Green consumer ethernet switch? D-Link DGS-2208

I just replaced an old Netgear GS105 5 port Gig-E switch with a D-Link DGS-2208 from newegg (on sale for $45 plus a $10 rebate this month). The D-Link touts itself as a "green" ethernet switch which just begs to be measured... So I pulled out the kill-a-watt to measure it.

On the D-Link box is a label stating, "Up to 80% Power savings(*)," with fine print of, "Maximum power savings when compared to a D-Link conventional switch. Uses up to 80% electricity when connected devices are powered down and up to 40% less energy when connected devices are used 10 hours and powered down 14 hours over a 24-hour period, when connected via 20 meter Ethernet cables."

Thats some pretty sad fine print so I lowered my expectations...

But measuring showed otherwise. With nothing plugged into the switch it was too low to register any power draw at all and showed up as 0 watts. With 5 active devices plugged in (a mix of gigabit and 100mbit) it went up to 4 watts. Unplug one device and it went down to 3 watts.

Compared that to my 4+ year old Netgear GS105 with its much larger power brick that drew 8 watts with 5 devices plugged in or 4 watts with no devices plugged in and the D-Link measures up to its claim. Nice.

But is it really anything special? I'd need samplings of other current model switches to find out. The real savings comes from the D-Links ability to save power for switch ports with no link. A live port is going to consume some level of power no matter what as required to maintain ethernet signaling.

For an added bonus the D-Link's 5V 2A wall wart is much smaller than the old netgear's huge 12 1A one and is oriented such that you can plug it into a power strip without covering adjacent outlets. Always a nice touch (tough i'd prefer not to have a wall wart or brick at all).

How the world works

1. Call something a religion.
2. Stuff happens.
3. PROPHET.

Mmm.. efficient power supplies

..geeky entry alert..

Feeling green or just want to lose some computer noise and extra room heat?

I just upgraded an old ATX power supply in Karen's computer to an 80PLUS rated one. Using a kill-a-watt watt meter this dropped the computers power consumption from 104W down to 86W when idle in win2k and from 121W down to 101W when under heavy disk+cpu load. ~20% better efficiency. very nice! highly recommended. Most generic power supplies are in the 50-70% efficiency range. 80+ ones are >= 80% efficient at 20, 50 and 100% load.

I used an Enhance ENP-5140GH but just search google for "80plus power supply" or see 80plus.org and you'll turn up other models (the SeaSonics are also popular among my friends). Its a very quiet PS as well; the fan is the large 120mm variety mounted on the bottom inside of the unit rather than the 80 or 92mm ones commonly mounted on the back.

I've got an ENP-5150GH to install in my server next week which should make an ever greater difference.

[copied from my other blog, written+posted there on 2006-09-28]

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