Wii is green, sips power
Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 4:28pm by Jack
That green computing is so hot right now! Well, in the data center (geeky IT alert…) it is anyway, but it’s also cool to see that the little white box that’s changing gaming forever is sipping power, instead of gurgling it.
Using a device called a Kill A Watt, Takahashi learned that the Wii consumes just 17 watts of energy, compared to the PS3’s 171 watts and his 360 Elite’s 194 watts. To give you a bit of perspective, Takahashi’s 42-inch plasma TV (drool) burned 200 watts and his fully loaded Gateway FX530 gaming rig consumed 266 watts.
Lucky for that PS3, it’s hardly on, so no worries there. And anyone else feeling the irony about that HD television drinking all that power while sitting over the Wii? Sometimes life is funny all by itself even without some crazy video game exec opening his mouth.
The Wii: Good for the environment, great for gaming.
August 30th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
The perfect console for the mad scientist who needs to reserve his energy for his experiments!
August 30th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Yeah I measured a bit above 22 Watts playing a game, but it varies a bit.
The only thing that Nintendo could improve is the WiiConnect24 standby mode which takes 7 to 8 Watts 24/7, that’s a bit much.
But you can turn it OFF, that’s a plus.
August 30th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
lol- ‘Lucky for that PS3, it’s hardly on, so no worries there.’
Yeah, 360 is a power HOG. But I have my gaming PC on almost all day when I’m at home, so I’ve probably got bigger fish to fry.
August 30th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Why bother having Wii connect on 24 / 7 ?
There is usually nothing at all happening.
And when it does happen you can go online and get a message anyways.
Good for the Wii for a Green system.
To bad my 360 is a power slut!
August 31st, 2007 at 4:15 am
I usually keep my Wii fully off, mainly cause I have to connect to the internet on it through a USB dongle on my desktop PC. The Wii can do it’s update when my desktop is turned on, but because I use my laptop most of the time: that aint too often.
I really didn’t realise just a hard drive and boosted graphics chip can add so much in need for power…
and yeah, lol at the “Lucky for that PS3, it’s hardly on, so no worries there.”
August 31st, 2007 at 8:57 am
No surprise with the ill manufactured, over 30% failure rate, system. Plus like must American cars all its about is how much power it has or use and not finesse engineering (hence the reason imports are dominating the car market here). Damn the more technological advance PS3 (cell, Blu-ray etc) use less than 360 how funny is that.
August 31st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
The problem is that fucking plasma. They are SO inefficient. Get an LCD, your power consumption will drop by 80 percent. Also, those plasmas get HOT, heating up your house. Great in the winter, not so good in summer, when they cause your cooling bill to increase.
August 31st, 2007 at 11:16 pm
My 360 is definitely a power hog as well as an effective heater.