Puter uses 160 W at idle!! How do I reduce that??

[BDSM]

Yeah.. that's a lot!! Too much since energy is getting more and more expensive here in Sweden. At max load it uses 220W and with the screen it's about 280!!

Anyway.. I know my processor uses a lot (tbred @ 2.43 Ghz) BUT.. I read somewhere that some PSU's can reduce the used power somehow. I have a chieftec 360W unit now.

So my question is.. could I reduce the power consumption by isntalling a higher quality psu with active pfc and if so by how much?

Thanx!

 

[Cerb]

Fortron.
http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20030609/power_supplies-12.html
The 350 and 400w have shown to be extremely efficient, and likely the 300w is, too. What are you running aside from that TBred? Chances are the 350w Fortron would be more than enough, in any case (220 from the wall does not mean your PC is pulling even 180 internally).
How much? Well, not sure over on that side of the pond. About $40 over here in the US, so not much more than that 1700+ CPU.

 

[BG4533]

Did you calculate this with some sort of gauge like a KillAWatt or did you estimate it using some online formulas? If you estimated it, do not put too much weight on it, the estimates are usually pretty high. Anyways, no matter what a more effecient PSU will decrease your power consumption, but even a couple watts drawn continuously does not add up to that much even over the course of the year.

Brian

 

[BDSM]

Hey there both of ya!

I used a device that you just plug into the wall and that measures volts, amps, wattage.. and kw/h.. and it can even calculate what it will cost ya.. at different hourly rates even!.. Very nice and it was only 245 sek (30 bucks).

Anyway.. Thanx for the link to thg. I will study it after I type this in.

My main concern isn't heat inside the comp or anything like that. My concern is the power consumption because electricity is becoming more and more expensive here in Sweden (due to som morons pulling the plug on our fine nuke plants without anything to replace them).

So.. I am trying to save energy somehow.

Anyone have any theories on how to conserve power?..

My processor can't use more than maybe 80 watts or something, right?.. Plus maybe 15 for the gfx card (9000 pro @ default) plus 8 for the hdd.. So.. where does all those watts go?. 103/220=47% efficiency which is really low!

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[BDSM]

Hey there again.. browsed the article at thg.. it seems the best psu there beats the unit I have (actually I have a smaller model but at least it's the same brand) by 6%.. So it would taje years before such an upgrade woule pay off. So.. . I guess I'll just have to pay up.

 

[0roo0roo]

i somehow think that any slight improvement in efficiency with new parts/psu etc will cost more then the energy saved

if u fear the power costs, get a laptop centrinos use very little. no centrino tech for the pc though. would be nice if the cpu and gpu could scale their clock speeds on demand

 

[BG4533]

Things like memory, pci cards, fans, optical drives and everything else use power too. I individually these are not sigificant, but it does add up. I think the only way to save money will be to turn off your computer. There are plenty of things you could do, like a laptop or a low valtage processor like a VIA, but all will cost more than years of extra power usage.

 

[Jeff7181]

Maybe consider an LCD monitor too... they use lots less power than a CRT.

 

[BDSM]

Hey Jeff. .yeah. next monitor will be an lcd if I can afford it.

I'm gonna try to run my cpu @ stock speeds and voltages and see if it makes much of a difference. I won't keep it there though.

It would indeed be nice if desktop chips also had some powersaving built into them.. It would be really cool if the cpu could be throttled down during the night time when I only keep it on for downloads and perhaps some music.. Don't need 2.4 ghz for that. 200 mhz would do fine. It's really weird that we don't have that kinda features already isn't it?

If I buy a 1700+ today for around 75 dollars and use it for 2 years it will have "consumed" it's own weight in electricity more than seven times at the current rate we have here. Ofcourse that is assuming I overclock as much as I do.. But.. anyway.. I think ppl ahve no idea how much this really cost.. And I believe energy is even more expensive on the continent and in the US... hmmm I wondewr why we don't have "speed step" on our desktop processors!

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I think that something to lower/increase cpu speed could be done by raising and upping the FSB on the mobo's side if they wanted to. That would be kind of nice because then less heat for everyone! And lower energy bills!

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Maybe consider an LCD monitor too... they use lots less power than a CRT.

the price difference would probably pay for years of electricity

 

[GAZZA]

LOL I was thinking the exact same thing

 

[Thump553]

What operating system and bios do you have? I (theoretically) have all sorts of powersaving options under Win2k and an Award bios. I don't use them because I frequently would have trouble waking the computer up from its slumber state, but it is available.

 

[BDSM]

Hey there Thump, 0roo0roo.. and the rest!

I have a pretty new monitor now so I won't be buyign a new one for a few years.. maybe By then the prices on lcd screens will prolly be lower than for crt.

