Mini PC Power Consumption

Picks refresh twice a day.

A mini PC left on all year is an electricity purchase. At about 16 cents per kWh, 6W idle is roughly $8 a year. 15W is about $21. A desktop that idles at 60–100W lands around $84 to $140 before you do any work on it. Load is higher for both. The always-on gap is the idle number.

The lowest wattage is not automatically the winner. An N100 under 10W is a great Plex or Home Assistant box and a poor compile server. A Ryzen that idles higher and finishes the job much faster can use less energy for work you wait on. The picks show measured idle watts and a yearly estimate at that 16-cent rate. They still have to be a strong deal, not merely a low number.