Electricity Costs
PC power consumption matters in the UK, particularly because electricity unit rates remain high.
Here are the annual running costs for each machine under light desktop usage.
To calculate the annual cost, I assume each machine is used for 8 hours a day under light usage. I use a unit rate of £0.2611 per kWh, the average electricity unit rate under the July-September 2026 UK price cap.
| Computer | Wh | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Mini PC DreamQuest Intel N100 CPU | 12.9 | £9.84 |
| Mini PC Minisforum M2 Core Ultra 7 356H | 13.5 | £10.29 |
| Mini PC Beelink EQi 304 | 13.9 | £10.60 |
| Mini PC BOSGAME M4 Plus AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 15.4 | £11.74 |
| Mini PC BOSGAME VTA-439 AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 | 15.9 | £12.12 |
| Mini PC Intel NUC 13 Pro i7-1360P CPU | 17.7 | £13.48 |
| Mini PC Minisforum UM890 Pro AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS | 17.9 | £13.65 |
| Mini PC Minisforum Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | 19.6 | £14.94 |
| Mini PC ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H | 25.1 | £19.14 |
| Mini PC BOSGAME M7 Core Ultra 9 285H | 27.2 | £20.74 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-10400 CPU | 32.1 | £24.47 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-12400 CPU (with dedicated graphics card) | 64.5 | £49.18 |
The annual cost covers the electricity consumed by the computer only. To calculate the overall running costs, you’ll need to factor in peripherals such as monitors, speakers, external storage, and networking equipment.
The next table shows the annual electricity cost of each machine running headless at idle for 24 hours a day. This information may be useful if you’re thinking of using the machine as a NAS server, virtualisation host, or homelab system and want a baseline running cost. Again, I’m pricing a kWh at £0.2611, the average electricity unit rate under the July-September 2026 UK price cap.
| Computer | Wh | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Mini PC Beelink EQi 304 | 5.5 | £12.58 |
| Mini PC BOSGAME M4 Plus AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 5.8 | £13.27 |
| Mini PC BOSGAME VTA-439 AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 | 6.4 | £14.64 |
| Mini PC DreamQuest N100 CPU | 6.5 | £14.87 |
| Mini PC Minisforum Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | 7.5 | £17.15 |
| Mini PC Minisforum UM890 Pro AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS | 7.7 | £17.61 |
| Mini PC Minisforum M2 Core Ultra 7 356H | 8.1 | £18.53 |
| Mini PC ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H | 9.1 | £20.81 |
| Mini PC BOSGAME M7 Core Ultra 9 285H | 11.6 | £26.53 |
| Mini PC Intel NUC 13 Pro i7-1360P CPU | 12.7 | £29.05 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-10400 CPU | 14.1 | £32.25 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-12400 CPU (with dedicated graphics card) | 37.3 | £85.31 |
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Power Consumption With System Idle
Page 2 – Power Consumption With Light Usage
Page 3 – Power Consumption With CPU Stressed
Page 4 – Electricity Costs
Complete list of articles in this series:
| Beelink EQi 304 Mini PC | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the machine |
| Benchmarks | Benchmarking the Beelink EQi 304 Mini PC |
| Power | Testing and comparing the power consumption |
| More articles will be published next week | |
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