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How much power a computer consumes?

A

Avanti

Junior Member
With the electricity rates going up and global warming in mind, I often wonder how much net power does a computer really consumes.

For instance, I have an Antec 500W PS, Intel 6600 CPU, an ordinary video card, a couple of 120mm fans, and 3 HDD's. Am I really consuming 500 watts all the time because the PS is 500W one?

Also, what happens when the PC is idle or during stand by stage? I know each computer is different, but there must be some ball park numbers.
 
The computer will only consume as much power as it needs, so the PSU will draw that much plus the extra required due to efficiency loss.

As far as your computer's power consumption, it would depend on the exact components. Is that an E6600 or Q6600? What model video card; they can vary by 100W?

When idle the power consumption would drop depending on components and power saving features such as Speed Step or Cool & Quiet. Standby power would be very low.
 
also, PSUs are only about 75-90% efficient on 115v circuits, so 10-25% of the power drawn from the outlets is just turned into heat, air movement, noise and whatnot.
 
Graphics cards can vary hugely. You could check your card here if its listed

http://mark.zoomcities.com/images/gfx/GFXpowerchartbyidle.png

But why not get one of those gadgets with an lcd readout that plugs in between socket and the plug? Not sure how accurate they are but what surprised me when I used one was how much power some things including the PC use when turned 'off'. I now tend to unplug the PC after turning it off.
 
For reference.

I have a PC with similar specs, Q6600 @ 3.2GHz, GTX260, 2GB RAM, HD, DVD, couple 120mm fans. Pulls a little bit under 360W from the wall under full CPU and GPU load. That's about 290W load on the PSU at 80% efficiency. Running off an Enhance 500W PSU. At idle, the system is pulling closer to 130W or so.

The PSU rating is just its max output capability. Your 500W Antec could theoretically pull over 600W from the wall if it was at its absolute max output capacity. But you aren't anywhere near your max PSU capacity.

global warming.... whatever
 
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You don't have much choice when you are working on a power hungry system (like for video editing which I do a lot).

My question originated as I want to make an HTPC which can play Blu-ray and has an HDMI with 7.1 audio (not necessarily uncompressed audio as that changes the ball game) on it. No gaming, no RAID.

So, my instinct was to pick up a Mobo which has a good graphics chip and HDMI w/audio (and eSata, 1394). Or, get a low power consuming graphics card. This way I won't feel that guilty of having the system on a few hours a day.
 
I am trying to decide which size of a UPS to buy, so I have had my system and peripherals plugged into a Kill-A-Watt meter for the last day. For reference, this is what I have observed:

- Web and mail :160 -170 W with 20" LCD & 190 - 200 W with 24" LCD
- Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer with 24 LCD : 250 - 260 W with highest about 280 W
- System off 16W. The system itself is only 2 - 4 W, so the rest must be the modem and the printer cubes

i7 860 (stock settings), 4GB, Corsair 520W PSU, 300GB Velociptor, 74GB Raptor, 3 x 120mm case fans, 1 x 120mm CPU fan (all on low), Nvidia 8800GT (650MGz), Creative x-fi Gamer, Comcast internet/phone modem and two printers plugged-in but off.
 
Since they're fairly cheap just get a 1KVA one, the bigger it is, the longer it will last you when under load. I like to stay around 50% of my UPS's capacity. Batteries also last longer this way. Buying UPS batteries is like getting anally rapped in prison.
 
Avanti said:
So, my instinct was to pick up a Mobo which has a good graphics chip and HDMI w/audio (and eSata, 1394). Or, get a low power consuming graphics card. This way I won't feel that guilty of having the system on a few hours a day.
Click to expand...

If you are really concerned about power usage buy something like a western digital tv live. Plays all formats and has a USB connector for hard drives. Mine uses 12 watts including the external hard drive.

It will not play blu-ray though, but if they are ripped to a hard drive it can play them fine.
 
If you are considering an HTPC, a motherboard using an Intel Atom CPU and integrated graphics is an excellent idea. It will do Blu-ray and websurfing with ease and the entire thing can be run from a 60w-80w DC to DC converter. IIRC, the Zotac unit I tested consumes about 19w under load.
 
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