Power & running-cost calculator
What a build actually costs to leave on all year - the number that dwarfs the sticker price over time.
Result
- Draw at idle
- W
- Draw under load
- W
- Energy per year
- kWh
- Cost per month
- Cost per year
- Over 5 years
Rate and totals are in your region's currency - enter your own tariff to match.
How to read this
- Mini-PCs sip power - most idle at 6-15 W, which is why they run a homelab for a rounding error. The drives and any GPU are usually the bigger draw.
- Each spinning 3.5″ HDD is counted at ~8 W (a rough average of idle and active); SSDs are negligible, so leave them out.
- "Under load" applies the box's rated TDP and the accelerator's full draw for the hours you set; the rest of the day uses idle figures.
- The five-year total is the one worth staring at - a 20 W difference is roughly the price of another mini-PC over that span.
Approximate, curated estimates - real draw depends on load, drives and PSU efficiency.