twice the power per hour of uptime, while still using less overall. And, of course, servers are a more efficient use of power. A modestly loaded server is doing work for hundreds or thousands of users every day, while a desktop PC is only working for one, maybe a handful if it's a communal machine. Anyway, I don't know the precise numbers, but I would strongly suspect that the average server is using more power per year than the average desktop computer. Could I be wrong about that? Sure. I don't think I am...but even if I were, it doesn't alter the reality of environmental impact of data centers (though I suspect the production stage may be the computer industries real environmental shame).