Electricity costs?

[Devrij]

I'm flirting with the idea of getting into folding, but I have a few concerns that I'm trying to work out before I can decide whether to do it or not, and the main one is electricity costs.

I have a 3570K at 4.5GHz and a 7950 which I'll be overclocking as well. So I'll be drawing a fair amount of power from the wall, which I know will mount up if I strat running 100% loads 24/7! What kind of increases in bills did people with similar/comparable setups get when they started folding? I suspect I would just be folding overnight to combat temps and noise (my gf works from home in the same room and would flip), but I'd like to get a rough idea of the worst case scenario.

Also, because I game and use photoshop, I do need all my gpu/cpu power at times, so how efficient is the client at getting out of the way of other tasks, or do you shut it down when you game for instance?

 

[Devrij]

that would be for cpu and gpu at the price, otherwise cpu alone wont add much

with cpu only , i used 14/15 pence i think? in 4 hours at night time , that was with cpu + gpu , plus what ever was on standby , fridgefreezer.

That sounds reasonable. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I may have to start contributing then. It seems a waste to have all this hardware that only gets used for my amusement when it could be put to meaningful use. And besides, I'm running out of excuses to upgrade my kit. If I'm folding/crunching I can say to my gf "you would deprive the world of a cure for cancer?!!!" when she asks why I'm upgrading my cpu.

I think I'll see how much electric I use on the meter in one week, and then I'll fold for a week and see what the difference is. If it's affordable then I guess I can start contributing £10/week would be too steep for me, but if I only fold with my cpu overnight then that should be noticeably less.