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The Next-Gen Consoles and Power Consumption

Ant writes "This HardCOREware review reports that the current video game console war takes an interesting twist as the power consumption levels of each of the three new consoles (Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3 (PS3), and Microsoft Xbox 360) were explored. Video game playback, DVD playback, and other console functions were tested. One of the most interesting stats were the console idle power usage: 'Wii - 1.3 watts, Wii (Connect 24 On) - 9.6 watts, Xbox 360 - 2.5 watts, PlayStation 3 - 1.9 watts. Nothing significant here; you're looking at spending about $0.20 USD a month to keep the PS3 plugged in, which isn't much. The Wii requires 10 Watts to run Connect24 (which will connect to Nintendo's online service and notify you of system updates) racking up a cost of about $1 a month which is nothing too significant, but still about 5X more than if it were just turned off. Turn Connect24 off, and it's back down to normal.'"

2 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Power drain by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Redundant

    10W x 1 person isn't much. 10W x several million is.

  2. Just saying... by flaknugget · · Score: 0, Redundant

    My computer has a 550 power supply. It's on most of the time.

    I also suspect it's rare for someone to be playing a console without one or more 60+ watt light-bulbs lighting up the room.

    I the author's focus is on conservation, why is he analyzing game consoles to beging with?