Which part of my System is the Power hog ?

[Buckster]

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 ?

 

[Buckster]

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