Any way of finding out power usage

ViperZS

ViperZS

ViperZS

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Joined
20 May 2009
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383
Location
York
Hi All

Just wondering if there is a way of finding out how much power I am using when on the PC. Both for standby and when being used?

Basically want to see how much I am using so i can show my flatmate as he thinks I use a lot which creates a bigger electricity bill :(
 
The nearest is to go onto the PSU calculator, put in your specs and select full load. I believe map--- (sorry for hint but OCUK dont sell them) sell a thing you plug into your socket, then you plug your computer into that, and it has an LCD on it showing the power consumption.
 
arknor said:
around 153 watt idle probably 400-500 watt at full pelt gaming.
Click to expand...



About right for the idle, neither the Q6600 nor the 8800GTX are power efficient really, but 400-500W gaming, thats highly unlikely, Gaming rarely loads the cpu and gpu to max at the same time, it kinda alternates (very rapidly) from one to the other.

My system with a Q6700@3Ghz, and a 8800GTX never broke 300W while gaming. Now I've swapped the 8800GTX for an ATi5850 and both load and idle have dropped.

Anyway assuming a balance between gaming, and idle, your probably looking at around 200W for the PC, and another 30-50W for the monitor depending how big the screen is.

On standby the PC willl use about 2watts, in S3 deep sleep it will probably use 10-15watts depending on how much ram you have installed, in hibernate to disk, it will be around 2w the same as full standby.

PS I wouldnt recommend turning the mains power off to save the 2w load, when the PC is getting mains power (but computer is off) the PSU still sends a tiny 5v power to the bios/clock and a few other bits and pieces, and with the mains turned completely off, the bios and clock resort to using the battery to keep running. The battery will last longer with the PC plugged in and the mains on (PC in standby/off is fine).

All depends how much you use the PC.. 24/7/365 and you are talking £260ish based on 12p/unit.
 
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cheers guys :)

Main thing I was after was cost and units of power usage so Corasik you have given me a good idea. cheers.

Monitor wise, its an LG 24"

Acid Hell, thankyou! That would be a last resort move to prove him wrong :D
 
I've got one of those power meters, only cost me a tenner and its a great little toy. Amazing how much energy a kettle uses.
 
Bumping a slightly old thread here, but I have one of those power consumption measurers and was trying it out on my new super low power build - 240e AMD on a 785G mobo, ATI 5670 gfx card and greenpower HD. Would have expected this setup to give me about 40W idle at the most, but strangely the power meter thing is showing the Wattage jumping all over the place when windows is sitting at idle - fluctuates from about 10W up to 60/70W v rapidly.

Seems fine measuring my gaming maching (180W at idle, ouch!) but do these new motherboards have a load of wizardry in them which would cause the power draw to constantly fluctuate like this? If so, how do I measure it?
 
Qu frank, but why not pull your 5670 out and use the onboard on your 785 motherboard?

60-70W aint bad, given the efficiency of your psu and everything...whats in the rest of the rig?
 
Just 2gb of ram (2 sticks total) and a hauppauge TV card (hvr-3000). I want the audio bitstreaming of the 5670 hence on-board no use to me - can't get it working right, but that's a subject for a different thread!

PSU is an 80+ efficiency model, so shouldn't be too much loss there.
 
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