How much power am I using in my new HTPC?

[DJMK4]

Iv set-up a HTPC with the following spec:

380W Energy Efficiant PSU
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H Mobo
AMD X2 (AM2) 4000+ 65w Energy Efficiant CPU
2GB GeIL PC2-6400 RAM
80GB Seagate SATA
500GB Samsung F1
DVD-RW Drive
Dual Tuner TV Card

Its a media box/TV/Download box which will be on most of the time, however I am very concious that its going to be sucking up a lot of energy. To put my mind at rest, can anybody compare the running costs of this with other electrical items running most of the time?

 

[DJMK4]

Ill have to find out how much ill be paying per 1kw, bearing in mind this machine will NOT be on 24/7, but probably about 60% of a normal day.

 

[DJMK4]

You could use standby and/or hibernate also. This would allow you to pick up where you left off quickly with either little or no power while it's not in use.

Hmm, does this save a lot of power then? I was thinking of using a feature like this anyway, especially when I want to schedule a recording on TV as I was wondering how this would be possible? You cant wake the PC from when its powered off, so hibernation/standyby mode would be best to use?

 

[DJMK4]

Hibernation basically dumps the RAM to HDD and powers off, so there anit any power needed like standby. When you power on the HDD is placed in the RAM which effectly means you can pick up where you left off real easy and quick.

I've never used a TV card or scheduled recording but if standby works then I'd use that. I'm sure my older HTPC used to be able to auto itself on from being off though.

Or standby after 1 hour of not being used? and hibe' when it doesn't need staying on?

Ill have a look at the different options, what I want really is for the ability to either turn off the machine when not being used either by a full power off or by hibernation or something called "S3" which iv also heard of, but then I want the ability to "Wake" the machine when a scheduled TV recording is approaching.

Ill have to do some googling I think.

 

[DJMK4]

you can always set your computer to turn on at a set time each day in your BIOS. well you can with most. S3 is needed for hibenation to work. I think its a setting in your BIOS that preforms the feature.

Is it possible to get it to boot into hibernation/suspend mode?

also, what is the most energy efficiant way of tackling this problem (being energy concious and having the need to programme recorded tv schedules?)

Also, as this is a download box, does anyone know if this machine (if in hibernation/suspend) can be woken by a PCAnywhere remote connection?