How much power does a high end computer draw?

[JonJ678]

To keep things remotely applicable to the everyday user, I'd like to restrict the question to above ambient cooling, one cpu, two graphics cards.

I'm reasoning about 200W for an i7, 150W per card, rest negligible. At a 80% efficient psu, that's (200+2x150)/0.8 = 625W from the wall at full load.

This site thinks my processor uses 300W, which I don't believe, and as far as I know it's about as good as online calculators get.

So, any ideas, measurements, or sources that might lead to the answer?

Also interested in any reasoning why you believe this figure will go up or down over the next couple of years.


Found a 280gtx review which disagrees with me: guru 3d.

Our test system contains a Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme Processor, the nForce 680i mainboard, a passive water-cooling solution on the CPU, DVD-rom and a WD Raptor drive. The results:

* PC in Idle = 197 Watt
* PC 100% usage (wattage gaming Peak) = 530 Watt (SLI)
* PC 100% usage (wattage gaming Peak) = 749 Watt (3-way SLI)

GTX 280 can consume up-to 237 Watts per card when 100% stressed

Found a source Here based on an es sample of an 920 that puts 3.8ghz, 1.5V at 311W.

Convincing article about processor power draw here. It's more complicated than taking the TDP value it seems.

 

[JonJ678]

Usually less than you think.
Only sure way is to get a power monitor £14.

Ah, but then I'd also need a high end computer, which I don't have and think would cost more than 14 quid

It tells you 130W at stock for a i7 920. You'd get 300W for just the processor if you enter it as running at 4.5ghz on 1.4V.

300W was 4.4ghz @ 1.45V which is what I was trying to get stable last week. Rule of thumb of 130 * (4400/2660)*(1.45/1,2)^2 suggests much the same figure so I daresay that's what it's based on, but that doesn't mean I believe it. For one thing there's the uncertainty associated with using the 130W TDP as a figure for power consumption.

Cheers for all the replies so far.

 

[JonJ678]

I fear this thread is going slightly offtrack. It doesn't matter what the online calculator says as we have no idea how reliable it is or what assumptions it's making to get to the final answer. So I'm not really interested in what a given piece of software thinks you need for a psu.


480W for i7 @ 4ghz and 5850 crossfire is a useful value, thanks RJC. Was this measured at the wall?

Good luck Stelly, definitely looking forward to that number. Did you really mean six 275s?

Cheers Blackwhite. What load was this under?

 

[JonJ678]

Will let you know, even though you said just 1 cpu. Will be worth checking out anyway and adding to the results

Actually this would be brilliant, I'd be interested in as much information as you could possibly offer on the configuration. Dual socket systems are rare but single socket common, so with some effort I can probably track down a single socket set up using mostly the same components as you, and the difference between the two then gives a reasonable gauge of what the processor is using by itself.

Of course it would be ideal for me if you tested, took out a cpu and retested, but that would be considerable effort on your part. I take it this is a stock speed xeon system?

 

[JonJ678]

That would be really good of you. I wish you luck with the cpu blocks, if they're restrictive types then feser was a brave choice. I found lots and lots of dye in my ek supreme after running feser for a few months.

I'm going to see if I can find one of these plug things in town tomorrow, though there's a chance I can borrow a current clamp so may give that a go as well. I'm using an i7 with two 8800s so can probably work out what it would use with neither card.

That's a very, very nice computer bobbydigital. Have you considered running folding@home on it? You'd produce many, many points each day.