Which part of my System is the Power hog ?

Buckster · 29 Oct 2008 at 17:58

I did have 2 PCs - HTPC one and Desktop PC

HTPC specs 3.8 gig E8500, 2 gig RAM, 640gb HDD, 750gb HDD, ATI 3650 GFX

Desktop PC, 3.4 gig Q6600, 4 gig RAM, 1 x 150gb Raptor, 2x500gb HDD, 8800GTX

difference in power consumption at the plug is enormous !!

HTPC = 95W idle, and 145W load (CPU full load)

Desktop PC = 250W idle, and 370W load

I know the Q6600s use a lot of juice, but even down to 3.0 gig at under stock volts it was still about 200W load

is the GFX the culprit ? must be using like 100W idle ? eek

presumably none of the current range of equivalent cards are any better ?

pastymuncher · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:03

It's mainly a combination of the Q6600 and the GTX. Q6600's are very power hungry. It's was one of the reasons that i got rid of mine. Also, see here for a good guide to GPU power draw. Post #4.

fobose · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:10

Forgive me but why have you overclocked a E8500 in a HTPC for?

Buckster · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:13

for fun

3.9 gig passive, at 3.6 gig passive, after 8 hours of Prime95 CPU was at 47C Realtemp

sold it though

wasn't family friendly so went to a PS3

interestingly even in desktop etc the E8500 non-overclocked felt far snappier than the 2180 @ 3.0 gig ...

pastymuncher - thanks -what did you go for afterwards ?

it annoyed me that even dropping to 3.0 gig, and even down to 2.8 gig, only made say 40W difference max

EsaT · 29 Oct 2008 at 19:35

G80 based 8800GTX is absolutely sh*tty (like about all high end cards of latest years) when it comes to idling:
Consumption when doing nothing is 70W!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/radeon-hd3870-hd3850_13.html#sect0

Now if you're using Vista it probably can't go even to that "consumes more power than most CPUs under load"-mode.
Also Q6600 is old 65nm CPU, at default settings it's quite good because of power efficient design and good power saving modes but you probably disabled those when overclocking and any kind overvolting increases power consumption very fast.

Ati's 3800 serie had very good idle/2D consumption but also they have now power wasting design.
Unless someone takes shotgun and puts decision makers of these crap design comparines against wall it looks like Intel's Larrabee might be only hope for graphic card which actually idles.