power consumption - R51

[Riktar]

Since sale attempts on my R51 are not going as hoped I am re thinking my use of the R51.

I was considering turning into a Skype box, among other things and just leave it on 7/24 but don't want my (electric) meter spinning any faster than it has to.

For starters here is a re-hash of what the R51 has:

Model 1830
CPU: 1.8ghz centrino with 2 megs ram. I could put the original 1.6ghz CPU in if that would help reduce power draw.
Memory: 2 gigs
Video: ATI 9000
Harddrive: I could use the original 40gig 4200rpm, 160gig 5400 rpm, or a 80 gig 7200rpm.
Screen: 15" Flexview

So with that being said, what could I expect for power consumption? Less than 15 watts? 10 watts? I understand that setting up the options to minimise power use when "standing still" will be key.

And to be clear my question is for the standing still power usage.

If there is extra info needed to answer the question please say so.

[timosha]

Since sale attempts on my R51 are not going as hoped I am re thinking my use of the R51.

I was considering turning into a Skype box, among other things and just leave it on 7/24 but don't want my (electric) meter spinning any faster than it has to.

Make a Windows 7 / Ubuntu Linux machine out of it

[sjthinkpader]

...
So with that being said, what could I expect for power consumption? Less than 15 watts? 10 watts? I understand that setting up the options to minimise power use when "standing still" will be key.

And to be clear my question is for the standing still power usage.

If there is extra info needed to answer the question please say so.

If you use Adaptive or Lowest for CPU setting and blank the LCD in Power Manager, you should be able to get below 10W. Some X series can get to 7W.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 8&start=30

[Riktar]

I have run Linux Mint 7/8 on it with great results. And while Linux would work for the Skype end of things, it would not work so well for my latest scheme: Skype and Orb.

I just snagged a Thinkpad Dock II off Ebay and will be installing a ATI 650 HD tuner card into the dock. Since the dock is known to work with other ATI Tuner cards I will cross my fingers that the 650 will work ok. The requirements for the 650 card list a DirectX 9 or better card. While the onboard ATI 9000 was an DirectX 8.1 card, it is running DirectX 9 now. We'll see how this goes.

Assuming the hardware all plays nice I will look into how low I can get the "standing still" power to. The link to the other thread was most enlightening.

Thanks for all the replies. And sorry about the late reply on my part.

I will post back with the results. And it will be sooner rather than later.

[Riktar]

Well the ATI 650 PCI plugs right in to the Mini Dock II and installs just fine into the system.

Unfortunately,,,,,,

The 1.8Ghz Dothan CPU doesn't quite have enough "oomph" to transcode the HD signals without stuttering. And forget about using the Orb server. What is sent out is smaller and fuzzier than using the same card on my desktop.

*sigh*

Back to the drawing board. Or the selling board as it were.