PSU help

[iMaster 0]

So I was looking at iMac with

Core i7 (4 cores)

16GB of RAM

1 Disk

and an ATI Radeon HD4850

(365W PSU)

and Mac Pro

Intel Xeon/Core i9 (6 cores (rumor))

32GB of RAM

4 Disks

And double Nvidia GeForce 220 or double Radeons 48xx

(980W PSU)

My question is this:

Apple states in its report that the Mac Pro runs on a bit more than 200W at peak, and 175W when idle, it is known that it has 300W for the PCI Express slots and has a higher energy usage if it has RAID installed. So why does it need a 980W PSU? Wouldn't 500 or a bit more do? And how will my energy bill be affected by an addition of a Mac Pro with dual 27-inch Dell screens?

[♠Grim♂ Reaper 1666◙ 17]

to make it powerfull? or apple might be lying about the 200w thing and puts in that psu to compensate.

[iMaster 0]

I read about a bench test by someone, a stock Mac Pro indeed consumes around 200W.

[♠Grim♂ Reaper 1666◙ 17]

what about during gaming though when cooling needs more power.

[Joe Statler 0]

Also, a lot of computer accessories are powered (or charged) through the USB 2.0 port and with the amount of accessories associated with multimedia manipulation, it becomes necessary for a computer like that to have a more powerful PSU than necessary.

Well, that's the only bullsh*t I can come up with.

Edited April 25, 2010 by Joe Statler

[Dragon King 15]

it could also be to give it more life. As PSUs age they start losing power. With a PSU like that, there's plenty of wattage to lose before it needs replacing.

[iMaster 0]

Ah, I see.

OK, more info I dug up - it has an option to have a RAID system installed in it. Since it technically renders it a server, that means the power consumption increases enourmously.

[♠Grim♂ Reaper 1666◙ 17]

like a rabbit smoking dope?

[iMaster 0]

...what does that have to do with anything?

[♠Grim♂ Reaper 1666◙ 17]

well a rabbit smoking dope would need to have its heart running faster aka more POWER.

[iMaster 0]

So you're comparing RAID to Dope then?

[♠Grim♂ Reaper 1666◙ 17]

why yes.

[iMaster 0]

Fascinating.

[Ronnyboy 2]

To have increased price to screw over consumers?

[iMaster 0]

Something to do with the xeon, apparently... The CPUs apparently consume a lot of power during bootup and rendering. Hmmmm... Well, lets's wait for the six-core version and see.