I have an HP g3 mini and a Dell Optiplex flying around, both similarly specced. The HP has an i5 6500t and 16gb DDR4 RAM, the Dell has 8gb DDR3l, so nothing too different.
However, the Dell draws around 15W while idle, the HP one 5W.
The only difference I could think of (and that is in my power to change) is the PSU. The Dell has one of those SFF PSU for up to 180W while the HP has an external 65W power brick with a barrel jack.
So my question is: Does anyone have experience with one of those Pico PSUs? I guess they should be more efficient? I’m not planning to put anything power hungry into the optiplex.
It’s likely that your Dell’s processor simply have higher TDP than your HP’s i5-6500t. If that’s the case, swapping power supply won’t alter the power draw at all. You might be able to reduce power consumption by forcing the CPU to use slower clock though, but that depends on the CPU model. What’s the CPU model used in the Dell?
Both are 6500, but one in the t variant.
The T variant have lower clock (3.1ghz) and 35W TDP (almost half the TDP of the original variant, 65W at 3.6ghz). The T variant simply sip less electricity.
I wonder if you can use less power if you limit CPU clock on the Dell to 3ghz or less, but not sure if it’s possible because the base frequency is 3.2ghz for the Dell. Maybe people that know more about downclocking can comment.
i5-6500: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/88184/intel-core-i56500-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz/specifications.html
i5-6500T: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/88183/intel-core-i56500t-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-10-ghz/specifications.html
That’s why, the T variant is for laptops and the power usage is much lower. The motherboard and supporting hardware tend to be lower power too.