Given my A7Z only has 1GB of RAM, it’s not possible to test light desktop usage. For example, the machine will freeze if Chromium has more than 1 tab open.
The table below 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 basic server and want a baseline running cost. I’m pricing a kWh at £0.2635 (the current price cap from October 2025 in the UK).
| Computer | Wh | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Firefly AIBOX-3588S | 1.3 | £3.00 |
| Orange Pi 5 Max | 2.4 | £5.54 |
| Orange Pi RV2 | 2.5 | £5.77 |
| Radxa ROCK 4D | 2.7 | £6.23 |
| Orange Pi R2S | 2.8 | £6.46 |
| Radxa Cubie A7Z | 2.9 | £6.69 |
| Raspberry Pi 5 | 3.5 | £8.08 |
| Radxa Cubie A7A | 3.9 | £9.00 |
| Radxa ROCK 5T | 3.9 | £9.00 |
| Banana Pi BPI-F3 | 4.3 | £9.93 |
| Mini PC BOSGAME M4 Plus AMD Rzyen 9 7940HS | 5.8 | £13.39 |
| Mini PC DreamQuest N100 CPU | 6.5 | £15.00 |
| Minisforum AI X1 Pro AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | 6.9 | £15.93 |
| Mini PC DreamQuest N95 CPU | 7.8 | £18.00 |
| Mini PC ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-255H | 9.1 | £21.00 |
| Mini PC Intel NUC 13 Pro i7-1360P CPU | 12.7 | £29.52 |
Specifications
To look at the specifications of the machines featured here, please refer to each series which are listed in the hardware section here.
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Power Consumption With System Idle
Page 2 – Power Consumption With CPU Stressed
Page 3 – Electricity Costs / Specifications
Complete list of articles in this series:
| Radxa Cubie A7Z | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the Cubie A7Z |
| Power | I compare the Cubie A7Z's power consumption to other machines |
| Radxa OS | A Debian-based Linux distribution with KDE Plasma |