Here’s the running cost for each machine under light desktop usage.
To calculate the cost per year I assume each machine is used 8 hours a day under light usage. A kWh is £0.2635 (the current price cap from October 2025 in the UK).
| Computer | Wh | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Mini PC DreamQuest Intel N100 CPU | 12.9 | £9.93 |
| BOSGAME M4 Plus AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 15.4 | £11.85 |
| Mini PC Intel NUC 13 Pro i7-1360P CPU | 17.7 | £13.62 |
| Minisforum AI X1 Pro AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | 19.6 | £15.08 |
| Mini PC ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H | 25.1 | £19.31 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-10400 CPU | 32.1 | £24.70 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-12400 CPU (with dedicated graphics card) | 64.5 | £49.63 |
- The annual cost is the electricity cost of the computer only. To calculate the overall running costs, you’ll need to factor in peripherals such as monitors, speakers, external devices etc.
- The Balanced CPU governor is used.
The next table shows the annual electricity cost with each machine headless running at idle and permanently on. This information may be useful if you are thinking of using the machine say as a NAS server and want a baseline running cost. Again, I’m pricing a kWh at £0.2635 (the current price cap from October 2025 in the UK).
| Computer | Wh | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| BOSGAME M4 Plus AMD Rzyen 9 7940HS | 5.8 | £13.39 |
| Mini PC DreamQuest N100 CPU | 6.5 | £15.00 |
| Mini PC Minisforum AI X1 Pro AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | 6.9 | £15.93 |
| Mini PC ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H | 9.1 | £21.00 |
| Mini PC Intel NUC 13 Pro i7-1360P CPU | 12.7 | £29.31 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-10400 CPU | 14.1 | £32.55 |
| Desktop PC Intel i5-12400 CPU (with dedicated graphics card) | 37.3 | £86.10 |
In the next article in the series, I’m going to look at the M4’s processor in more detail.
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:
| BOSGAME M4 Plus Mini PC | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the machine |
| Benchmarks | Benchmarking the BOSGAME M4 Plus |
| Power | Testing and comparing the power consumption |