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Real power draw of a PC, results from my own PC

Stonedofmoo

Stonedofmoo

Stonedofmoo

Soldato
Joined
24 Oct 2002
Posts
6,242
Location
Portsmouth
My housemate just got one of those meters that tells you power draw of your electrical devices.

My PC is as follows
Q6600 @ 3.5Gig. 1.41v
8Gb RAM
MSI P45 Neo2 Motherboard
Asus 8800GT gfx @ 700/2000
3x WD RE3 250Gb drives in RAID0
1x Samsung 1Tb drive
Creative XFi Fatality with drive bay
1x 200mm, 4x 120mm LED case fans
1x DVD-RW
Hiper 630w PSU (recent 85% efficient model)

And all of that draws...
167w at idle (with speedstep)
300w at full load, i.e. Prime95 on all cores
326w at full load, running Prime95 and in game Left4Dead at the same time!

Not much really. I was expecting a bigger difference than that, especially under games. I guess the 8800GT is pretty efficient, even overclocked :)

I'm kind of curious now to know how much difference a 9xxx chip would make at the same speeds.
 
There's always been an utter load of pish talked about PSU's, it certainly makes you wonder what sort of rig would stress one of those 1000w supplies, even 70% of the way.
 
For a more bare-bones configuration:

Q6600 at stock 2.4
Freezer 7 Pro
Gigabyte motherboard with on-board graphics
4GB RAM
One 320GB hard drive
One DVD-RW drive
2 x 80mm and one 120mm case fan

Figures:
70-75w Idle (with speedstep and voltage reduction)
125w Deep Fritz 10 4CPU Engine mark
159w Intel Burn Test using maximum RAM

I was pretty pleased with those numbers. Normally I'm running at 75% load (using 3 cores out of 4) and pulling about 110w.

It goes without saying that this machine never plays games

Interesting thing was that "full load" can be quite different. Deep Fritz 10 maxing out all 4 cores 125w. Intel Burn test maxing out all 4 cores, 159w.

All this running on a Corsair 520w, overkill for that config, it won't be in it's peak efficiency band. A smaller PSU would likely draw even less from the mains.
 
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Ah see that raises an interesting point. Power supplys are generally most efficient when running at around 60% of their capability. Your PC would therefore be much better served with a recent model PSU of around 300w.
 
Here's my second pc:-

[email protected]
Gigabyte P35 DS3R
Sapphire HD3850Pro 512mb
4x1GB pc2-5300
320Gb Seagate 7200.10 Sata hdd
LG 22x Dual Layer DVDRW
4x 120mm fans
AF Freezer 7 Pro
Zalman ZM-MFC2 multi-function controller (live power consumption display)
Enermax Pro 82+ 385w psu.

Idle 85w (speedstep enabled)
Load 118w (prime 95)
Max Load 201w (Prime 95 + Fur stability test)
Normal load is 158 while gaming.

I have just changed to the new Enermax psu from a Winpower 500w and to give an idea of how much the efficiency of the new psu makes here are some figures from when i was using the Winpower:-

Idle 104w
Gaming Load 187w.

Nothing else is changed. Just the psu. All down to the psu's efficiency. The Enermax is 90% efficient at 50% load with a lowest rating of 84%. The Winpower was 75% or less. I will stick up some figures for my main pc when i get around to fitting the other Zalman ZM-MFC2 to it but it pulls around 340w from the wall while gaming and that also includes the monitor, speakers and watercooling set-up.
 
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QX6700 @ 2.93 (stock volts, multiplier overclock)
ASUS P5Q Deluxe
8GB RAM
ATI 3870 video card
2 x 320GB hard drives
1 DVD-RW drive
2 x 120mm, 1 x 60mm case fans
Corsair 620w

Figures:
135w Idle approx (speedstep and voltage reduction)
205w Quad Fritz 10 4CPU Engine mark

I haven't taken a reading when gaming, because I don't really do anything much now. Must be 250-300w. Again, power supply is too big for this box, but there is room for further overclocking or upgrades, and with it being under-stressed it should have a very long life. This is also the more power hungry B3 stepping CPU. Runs nice and cool though under an Ultra 120 Extreme.
 
i7 920 @ 3.8 Ghz 1.32v
ASUS P6T Deluxe Palm Edition.
6 GB Corsair DDR3 1333Mhz RAM.
GTX 260 - 216 eVGA.
1 x 300GB Raptor
1 x 1TB WD Black
1 x 1TB Samsung F1
2 Case fans
Wirless mouse + Wifi Card.

