Power hungry gigabit?

[blackomegax]

Took a reading.
10mbit = 7.5 watt total.
100 = 8.4ish,
1000mbit = 11-12 watts

Makes it a 4-5 watt draw.

I guess the design theory behind that is if you can plug into a lan you can plug into a wall.

[christopher_wolf]

That and, as a new feature, it is shut off to save power...only activating upon connection to a live ethernet.

[zyphria]

I rather hated how Dell implemented their system for shutting off the network adapters and requiring you to disable and re-enable the adapter.

Is this feature enabled only on newer machines?

[blackomegax]

It's a driver level feature for the intel pro/1000 MT mobile

Once the RJ45 port senses something plugged in, it goes into normal mode, once nothing is there it shuts off.