[wsume99]

My server idles at ~40w. If you assume $.11/kWHr (which is about the US average) that equates to ~$40/year. If I were you I'd invest in a kill-a-watt meter before you make any changes. I would certainly think that you would see much less power use from a newer system. One of the best chips for a cheap, low power unraid server is the intel celeron G530.

Interesting set of numbers. I'll make a note of this Low power CPU

I just want to clear up any confusion - I have an E5500 CPU in my server today NOT a G530. If I were going to build another server today I'd use a G530 and I'm certain that it would draw less power than my current setup.