PSU Enermax MODU82+ 625 Watts.

Idle = 150 Watts.
Load = 250 Watts (Prime 95 - 8 cores)

Busting the myth of 1000 watts PSUs !
 
here's my system.

DFI Lan Party DK 790FXB-M2RSH
Phenom 9850BE
4GB 8500
4850 512MB
6 hdd's
X3 DVD±RW, Blu-Ray Rewriter/HD-DVD ROM
x1 36cm fan, x1 25cm fan, x1 17cm fan, x1 12cm fan
x4 AC Ryan 12" CCFL
Zalman ZM-MFC2 Multi Fan Controller/power load meter monitor
pci dvb-s2 card, pci-e dual dvb-t card
X-Fi XtremeGamer
Hi-Power 900W Modular

idle at 251w , underload when gaming is 367w
 
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E7200 overclocked to 3.8Ghz
Crucial 2GB kit Ballistix DDR2
hiper 530watt power supply
palit 9600GT 512mb
antec 1200
with 6 fans
watercooling kit
2x LG 22x dvd writers
1x Samsung Spin Point F1 SATAII NCQ 500GB 16Mb
1x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB
1x Western Digital 640Gb blue

Idle on window desktop 138watts
Gaming for 2 hours on call of duty world of war 263 watts
haven't checked what it would be like full load can't be far off the above figure.
 
6400+ be, 3200mhz/1.275v
ax78
4gb 8500 ram
2* 3870xt
4hdd
2pumps
10 fans
sound card
wireless card
dvdrw
tagan 2force 2 600w

idle 158w
load (cpu) ~230w
load - cf aware game ~320-360w

idle with just 1 gfx card is closer to 120w

laptop by comparison full load 85w (3400+ clawhammer, 9700 mobility, 17" screen max brightness) idle of ~30w

pc's are a way behind laptops!
 
Specs below.CPU utilization @ 25%.Running 4 GPU fah clients + 1 standard client (not SMP).Consumes about 460watts from the wall down from 530watts due to underclocking.

MSI P7N Diamond
Q6600 @ 1.6GHZ (underclock)
4GB RAM 1GBx4
320GB disk
1 optical
couple fans
9800 GX2
9600GT
8800 GTS 640MB
1 pci card
OCZ ProXStream 1000w
 
eco2003etg7.jpg


  • Intel® Wolfdale E5200 Dual-Core, 1.2GHz/2.5GHz (1.08vCore)
  • Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme (Passive)
  • 2GB PC2-5300 @ PC2-6400 4-4-4-12 (1.82vDimm)
  • ASUS P5Q-EM microATX Motherboard (Intel® G45 Express)
  • Integrated Intel® GMA X4500HD Graphics
  • Seagate Momentus 7200.3 80GB 2.5" Laptop Hard Drive
  • Western Digital 1TB Caviar® Green™ 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive
  • Sony DRU-190s 20x SATA DVD-RW
  • Sharkoon 120mm Silent Eagle 1000 Blue Led Edition (x3)
  • Antec 140mm TriCool™ Fan (low)
  • Antec Earthwatts 380 PSU
  • Antec 300 Chassis
eco2017eum6.jpg


eco2006eye0.jpg


03w - Powered Down
04w - S3 Standby
52w - Idle Desktop (1200MHz)

73w - 100% CPU Load (Prime Small FFTs)
74w - 100% 3D IGP Load (rthdribl 1920x1200)

77w - 100% Memory Load (Prime Large in-place FFTs)
78w - Intel Burn Test (IBT) Maximum Stress Test

84w - 100% Prime CPU + 100% 3D IGP
87w - 100% Prime Memory + 100% 3D IGP
 
Impressive Big/Wayne. 87w! :)

Actually this power meter has been eye opening. I've just discovered the stereo in my room draws 21w at standby! That means it costs me about £45 a year at current rates, I had no idea.

I'm going to start switching things off at the wall and get some standby savers.
 
Stonedofmoo said:
Actually this power meter has been eye opening. I've just discovered the stereo in my room draws 21w at standby! That means it costs me about £45 a year at current rates, I had no idea.
Click to expand...
I can see you going around the house testing absolutely everything :D
 
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