Are there any software power monitors?
- Thread starter ajf
- Start date
That's about right.
Nothing running in software will give an accurate figure as the PC doesn't have any hardware to measure power consumption generally (it will have hardware to monitor voltages but that's a different thing entirely), not to mention even if it did, the PC wouldn't be able to take into account how efficient the PSU is/was and the monitor etc.
Adding up the power usage figures from the manufacturer also wouldn't work, it would over estimate considerably (as manufacturers tend to give peak values, which are normally much higher than general use*).
The only accurate way is a plug in meter (or multimeter, but proper plug in unit is much safer and easier) to measure how much is being used in total.
For a very rough guide, my PC for example uses about 120 (normal) -180 (peak) watts for the base unit, and another 60 or so for the monitor, and that is for a
Q6600
4gb of ram
PkP Premium
4 SATA drives
3870
2 optical drives
20" LCD
*Either the power required to start a device (in the case of hard drives they use a lot more to get started than at any other point), or at full load.
Associate
- Joined
- 19 Jan 2007
- Posts
- 2,019
- Location
- Up a Tree
There is software available to check power usage, but you will need to buy a Gigabyte Odin GT power supply.
I have one and the software tells me how much load I am putting on the computer at any given time. It will also tell me how many amps are being used on each rail and the voltage for each rail. It will also display the temperature of the power supply and alarms can be set so that when a certain temperature, load and many other settings are reached the alarm will sound.
Very nice power supply and excellent software. There is a review at jonnyguru's site if your interested.
Please note though, that the software is much more efficent now (much improved from the version tested at jonnyguru).
I have one and the software tells me how much load I am putting on the computer at any given time. It will also tell me how many amps are being used on each rail and the voltage for each rail. It will also display the temperature of the power supply and alarms can be set so that when a certain temperature, load and many other settings are reached the alarm will sound.
Very nice power supply and excellent software. There is a review at jonnyguru's site if your interested.
Please note though, that the software is much more efficent now (much improved from the version tested at jonnyguru).
nice info tho.