Idle consumptions
This page reports the minimal consumptions of Thinkpads when idle. This means, in principle: minimum brightness, CPU and GPU at lowest speed, no wifi, hard drive spun down, no pcmcia cards inserted (see details of each entry).
This kind of information has several uses: comparing one's consumption with that of other people's setups, knowing which model to use as a gateway/file server, etc.
| Model | OS | Remarks | consumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| 600E PII/366 | Debian Lenny/2.6.21 gnome | back light off, laptop-mode-tools enabled, fan on, idling, measured with powertop | 6W |
| 600E PII/366 | Debian Lenny/2.6.21 gnome | Min brightness, laptop-mode-tools enabled, fan on, idling, measured with powertop | 7.5W |
| 600E PII/366 | Debian Lenny/2.6.21 gnome | Max brightness, laptop-mode-tools enabled, fan on, idling, measured with powertop | 9.2W |
| 600E PII/366 | Debian Lenny/2.6.21 gnome | Max brightness, laptop-mode-tools enabled, fan on, 100% cpu utilisation, measured with powertop | ~22W |
| 600E PIII/450 | Archlinux/2.6.28 openbox | 1 xterm window, backlight on, fan off | 6.2W |
| R50e | Gentoo (linux-2.6.22-rc4 force_HPET, fluxbox) | With Networking, USB, firefox, thunderbird | 11.1W |
| R50e | Gentoo (linux-2.6.22-rc4 force_HPET, fluxbox) | Fluxbox + shell (+fan) | 10.5W |
| R50e | Gentoo (linux-2.6.22-rc4 force_HPET, fluxbox) | Blank Screen after 20min idle (+fan) | 7.1W |
| R51e | Gentoo (linux-2.6.24-gentoo-r4) | KDE, min. brightness, tp-fancontrol, ondemand, laptop_mode, madwifi-ng (no powersave), wpa_supplicant, ca 60 wakeups | 14.5W |
| R52 | Gentoo (linux-2.6.22-rc6 + phc + hrt) | Min brightness, tp-fancontrol, ipw2200 with power_save 5, undervolted, ondemand, laptop_mode, rovclock -c 100 -m 100 virtual console (idle kde desktop adds about 0.2W) |
12.1W |
| R61 | Ubuntu 7.04 | Wireless on | 16.4W |
| R61 | Xubuntu 7.10 | custom kernel 2.6.24, Minimal power consumption with Wireless off, hdd spun down, Backlight min, laptop-mode, ondemand, echo 1 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/sched_mc_power_savings, echo 1500 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs, ALPM on, firewire module unloaded, nvidia, hdaps (powertop 1.9) | 10.8W (min) ~16.5W (usable brightness, wifi on) 39.7W (max, kernel compilation with -j3 option) |
| T23 | Ubuntu 7.04 | 10.7W | |
| T40 | Gentoo (2.6.23-rc6-hrt2) | Bg-timer patch, HPET-patches, radeon, rovclock -c 105 -m 122, no DRI, sound power_save = Y, min. brightness, no networking, with USB, Laptop-Mode, X & 1x URxvt | 7,4W |
| T41p | Ubuntu 7.10 | Undervolted, fglrx, no dri; fan->+0.5W, powerstate=2->+0.7W, HD->+1.5W, no usb | 7.7W |
| T42 (2373) | Debian 4.0 Etch | Kernel 2.6.21_rc5 + hrtimer, rovclock -c 100 -m 120 (Radeon M10), no DRI, min bright. (+3W max), no wifi (+1W if idle) | 9.4W |
| T42 (2373) | Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid | 14" 1024x768 Kernel 2.6.28+tickless+hrtimer, rovclock -c 110 -m 180 (Radeon M7), Xorg + DRI, min bright. (+2.5W max), lan & wifi down, laptop-mode enabled, ultrabay ejected, fan on (auto) | 7.8W |
