How many Watts do you really use?

PiKe said:
We have 6-7-800watt power supplies but do we really need them? I'm working on a Quad Q6600 with 5 hard drives and a 7100GS graphics card and at idle it's using 162 Watts, when the CPU is 100% loaded it uses only 60 watts more.

What do your PC's typically use if you have any way to measure them?
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Mine uses about 600w totally loaded, I have a 1000w supply.
 
My Spec first.

E8400 @ 3000 stock, 8800GTX @ 600, 3 HDD, 1 DVD-RW, 4 120mm Fans, Seasonic S12 600 PSU

Wattage draw from the wall

Idle 179-184w (intel power saving crap off)
157w assuming 85% effic

playing WOW: 235-245w (CPU capped)
209w assuming 85% effic

FurMark 1680x1050 MSAA: 16X: 308-315w
268w assuming 85% effic.
 
According to the Antec calculator I need a 338watt PSU. I currently use a 480watt
 
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my wattage is calculated by my zalman fan controlle, so its measured before it goes into the back of the PC (pass through thing with a usb connector on it). I have a Tagan 1.3Kw PSU, and its rated at 85% at something like 80% load. iirc it doesnt go below 80% efficency as long as its under like 20% load (i could be remembering a different PSU though lol)

It is only 2 295's, making 4 gpus so its quad sli.

[email protected], I could, but i dont leave my PC on all day anymore and i tend to be using it when i ahve it on, unless im just using it to stream media around my house.
Plus, you only want me to make your score higher :P

I suppose i could do it overnight as i often leave it on then, dont relly want to be using 700w all night though, since its double the normal amount :P
 
Don't forget the 1kw psu's tend to be the mose efficient at 50% load plus the fan will be very quiet plus you have future proofing to boot.

This is what I noticed with my OCZ 1000W psu. I knew I didn;t need it when I bought it. My 4 year old Tagan 480W had served me well but couldn't run my current rig. I plan to keep my curent psu for 4 years plus again. It is super quiet with the fan hardly turning and at the peak of it's efficiency with the power I am drawing. It has a single rail so all current graphics cards and future ones should be happy.

Also don't forget psu's degrade approx 10% per year so a 1000W psu today might onl be 600w-700w in 5 years.
 
yea it does warm up the room slightly, although it doesnt do it nearly as much as it used to do (pre water), now all the air coming out of it feels "cold" (i know its not really cold, it sjust the motion but meh)
 
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