Official Nintendo Fanboy Smugness & Gloating Thread

PumaG · Post by **PumaG** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:44 pm 0

matt303 wrote:So that's about 87KWh a year per Wii if you were to just leave it plugged in.

And you can connect what to the internet for less ?

Roobarb · Post by **Roobarb** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:54 pm 0

fog wrote:The power thing is a bit misleading. When in use the Wii uses a lot less than the 360 but when left on standby it uses a lot more. If used for an average of 1 or 2 hours a day (can't remember the exact figure) the Wii will consume more power.

By my reckoning, the Wii becomes more power efficient than the 360 if you play it for 9 hours or more a week. ESA reckons the average adult plays for ~7hrs/week.
On the other hand, maybe Wii owners are less likely to have an HDTV, so a bit of a saving there.
Either way, Nintendo deserve a big spanking for designing kit that uses so much power on standby. There's no reason it needs to be mostly powered up to be connected to the internet 24hrs per day. They could easily have designed it to wake up with a hardware timer and poll the WiiConnect24 servers a few times a day. Anyone making new kit that uses more than 2W on standby (and preferably <1W) should be made to pay some kind of stupid tax.

PumaG · Post by **PumaG** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:02 pm 0

Then turn the fucker off at the wall and it is vastly more efficient than the 360, what was you saying about stupid tax?

arbster · Post by **arbster** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:14 pm 0

I think I'll just start turning the Wii off in the wall. However, most people won't bother doing that and will just be left using energy for no real reason. Disappointed there.

Roobarb · Post by **Roobarb** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:16 pm 0

I do, even though it's a pain in the neck to do so with where the wall socket is located.

Millions won't though, especially since the handily reachable power button on the console only puts it into standby and the manual gives zero information on the power usage of the console. We have energy efficiency ratings for appliances now and you get taxed for buying inefficient cars. I don't see what's so controversial about incentivising consumer electronics companies to do the right thing.

Nintendodragon · Post by **Nintendodragon** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:19 pm 0

I'd like to know if the 10W is while its downloading or just sitting in standby, and what it your Wii isnot connected to Wiiconnect24?

all of this is nothing compared to the energy by all our PC's and i know lots of people who leave them on almost all the time...

Roobarb · Post by **Roobarb** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:30 pm 0

Nintendodragon wrote:I'd like to know if the 10W is while its downloading or just sitting in standby, and what it your Wii isnot connected to Wiiconnect24?

Good question. You can change the console settings so in standby it doesn't do WiiConnect24 at all (power light glows red). That may put it in a lower power mode.

Nintendodragon wrote:all of this is nothing compared to the energy by all our PC's and i know lots of people who leave them on almost all the time...

Yep they're rubbish as well.
Freeview boxes, PVR's HD/DVD recorders, cable/sky boxes (they all use at least 10W in standby)...the list goes on, and on.

arbster · Post by **arbster** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:37 pm 0

Nintendodragon wrote: all of this is nothing compared to the energy by all our PC's and i know lots of people who leave them on almost all the time...

Yup, I confess I do that much of the time - but only if it is downloading etc. But another wrong does not make it a right.

I turn off much of my tech at night though, and try to practice energy efficient practices. But the majority of people there just won't bother so I really do think it would be a good idea for the manufacturer to become more responsible.

Does the Wii really need to use up all that energy in standby? How about if it just connected to the net on the hour while on standby to have a quick look around if there is some data for it to download and then disconnect and hopefully use less power. Wouldn't mind if a firmware update changed this, but I suspect nothing will come of it.

Darkflame · Post by **Darkflame** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:37 pm 0

The Wii's standby mode in some way offsets other things.

If at some stage I can check my email on the Wii easily, I wont boot up my pc for the same reason.

Im hopeing someone at some stages hacks the Wii to be a generic downloader. Then it would save me quite a bit

arbster · Post by **arbster** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:42 pm 0

Darkflame wrote:The Wii's standby mode in some way offsets other things.

If at some stage I can check my email on the Wii easily, I wont boot up my pc for the same reason.

Im hopeing someone at some stages hacks the Wii to be a generic downloader. Then it would save me quite a bit

Good point. When Opera becomes available (within the next fortnight in Europe by the sounds of it) I suspect a lot of my browsing and email checking will be done by that. How about a keyboard add on to connect to the wiimote.

Nintendodragon · Post by **Nintendodragon** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:46 pm 0

Roobarb wrote:
Nintendodragon wrote:I'd like to know if the 10W is while its downloading or just sitting in standby, and what it your Wii isnot connected to Wiiconnect24?
Good question. You can change the console settings so in standby it doesn't do WiiConnect24 at all (power light glows red). That may put it in a lower power mode.

Nintendodragon wrote:all of this is nothing compared to the energy by all our PC's and i know lots of people who leave them on almost all the time...
Yep they're rubbish as well.
Freeview boxes, PVR's HD/DVD recorders, cable/sky boxes (they all use at least 10W in standby)...the list goes on, and on.

we are doomed.

i've stayed round people houses and not been able to sleep because the ceeling is lit up by LEDs!!

I just checked a energy calculator, it the Wii uses 87kW per year, thats works out at Â£6.19

Darkflame · Post by **Darkflame** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:53 pm 0

If we all used LED's for our lighting it wouldnt be so bad, however :p

arbster wrote:
Darkflame wrote:The Wii's standby mode in some way offsets other things.

If at some stage I can check my email on the Wii easily, I wont boot up my pc for the same reason.

Im hopeing someone at some stages hacks the Wii to be a generic downloader. Then it would save me quite a bit
Good point. When Opera becomes available (within the next fortnight in Europe by the sounds of it) I suspect a lot of my browsing and email checking will be done by that. How about a keyboard add on to connect to the wiimote.

Yes, keyboard add on is badly needed imo.

What about that Phantom keyboard, now its not being used for much else

grue · Post by **grue** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:54 pm 0

Darkflame wrote: What about that Phantom keyboard, now its not being used for much else

Ouch

PumaG · Post by **PumaG** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:20 pm 0

Roobarb wrote:I do, even though it's a pain in the neck to do so with where the wall socket is located.

I use a power extension gang way with switch on the end, it comes with eyelets on the ends to screw it to the wall or back of the hifi cabinet, the switch is now in an easy to reach place and everything goes off at night.

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:37 pm 0

From memory, if there's a red light on the Wii then it's fully shut down (not connected to Wiiconnect24) and probably uses about the same as the 360. When the standby light is orange then it's running in Wiiconnect24 mode. And when it's green then it's been left turned on by your housemates

.

Comparing power usage figures to the 360 is a little bit silly given that the 360 is an order of magnitude more powerful. I'm inclined to agree that Wiiconnect24 is a nice idea, but some timer based solution for checking the servers would have been nice. Whatever they've done to slow down the CPU while in connect24 mode is interesting, as I'd have thought it would be clocked down to virtually nothing in which case it really shouldn't be getting warm.

In short, it's not a big problem - if you don't want to use Wiiconnect24 then turn it off

. Personally, I've always got my PC on for something (don't even bother shutting it down at night now!). Having an additional box running isn't going to make a great deal of difference.

Cheers

Bubba