| T42 (2373) | Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid | 14" 1024x768 Kernel 2.6.28+tickless+hrtimer, rovclock -c 110 -m 180 (Radeon M7), Xorg + DRI, backlight off, lan & wifi down, laptop-mode enabled, ultrabay ejected, fan on (auto) | 5.6W |
| T43 (1871) | Debian (Linux 2.6.21, fluxbox) | DRI, alsa (power_save=1), with usb, no networking | 10.1W (12.0W with HD) |
| T43 (2669) | Gentoo (2.6.20-gentoo-r5) | Undervolted, fglrx (powerstate=1), DRI, no alsa, no usb modules, no networking | 12.7W |
| T43 (2686) | Fedora Core 6 (2.6.19.x patched) | Undervolted, radeon, rovclock -c 125 -m 130, no DRI, ALSA power_save=1, no usb modules, no networking, min brightness, HDD spun down | 15W |
| T400 (WC8...) | Ubuntu 9.04 unpatched kernel | *Save power with Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) on a ThinkPad T400 | 11-13W |
| T60 (2007) | Fedora Core 6 | Wireless kill switch on, 1400x1050 panel @ min brightness, fglrx (powerstate=1), HDD spun up (~1W saving without) | 16W |
| T60 (2007) | Kubuntu 7.04 | 1400x1050 panel @ min brightness, hald killed, laptop mode enabled, wireless powersave | 13.3 W |
| T60 (2007) | KUbuntu 7.04 | Wireless on, 1680x1050 panel @ medium brightness, fglrx (powerstate=1) | 16W |
| T60 (2623D6U) | Debian testing (linux-2.6.21-1-686) | 1400x1050 14" min-bright, iwpriv wlan0 set_power 7, VESA driver | 12,7W |
| T61 | Ubuntu 8.04 | 14" 1024x768 panel,intel graphics, 6% bright, wireless off, vanilla kernel 2.6.25 | 9.5W |
| T61 | Gentoo 2008.0 | 14" 1440x900 panel, nVidia, min brightness, wireless off, sound off, nvidia unloaded, laptop_mode, gentoo-sources 2.6.25-gentoo-r6, measured with powertop | ~13W |
| X200s | Gentoo Linux , Fluxbox | 2.6.29, HDD stopped, min brightness | 6.0W |
| X200s | Arch Linux | 2.6.27.9, idle kde3, hda_intel power_save 5, HDD stopped, min brightness, radios off, pcie_aspm in powersave, 8bit color depth | 6.2W |
| X200s | Arch Linux | SL9400, 12.1" 1440x900 panel, min. brightness, wifi/bt off | 7.2W |
| X200s | Arch Linux | 2.6.27.8, idle kde3 (9 int/s), hda_intel power_save 5, HDD stopped, min brightness, radios off, pcie_aspm in powersave | 7.3W |
| X200s | Arch Linux | 2.6.27.8, kde3+firefox+daemons, hda_intel power_save 5, HDD spinning up/down, brightness 6/15, wifi on, pcie_aspm in powersave | 8.7W |
| X200s | Ubuntu 8.10 | 2.6.27.9, 12.1" 1280x800 panel, min. brightness, wifi/bt off, laptop_mode, total idle | 7.3W |
| X200s | Ubuntu 8.10 | 2.6.27.9, 12.1" 1280x800 panel, half. brightness, wifi/bt off, laptop_mode, simple word-processing (open office) | ~10.5W |
| X200s | Ubuntu 8.10 | 2.6.27.9, 12.1" 1280x800 panel, half. brightness, wifi on, laptop_mode, active firefox, amarok playing (via airtunes), pidgin | ~12.5W |
| X200s | OpenSUSE 11.1 | 2.6.29-66.1 (HEAD from Factory repo), 12.1" 1440x900 led panel, brighness 5 (33%), wifi on, laptop_mode, kde 3.5, active firefox, | ~7.3W |
| X300 | Ubuntu 9.04 | 2.6.28-11-generic 13.3" 1440x900 panel, brightness 50%, wifi on, laptop_mode, active firefox, xmms2 playing, some terminals | ~11 W |
