I WAS THRILLED by the introduction of the Sleep mode in the new PCI-based Power Macs (heralded by all the Energy Star stickers on the box), but I was quite disappointed to find out that the Sleep mode didn't give me a silent desktop Mac, since the fan continues working.
By using a watt meter, I discovered that putting my new Power Mac 8500 to sleep did not reduce my power consumption by a single watt! According to Apple, the Sleep mode of the 8500 does not put the CPU to rest or conserve energy consumed by the CPU -- it's only supposed to turn off hard drives and Energy Star-compliant monitors. But any Energy Star-compliant monitor sleeps and saves energy independently of the Mac. And putting a hard drive to sleep is not specific to the new PCI-based Macs (witness the shareware control panel Sleeper). So I have to wonder what the 8500's Sleep mode really does. Why mention it at all?
Apple should make the Sleep mode really mean something or stop selling it as an "energy saving" feature.
