Computer Power Consumption

Varyon · 03-07-2016, 02:43 PM

Recent threads about 4e vehicle design have caused me to revisit a partially-completed project - combining the old 3e Vehicles with the new Spaceships line. One aspect of this involves accounting for all power production/consumption in terms of kW (or, rather kW per ton of vehicle weight), and I've run into a snag related to computers. Namely, I need to figure out an appropriate kW/ton figure for their power consumption. At a first glance, assuming UT Power Cells are approximately comparable to the Power Cells I've worked out from Vehicles, I'm getting a TL 9 personal computer using up 100 W. TL 10 would use 150 W, TL 11 300 W, TL 12 500 W. Extrapolating down from that would give a TL 8 personal computer using up something like 70 W - a bit on the high side, but probably within error. High Tech has a comparable computer, this time assuming the M battery is an advanced TL 8 battery, burning up around 56 W, so this seems feasible.

If we assume no change in efficiency from scaling up or down, that's around 15 W/lb at TL 8, 20 W/lb at TL 9, and so forth. Does this seem feasible? For reference, the computer networks I'm using for my Vehicles/Spaceships mix are assumed to be Hardened (for 2x weight), so this works out to 1.5 kW/ton, 2 kW/ton, and so forth (again, noting that the tonnage is for the weight of the entire vehicle, with the computer network being only 5% of this value) for a Computer Network system - a single Solar Panel system is enough to power such a network, and you'll still have some power left over (Solar Cell provides 2 kW/ton at TL 8).

03-07-2016, 02:43 PM	#1
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Computer Power Consumption Recent threads about 4e vehicle design have caused me to revisit a partially-completed project - combining the old 3e Vehicles with the new Spaceships line. One aspect of this involves accounting for all power production/consumption in terms of kW (or, rather kW per ton of vehicle weight), and I've run into a snag related to computers. Namely, I need to figure out an appropriate kW/ton figure for their power consumption. At a first glance, assuming UT Power Cells are approximately comparable to the Power Cells I've worked out from Vehicles, I'm getting a TL 9 personal computer using up 100 W. TL 10 would use 150 W, TL 11 300 W, TL 12 500 W. Extrapolating down from that would give a TL 8 personal computer using up something like 70 W - a bit on the high side, but probably within error. High Tech has a comparable computer, this time assuming the M battery is an advanced TL 8 battery, burning up around 56 W, so this seems feasible. If we assume no change in efficiency from scaling up or down, that's around 15 W/lb at TL 8, 20 W/lb at TL 9, and so forth. Does this seem feasible? For reference, the computer networks I'm using for my Vehicles/Spaceships mix are assumed to be Hardened (for 2x weight), so this works out to 1.5 kW/ton, 2 kW/ton, and so forth (again, noting that the tonnage is for the weight of the entire vehicle, with the computer network being only 5% of this value) for a Computer Network system - a single Solar Panel system is enough to power such a network, and you'll still have some power left over (Solar Cell provides 2 kW/ton at TL 8).