| X300 | Ubuntu 9.04 | 2.6.28-11-generic 13.3" 1440x900 panel, brightness 50%, wifi off, laptop_mode, xmms2 playing, some terminals | ~8.8 W |
| X21 | Kubuntu 7.04 | Minimal consumption with kde loaded. | 5.5W |
| X31 | Debian Etch | 2.6.22rc6+hrt1 patch+radeon patch | ~ 8 W |
| X31 (2672-C2G) | Debian Etch | vanilla 2.6.23rc8 tickless kernel, wireless rf-kill on, min brightness, hdd idle but spinning | ~ 9.6 W |
| X32 | Slackware | 2.6.23.1+hrt3 patch, tickless kernel, undervolted to 0.716, ati gfx @ 90mhz core 90mhz mem, hdd is CF, min brightness, wifi ON | ~ 8.2 W |
| X32 | Slackware | 2.6.23.1+hrt3 patch, tickless kernel, undervolted to 0.716, ati gfx @ 90mhz core 90mhz mem, hdd is CF, max brightness, wifi ON | ~ 11 W |
| X40 | Kubuntu 7.10 | 2.6.22, min brightness, wifi ON | ~8.7W |
| X40 | Opensuse 11.0; June08 | std. install + laptop-mode-tools.rpm; 2.6.25, min brightness, wifi on. normal X-server, hd spun down | ~8.0W |
| X41 | Fedora 7 | 2.6.23.1+phc patch, tickless kernel, undervolted to 0.7, under X, min brightness, wifi ON | ~11W |
| X60 | Ubuntu 7.04 | Wireless kill switch on, min brightness | 10.2W |
| X60s | Debian Etch | 2.6.21 tickless kernel, processes tweaked with powertop, usb/fw unloaded, hd spun down, min brightness, ipw3945 set to powersave mode 7 | 8.3W |
| X60s | Debian Etch | 2.6.21 tickless kernel, processes tweaked with powertop, usb/fw unloaded, hd spun down, min brightness,ipw3945 unloaded | 9W |
| X60s | Debian Lenny(testing) | 2.6.22 tickless kernel, hrt-patch, alpm-patches, almost everything unloaded (wifi,pcmcia,ethernet,usb,firewire,sd,snd) and stopped (no X11,only cron/syslog), no vesa-fb, min brightness, 5 min idle, measured with powertop 1.7 (ACPI) | 7.7W |
| X60s | Debian Lenny(testing) | 2.6.22 tickless kernel, hrt-patch, alpm-patches, almost everything unloaded (wifi,pcmcia,ethernet,usb,firewire,sd,snd), with X11 (latest intel-xorg-driver, DRI enabled) and one x-terminal running, min brightness, 5 min idle, measured with powertop 1.7 (ACPI) | 8.3W |
| X61 | OpenSUSE 11.1 | 2.6.27.7 tickless, KDE 4.2 Beta2, X.Org 7.4 (dri on, fb compression enabled), BT/WiFi OFF, HDD spun down, brightness 0, fan running, default modules loaded, PowerTOP 1.10 | 10.4W (without X running 10.1W) |
| X61 Tablet | Ubuntu Gutsy(tribe6) | 2.6.23-rc6-hrt1 x86_64, everything unloaded & stopped, lcd backlight off, hd powered down, powertop 1.8 | 8.5W |
| X61 Tablet | Xubuntu Gutsy | 2.6.24-rc3, everything unloaded, lcd backlight 10%, hd powered down, powertop 1.8 | 7,8W |
| X61s (7666-36G) | Debian Sid | 2.6.27.7, everything unloaded, HD spinned down, xbacklight -set 0, idle Xfce desktop, SATA poweroff patch, Xorg intel driver with framebuffer compression enabled | 8,4W |
| X301 | Debian Lenny | 2.6.29.1, wifi down, lan down, wan down, no WOL, ondemand scaling, brightness 100% | 10,7W (6.3h w/ bay battery) |
| X301 | Debian Lenny | 2.6.29.1, wifi down, lan down, wan down, no WOL, ondemand scaling, brightness 50% | 8,7W |
| X301 | Debian Lenny | 2.6.29.1, wifi down, lan down, wan down, no WOL, ondemand scaling, brightness 0% | 7,8W (8.8h w/ bay battery) |
