10-09-2009, 10:46 PM
M A V I C, with computers heat output is closely coupled with current draw, about the only thing I know that is more efficient at converting electricity to heat is resistance wire. However, you are correct that the idle heat output will be much less with the Mac Pro. Everything else is going to depend on how many and which options are installed. Up to 4 drives supported vs. 2 and the higher end video cards and much more power to the PCI Express slots is available. What were your machines configured with? Well, looking at Apple's site and the document you would have gotten them from, you are comparing fairly minimum configurations, not as I said what they are capable of requiring.
As it is, the configuration of the Mac Pro you site is so minimal to be atypical of any in normal use these days:
More RAM, better video card and more drives will all increase the output well past that "max: 1085 BTU/hr" you quoted.
P.S. I was comparing the following:
Mac Pro (Early 2009) 8-core: Current: Maximum of 12A (low-voltage range)
PowerMac G5 (Late 2005) Quad 2.5: Maximum current: At least 10A (low-voltage range)
As it is, the configuration of the Mac Pro you site is so minimal to be atypical of any in normal use these days:
Apple document wrote:
Mac Pro (Early 2008)
8-core 2.8GHz Configuration: Two 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series processors, 12 MB L2 cache per processor, 1600 MHz dual independent frontside buses, 2 GB memory (800 MHz DDR2 fully buffered DIMM ECC), ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics with 256 MB of GDDR3 memory, 320 GB Serial ATA 3 Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive, 16x double-layer SuperDrive
More RAM, better video card and more drives will all increase the output well past that "max: 1085 BTU/hr" you quoted.
P.S. I was comparing the following:
Mac Pro (Early 2009) 8-core: Current: Maximum of 12A (low-voltage range)
PowerMac G5 (Late 2005) Quad 2.5: Maximum current: At least 10A (low-voltage range)