lowering my power consumption

[VirtualLarry]

Yes, I've started several build threads in the past, referencing my power consumption woes.

I like to do Distributed Computing, it pleases me, but that puts a maximum load on CPUs and graphics cards, and that tends to use a bit of electricity.

I have two Kill-A-Watt meters at my disposal, so I can check my computers and whatnot as to their power draw.

I have a number of systems:
1) main quad-core rig
Q9300 @ 3.0
P35-DS3R v1.0 mobo
4x2GB DDR2-800
GTX460 1GB OC (715Mhz) WindForce card
90GB OCZ Agility 2 SSD
Power: 150W max CPU load, GPU idle. 250-260W max CPU load, max GPU load. 90W idle. I leave this running 24/7, doing DC.

Connected to a 26" LCD monitor.
Power: 63-65W. (Monitor set to power-off after 10 minutes of idle.)

2) secondary quad-core rig
Q9300 @ 3.0
P35-DS3R v1.0 mobo
4x2GB DDR2-800
VisionTek HD4850 512MB PCI-E card
30GB Agility SSD
500GB WD HD
Power: Well, haven't checked this one specifically, it runs MW@Home on CPU and GPU. GPU full load should be same as above. Unsure how much a HD4850 takes in terms of power. It probably runs at 50-60% GPU load, running the DC app. I leave this running 24/7.

Connected to identical 26" LCD monitor.
Power: 63-65W.

3) low-power rig
E-350 CPU
2x4GB DDR3-1066
30GB Agility SSD
500GB WD HD
Power: I think I've checked this, and it's around 35W idle, 50W full load. Could be wrong, but I think those are close. Could probably shave 5W off, removing the HD that I never use. I leave this running 24/7.

Connected to Hanns-G 25" LCD
Power: Haven't checked. Monitor set to turn off after 3 minutes. Rarely use this rig, although I run DC on it.

4) HTPC
AMD BE-2400 (2350?)
Foxconn 780G mobo
2GB DDR2-800
1TB WD Green HD
Power: Just checked this, runs 48-50W running Windows 7 64-bit with internet radio running in the background. Goes up to 65W or so when booting, or when browsing the internet. Yes, I have Cool'N'Quiet enabled. Not currently doing DC on this rig, gets too warm. I leave this running 24/7.

Connected to older 32" Westinghouse LCD TV
Power: 118-120W, depending on how white or dark the screen is. Have the screen set to power-off after a while. Generally only on when I'm listening to the radio.

I also have a 12000 BTU A/C running all the time, set at 70F.

I also have a couple of fans running.

I also have several lights that I leave on, but they are fluorescent/energy saver bulbs.

My electric bill last month was $140+. I pay around $0.15 per KWh, after all of the various charges. That's over 900KWh of electricity.

What exactly can/should I do to curb my electricity costs, while at the same time, providing for a little distributed-computing fun?

Would updating all of my rigs to Ivy Bridge save enough power to be worth it?

Or is the A/C the biggest consumer of power in my apt, and changing computer rigs out would be unlikely to curb my power bill?

I multiplied out the power costs of my computers alone, and it seems that they are responsible for $32-$55 worth of power per month.

 

[MontyAC]

Your AC is the big problem. Try upping the temp to 75 to 78 and see how the bill is next month.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Our household uses 3Kw/h a day. Or less than 100Kw/h a month. We could almost live on what you use a month for an entire year. And we got 4 PCs and everything a hightech household got.

I agree on the AC. And stop doing cruching 24/7. Not only do you use pwoer for it, but your AC also have to run more. And then use energy saving blubs when possible. Upgrade appliances to A+++ ratings. For example a bad/old fridge can easily use 100Kw/h a month instead of 5 to 10Kw/h.

Also get a thermal cam to check your house to see where you can do extra insulation to avoid cold/heat vent. Both in summer and winter. American houses are...well...

 

[Ken g6]

I suggest you ditch the AMD BE-2400 rig (Athlon64?!), take the HDD out of it, put it in the AMD E-350 rig, and make that your HTPC. That's what the E-350 was designed for, after all. Unless you're running Netflix or something, although I'd be surprised if the Athlon64 could handle that either.

Your 4850 has a TDP of 114W. Your 460 has a TDP of 150W, at least. Newer cards use much less power for the same computational power - but they have similar TDPs. A 660ti also has a 150W TDP!

I also once found a 22W 27" monitor - and no, I didn't get those numbers backwards!

 

[bononos]

You want to save money but have 4 pcs running DC and internet radio 24x7. Cut it down to 2 pcs, run internet radio on 1 of them and turn them off at night. You'd probably save on a/c costs just by doing that. Then you can cut down on a/c by using fans (floorstander/ceiling/table whatever) and opening the windows most of the time assuming you're not in a hot climate most of the year.

 

[piasabird]

Besides the Air Conditioning, a Refrigerator also uses a lot of power. One could say that the worst place for the refrigerator is in the kitchen and even worse is putting it next to the stove. Then there are also other things like a water heater, and a Dryer. You could also install thermal windows, get more efficient doors, increase the insulation etc.

I think my two worse areas in the house are the kitchen which heats up horribly, and how the sun heats up my attic. When I redid the roof I put in a few extra attic vents. It helped a little but I may consider forced airflow in the attic. Plus I still have the old single pane wood frame windows. I was thinking of replacing the window next.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

6xx / 7xxx series GPUs are just way more power efficient. It's time for an upgrade.