Yes there are powersaving stuffs.. I could use them.. turn off the harddrive etc. But then my highly illegal filesharing programs wouldn't run so well. What I would like to haved is powersaving mode for the cpu. Like I said earlier.. No need for 2.4 ghz when just dling files.. 200 mhz would run perfectly.. and also generate much less heat which in turn would let me spin down the fans to almost zero... Well.at 200 mhz passive cooling would most likely work. I would think the Athlon wouldn't require much power at all to run at that frequency.

 

[GAZZA]

You could always underclock your cpu and reduce the voltage to not only the cpu but also your fans as you also suggested, what about using rain or one of the other cpu idle programs ?
I'm glad I don't live in Sweden with my pc running 5 hd's( one of them 10krpm scsi) 2 optical drives, tbred plenty of case fans and a 520W psu as well as a 19" monitor !

 

[BDSM]

-- Well.. it's not that energy is very expensive here compared to other countries.. On the contrary.. It's just that I'm trying to save money.

I don't wanna underclock the cpu manually because then I'd have to restart the puter just to get it up again.. which would suck. I want it to happen automatically. SOmething like the speed step technology or something liek that.

 

[AntecCSR]

Check to see if you get a discount (or rebate) from your power company for using a PFC (Power Factor Correction) power supply.

Then make sure your PSU has PFC (active is better then passive from what I've been told).

Most PSU's sold in Europe have PFC since the EC made it a requirment (2 years ago?).

AntecCSR

 

[BDSM]

Hey Antec! I could get a discount for pfc?.. Why?

 

[Thump553]

Running a program like cpulidle or rain should help cut down your cpu usage when idle. Whether it makes enough difference to show on the power bill-who knows? In any event, they will help cut down heat and preserve the life of your system.

 

[BDSM]

Thump.. thanx for the tip..gonna try it!

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
i somehow think that any slight improvement in efficiency with new parts/psu etc will cost more then the energy saved

if u fear the power costs, get a laptop centrinos use very little. no centrino tech for the pc though. would be nice if the cpu and gpu could scale their clock speeds on demand

In my limited experience, those "autoscaling" clock speed things like to scale back at the wrong times, like if there's too much work, then it'll slow down to reduce heat production. They built my work mentality into the hardware! Oops.

Originally posted by: BDSM
Hey there Thump, 0roo0roo.. and the rest!

I have a pretty new monitor now so I won't be buyign a new one for a few years.. maybe By then the prices on lcd screens will prolly be lower than for crt.

Yes there are powersaving stuffs.. I could use them.. turn off the harddrive etc. But then my highly illegal filesharing programs wouldn't run so well. What I would like to haved is powersaving mode for the cpu. Like I said earlier.. No need for 2.4 ghz when just dling files.. 200 mhz would run perfectly.. and also generate much less heat which in turn would let me spin down the fans to almost zero... Well.at 200 mhz passive cooling would most likely work. I would think the Athlon wouldn't require much power at all to run at that frequency.

So, your PC isn't actually idle then. The hard drive(s) are busy doing stuff, as is the chipset and RAM, and limited use of the CPU. I don't know how much a CPU uses though if it's mostly idle.
While the thing is "sharing" over the Internet, open up taskmanager (Win2k/XP) and see what your CPU utilization actually is.

Other options that come to mind: LOTS of RAM, and load the shared files into it, if they'll fit. Then the hard drive can power down.

Or, put together a small PC using old components, and use it just for filesharing, nothing else.

Or, install solar panels on the roof to help with the electric bill.

 

[Zepper]

Yes, a higher efficiency PSU with active PFC can save power over time (all the PSUs in Tom's review have active PFC, I'm beginning to wonder if that's not required in Europe) even so there was quite a variance in efficiency - anything over 70% is improbable.
. The best power saver is to turn all your equipment off when not in use.
.bh.
:sun: !

 

[MDE]

I'd say turn off your speakers (can be a big power use) monitor. More expensive solutions could be a cd-rw\dvd combo drive, LCD monitor, laptop, one big, slow hard drive, efficient PSU.

I'd say the best soultion would be a small ~500 MHz machine with a small drive and periodically dump the drive to your main machine over a network could be cheap and wouldn't require all that much power. Heck, maybe even a secondhand laptop could fit the bill.

EDIT: a rheobus could help as well (not that much, I know) but, less noise and less power, always a plus

 

[BDSM]

Hey there Monkyeman

I use speedfan. mucho better than any manual fan adjustment.. and it's free
I'm not sure what to do exactly cuz I luv having my puter up and running at all times.
I'm not sure a lap top would work well cuz they aren't designed to run 24/7.
Hopefully someone will realise computer are drawing more and more power and that soemthing has 2 b done about it.

 

[Zepper]

Actually in a properly functioning market economy, power companies would be continually finding cheaper and more efficient ways to supply all the power you miight need at an affordable price.
But in today's "socialist utopias" (an oxymoron if there ever was one), that's just a pipe dream. So you're SOL...
.bh.