Operating Costs?

[lt_wentoncha]

Hi all,

I'm planning to build a DVR, the build I'm looking at runs on a 350w PSU. How do I determine the operating costs of letting it run 24/7? Thanks.

 

[dualsmp]

You would have to determine your idle power consumption which is a good baseline to calculate costs per year. A P3 kill-a-watt is a decent tool to determine idle consumption which costs around $20. You would also need to know what your energy costs per kwh in your region.

BTW, a 350w PSU is only the max DC rating. A PSU only draws as much power as necessary.

If you wanted an example lets say you idled at 60w, and you pay .12 cents per kwh. So...

((60w x 24hr x 365days)/1000) * .12 cents per kwh = $63.07 per year

 

[Cogman]

as dualsmp said, it depends entirely on the system that you build. Unless you are using high end graphics cards/cpus (why would you for a DVR?) it is going to be pretty cheap to run, expect probably around 100-120 W max for integrated graphics and a low power CPU.

 

[Modelworks]

I can tell you if power is your concern then nothing you build will be less than that of a consumer DVR, they can be as low as 30 watts.

 

[yh125d]

I can tell you if power is your concern then nothing you build will be less than that of a consumer DVR, they can be as low as 30 watts.

Atom DVR much?

 

[Modelworks]

Atom DVR much?

The Atom can't compete with chips designed for DVR when it comes to video in price or power consumption or capability.

Current dedicated DVR SoC's can process 2 x 1080P video streams with each having 7.1 HD audio and process the interface and all other functions on one chip and do it using under 5 watts.
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/uploads/documents/SMP8640_br.pdf