If you have a 3.5" HDD, replace it with a 2.5". (10-15w vs. 2-3w.)

You shouldn't be using CPUs for DC. They're just not efficient enough to bother. (PPD vs. watts used) And the efficiency factor goes way down when you overclock, because of the overvolting you usually have to do.

I would probably part out your C2Q rigs and get a single G620 based rig with multiple GPUs. That way you're not doubling up on power use from motherboard, idle HDs, etc.

Then just install and dedicate one GPU to each of the projects you want to contribute to (which will in turn dictate your GPU choice.) On the ATI side, a 7750 will flog your 4850 and use about 50w. If you're doing F@H, though, nVidia is still the way to go. A 650 Ti or 660 Ti would be nice (although the 650 Ti has been announced it's not available yet.)

Second the "75F is fine" idea too. Although you should probably move the thermostat to the room with the computers, since that's the room you want to keep at that temp. (We have a thermostat downstairs, computers upstairs. Set thermostat to 70F, computer rooms are still 85F after a long gaming session, housemate freaks out because the electricity bill is going to be huge and the living room is 68 degrees.)

 

[Ken g6]

You shouldn't be using CPUs for DC. They're just not efficient enough to bother. (PPD vs. watts used)

Some people like to do specific types of DC. Some projects don't have GPU apps.

On the other hand, you shouldn't be doing MW@H on the CPU unless you really want to run the N-Body Simulation application.

 

[lakedude]

Turn that crap off in the Summer! Once my electric starts getting around $200 the crunch boxes get cut off.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just got my electric bill. $220!

It's not like I have been doing anything different than past months, really. In fact, I stopped crunching on my GPU on my main rig. (From 260W to 150W.)

Edit: Must have been my A/C.

I recently cleaned it, the filter was clogged pretty good, and I've had my bedroom window open about a foot and a half for some fresh air. The A/C is in the living room, near the PCs.

 

[ShintaiDK]

And AC?

 

[Blain]

Yes, I've started several build threads in the past, referencing my power consumption woes.

I like to do Distributed Computing, it pleases me, but that puts a maximum load on CPUs and graphics cards, and that tends to use a bit of electricity.

My electric bill last month was $140+. I pay around $0.15 per KWh, after all of the various charges. That's over 900KWh of electricity.

What exactly can/should I do to curb my electricity costs, while at the same time, providing for a little distributed-computing fun?

I just got my electric bill. $220!

Your bills are taking the "fun" out of your DC.
Stop your DC addiction, sell off two or three of your clunk systems, buy some CFL's, enjoy your cooler apartment.


Problem Solved!

 

[greenhawk]

if thinking that 5W from removing a drive is worth it, then I would seriously be thinking of turning off the lights when not needed as they use about the same amount of power (for the smaller lights), but then the larger lights can use double that.

Next, while cool keeps the hardware healthy, it does not help the bill, so allowing it to increase is a good idea.

Depending on where you live, it can even be better again to place the computers into a unused room, close it off from the air con, and open a window. Remove cooling from it totally.

Even opening a window each night instead of using the aircon would work to some extent, but doing it each night will become tiresome when you work out it might only save you 30c per day.

Another area is the overclocked and Ti video cards. Removing any over volts used to get a stable overclock is extra power for reduced gain. Of course, if you want to go that far down, you would be better off looking into each DC setup and finding out what hardware results in the best performance per watt and head down that path. Like bitcoin mining, using dedicated hardware and not PC hardware can work out better on a watt per work unit format.

Best solution would be to see which of the cloud computing services you can get your DC programs to run on, then pay them money to do the processing and get rid of your extra computers. If you saved $20 per month in power bills, that same money might get more work units completed on a cloud computing setup than your own setup could obtain.

Next option would still revolve around the working out what would be needed to replace all the old PC's with one good current one.

 

[VirtualLarry]

So I kind of decided today to replace my main rig... with... another E-350 rig.
I wanted to have at least two desktops (plus my HTPC, which only takes 50W).

So I ordered:

Ranger-M mATX case $29.99 FS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147122

GIGABYTE GA-E350N AMD E-350D APU AMD A45 FCH Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo $59.99 FS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128561

Going to re-use (get this!), a PSU that I pulled out of an iMicro case. Well, until I can get a better-quality low-wattage unit.

I figured that with the low power draw of this PC, it probably doesn't have much danger of popping the PSU.

I'm still thinking over that option, it might not be totally wise.

I do have a VP-450 in storage, but that seemed like overkill for this build.

Does anyone know of any good 150W PSUs that are quality?

(Should have gotten in on those $1 CoolerMaster PSUs. WiredNuts, want to sell me one?)

Oh, and I have plenty of stock of DDR3-1333 RAM, DVD burners, SSDs, etc.

 

[Paperlantern]

See I've got older hardware too as well as a semi newish DL320 G5 as a virtual host. Well, it's newer than my main FTP/file/print server from like 2005 sucking sown like 140 watts. I'm in the process of offloading what it does onto a virtual machine on the host that runs already. Between the virtual host, the physical server, all my telco and networking, I'm buzzing about 275 watts. Once I drop that physical machine I'll be down to about 135 watts putting much of my storage on a Drobo NAS. So I wish you luck in your quest for lower power consumption. I am in te same boat currently.

 

[bug2k12]

I'm in the same boat, trying to cut down the power usage of all the systems I have around the house. Recently removed an old server running SBS2003 which used around 140w idling, replaced with one of these Raspberry Pi, runs my email and web server fine and only draws a couple of watts.