In reply to a post by GonePostal:

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

I just want something different, fed up with windows, i would change to Linux permanently, I am using mint as I type this now, but the software is not there .

Is there any objection to setting up your system to run only Linux then using Wine, Vmware or similar to run the Windows only programs you need?

I tried wine a while ago and it failed on software I needed to run, VMware is ok, but some of the software I use just don't;t work that well on virtual hardware.
but I may give Wine another go and see if itis better.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

this machine as i am using it now is taking a 100watts, including the monitor

That's impressive, my PC and monitors uses between 500 and 700 watts peak.

Render a few 4K videos and that soon maxes it out and uses all the juice.

I remember installing Samsung Magician, SSD control software, which set my processor to performance mode (100% at all times), wasting power, with no warning. That was pretty antisocial of it

That's quite a power consumption., 700w is close to a 1 bar electric fire. I would hate to have to pay the power bill for 4 of us at that consumption.

500-700w is crazily inefficient no?

With the high price of energy it wouldn't take long for the Mac Studio to pay for itself

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I remember installing Samsung Magician, SSD control software, which set my processor to performance mode (100% at all times), wasting power, with no warning. That was pretty antisocial of it

That sounds like a corrupt install, or a clash with some other software to get into such a tight loop.

In reply to a post by RR_The_IT_Guy:

That's impressive, my PC and monitors uses between 500 and 700 watts peak.

Render a few 4K videos and that soon maxes it out and uses all the juice.

Oh yeah it will take far more power if i start rendering video, but not as high as yours, but then it only has a AMd r7 1700 in and a RX 5700 video card.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

That sounds like a corrupt install, or a clash with some other software to get into such a tight loop.

I observed it on more than one PC, and according to this post I wasn't the only one: https://www.tenforums.com/performance-maintenance/13...

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I observed it on more than one PC, and according to this post I wasn't the only one: https://www.tenforums.com/performance-maintenance/13...

Well the tool has features to "optimise performance" which go and change system settings such as power plans if the user choses to.

Not sure what that has to do with maxing out the CPU?? The power plan can be "always on" which stops any software configured throttling (including speed step) but its not the same as being on 100% utilisation? Unless I've misunderstood.

I set my work laptop to always on, as I when I need the CPU to run, I need it to run at 100%, as I use a lot of VMs. The difference in the power draw for the CPU compared to the external 27" screen is tiny though.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Well the tool has features to "optimise performance" which go and change system settings such as power plans if the user choses to.

I didn't opt to use any maximum power settings. In fact if I remember right, it was usually on uninstallation that it happened. Possibly they meant to reset the power plan to normal and it instead ended up setting it to the maximum performance plan.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Not sure what that has to do with maxing out the CPU?? The power plan can be "always on" which stops any software configured throttling (including speed step) but its not the same as being on 100% utilisation? Unless I've misunderstood.

The 100% I refer to is the CPU frequency, not utilisation. I'm not sure on the power implications of not letting the CPU reduce its frequency from e.g. 3.6 Ghz to 0.8 Ghz, but I'm guessing it's something.