[gperks]

Apple's tech specs say the max is 180W. I would be using mine as a file/print server when my wife isn't actually sat in front of it.

Does anyone have an estimate of the power draw when idle?

If a Mac is sleeping, it won't be awoken by a LAN connection, right?

[galarneau]

Originally posted by gperks:
Apple's tech specs say the max is 180W. I would be using mine as a file/print server when my wife isn't actually sat in front of it.

Does anyone have an estimate of the power draw when idle?

If a Mac is sleeping, it won't be awoken by a LAN connection, right?

Well, the old Apple 17" LCD Studio Display had a maximum usage of 40 watts, so figure that the 17" iMac screen would use a similar amount of power:

(http://manuals.info.apple.com/Apple_...L14144B_EN.pdf)

I would estimate that while not under full load, GPU relatively idle, monitor off, you'd be looking at ~100 Watts. This is just a rough guess, however.

You can actually buy a little device that plugs into your wall outlet that will tell you what the current wattage is of a device that is plugged into it. They're about $30.

As far as wake-on-lan, I believe that is a preference you can disable in the Energy Settings pref. pane.

[gperks]

40W max?

It's either an iMac or a headless, fanless mini-ITX unit. The ITX would draw fewer watts and be even quieter however:

a) I'd have to mess with Linux and goodness knows if it would work spinning the drives down etc.

b) The iMac could kill two birds with one stone, being a PC upgrade as well.

Really I'm wondering if the iMac is really suitable as a low-power server in addition to being a desktop workhorse.

If you are right and the iMac draws 100W while idle, the ITX should draw less than half that. I don't have a hard number but typically they come with a 60W power supply so that's 60W max when under load.