Desktop power consumption

zilog_jones

I got a loan of one of those mains power meter thingys, so decided to see how much power my PC is actually consuming. I thought this might be of interest to others as not a lot of people have the facilities to measure power consumption, and with a home-built PC you don't get any manufacturer's specs. Might be especially of interest to fellow folders concerned about their ESB bills

Here's my specs first:
Core 2 Duo E6300 (Conroe)
MSI 975X Platinum motherboard
2x512MB PC2-4300 DDR2 RAM (generic)
320GB WD Caviar SE16 HDD
GeForce 7600GT 256MB
Tagan 2force 480W PSU
Netgear WG311T Wireless NIC

- Idle (in Windows XP): 100W (146VA, .64A)
- Normal usage: 100-120W
- High CPU & RAM load (using Orthos): 130W
- Running Folding@Home on one core (5.04 console): 115W
- Running 3dMark06: Around 135W, peaking occasionally at 138W (running GeoForms on max settings did about the same)
- Off: 7W

I didn't think of trying a CD/DVD at time, or trying standby come to think of it

Surprising to see that it's nowhere near the max. 480W my PSU can take (480W continuous, 580W peak for 30 sec. according to specs). It could definately take a lot more hardware, though I dunno about the latest top-of-the range graphics cards.

I know my system isn't state-of-the-art stuff, but all desktop Core 2 Duos have the same TDP (Thermal Design Power) so I guess power consumption wouldn't be that much different. Only when you go up to Quads or the Extreme do things increase.

And, my monitor - a Dell P991 Trinitron (19" CRT):

- Normal operation (1280x1024 @ 85Hz): Around 91W (It seems to go down at lower resolutions)
I also noticed power consumption increased with brightness:
- Completely white screen: 111W
- Black screen: 85W
- Suspend: 8W
- Off: 0W

I noticed consumption went down generally by about 5W after it had warmed up properly (above figures are post-warmup), and peaked at around 600W (poss higher) for a split second when first switching on - which would explain why the lights dim

These all correspond pretty well to Dell's specifications (here), though I never saw anything as low as 50W (maybe a black screen in 320x200 CGA mode?).

Also, my external HDD (300GB Maxtor OneTouch III):

- Peaks at about 30W when spinning up
- Normal use/idle: 11-12W
- High load: 14-15W

And finally, for sound I use the line-in on my Sony CMT-CPX11 hi-fi:

- Normal: 11-12W
- Playing a CD: 13-14W (peaks at 16W when spinning up)
- Off: 0W approx. (using "Power Saving Mode", which turns off the screen)

This was very surprising, as the manual states 50W. Power consumption didn't seem to increase even on max volume.

So, in conclusion I'm happy to see that half the lights in our kitchen (4 of 8 50W halogen bulbs) waste nearly as much power as my 'puter

PogMoThoin

Cheers for that, just showed it the missis, gives my head some peace for havin a server and a gamin pc on 24/7.

bandit197

Thanks for this....I always thought power consumption was higher.

311

I posted about this a couple of weeks ago ,thanks to some replies I managed to get a device from amazon for less than 20euro

Well worth it ,to find out whats what.

My htpc runs at less than 80watts:)

10-10-20

In our lab we have a rack using 3000W, running 24x7. It has 8 servers and a good few hard drives!
There are 17 other racks of a similar configuration in the room. The total for the room comes to 64,000KW, including cooling!

zilog_jones

I tested my other two PCs:

Pentium III 933MHz (Coppermine)
512MB PC133 SDRAM
Some auld Gigabyte motherboard (Via Apollo Pro)
80GB Seagate HDD
USB 2.0 PCI card (my last upgrade lol)
GeForce 2 Ti 64MB
1x CD burner, 1x DVD-ROM drive
PCI NIC

Does about 80-85W on full CPU/RAM load

Also, a Compaq Deskpro EX:

Pentium III 933MHz (Coppermine)
512MB PC133 SDRAM
Intel 815 chipset (with onboard graphics)
2x 40GB HDDs
PCI NIC

This, despite being very similar hardware only draws about 60W on full load. I guess it's the lack of a real graphics card and some other extra junk (I only use it for downloading/folding so it's not connected to a monitor or anything).