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What is the power cost of overclocking?

T

TeamMyk

Junior Member
I'm pretty new to overclocking and I'm considering overclocking my next system. My goal for overclocking is to buy a mid range cpu and get high end performance. The solutions I was considering were air, water, cooled liquid and phase change. Basically the more complex, the more money, the more benefit.

I began to think that these solutions may have a hidden cost associated with them. They consume additional power to operate. If I change my system every two years and the system is essentaily running 24 hours a day.

What is the power consumption for this solution and what is the cost over a two year period?

I'm sure this question has been asked before and the power consumption stats and someone has a quick answer.

Thanks in advance.
 
Quick answer, not much. Assuming your CPU were to be running at full load 24/7 and it is designed to draw 100W of power, let's say you overvolted by 25% and due to increased operating speed it drew 40% more power in total (unlikely but it's an easy assumption to make). Now, add in a bit of power loss in the PSU (let's say it's a 75% efficent PSU) that brings the additional power draw up to around 55W.

Every day you'd be drawing 1.3KWh more. In the uk that would cost around 10p i don't know what your electricity prices are like. In a year you'd be looking at around £36 more. (somewhere between $50-$75 very roughly).

Now, unless you're folding at home then it won't be running at full power all year round, if it's running at less than full load then the power draw will fall, if you have cool n quiet enabled (or the OC friendly alternative who's name i forget) then the power draw will be much, much less.
 
Thats just for the CPU? Whats the average draw for a cooling solution? Water, cooled or refridgerated?
 
A few watts for air, water cooling is whatever your pump runs [miniscule, to say the least
Nominal power: 8W, for a D5....]

Pretty much nothing.

Point being, unless you spend ~80 dollars on a processor and only overclock it 10% for a 20% voltage increase, you're getting more than your money back.

Just add ~10% to your electricity bill for your computer. Considering a ~20% peformance increase for most chips will set you back 500 bucks, it's irrelevant.

[I say 10% because you're probably not overvolting the GPU at all, only the CPU.. and an extra 20 watts is reasonable, assuming it's a 90W chip, 25% is only 22.5W.. almost nothing.]

--Trevor
 
The long-term costs are the same as they would be if you had bought a CPU that ran at the same speed without being overclocked. 😉
 
Originally posted by: TeamMyk
I'm pretty new to overclocking and I'm considering overclocking my next system. My goal for overclocking is to buy a mid range cpu and get high end performance. The solutions I was considering were air, water, cooled liquid and phase change. Basically the more complex, the more money, the more benefit.

I began to think that these solutions may have a hidden cost associated with them. They consume additional power to operate. If I change my system every two years and the system is essentaily running 24 hours a day.

What is the power consumption for this solution and what is the cost over a two year period?

I'm sure this question has been asked before and the power consumption stats and someone has a quick answer.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

uhhh... before you decide to go into the more advance cooling, id suggest you first learn to watercool, then once u got that down, you can always jump to TEC.

Once u get into the extreme cooling like a 226W TEC system and phase, things get a lot more difficult with minimum gain. They say watercooling can unlock your cpu about 80% of its potental, and the extremecooling gives u that 20% or so remainder.

Not to mention TEC and phase are extremely expensive to maintain per year basis!!!

If your asking me, watercooling doesnt draw that much more power then if you were air cooling. Maybe a tad bit more due to the extra fan on rads and the power from pump. I have been on watercooling for some time now and im still worried about taking the jump to TEC and phase. Reason is condensation is a BIYATCH and if you dont coat things or insulate things very well, your gonna have a nice batch of fireworks sitting on your desk when something shorts out
 
TECs are ridiculously expensive. Running a single 226W TEC is the equivalent of running TWO overclocked 165s 24/7.

I was looking into running one for my GPU and CPU, but decided it simply wasn't worth it.


Also, @ Howard;

How is a 10% increase in electricity [Assuming a CPU is run 24/7, 90W unoverclocked, 110 when overclocked..] equal to a doubling of the CPU cost?

A standard CPU (90W) running 24/7:
.090kw/hr*24hr/day*365days*year * .10cents/kwhr=78.84dollars

110W:
.110*24*365*.10=96.36
That's with a near 20% voltage increase. [1.5 vs 1.4 = ~7% increase.]

Now.. 100-80 = 20 dollars/year. Assuming you run the chip 3 years Howard, that's only 60 dollars.

So, I buy a 300 dollar chip and make it run as fast as a 1000 dollar chip for 3 years, costing me 300+60 = 360 < 1000. This is assuming it is running FULL LOAD 24/7.

Also, while I'm doing the math, might as well bring Peltiers in..

A SINGLE 226W Peltier [which runs 24/7 full load :|]
.226*24*365*.10=197.97 dollars/year.
Almost 200 dollars for cooling JUST your CPU.

Not counting inefficiencies, mind you.
If you run one for your GPU, one for your CPU.. that number doubles.

With peltier cooling, if you keep the chip for 3 years.. that's 600 dollars on TOP of the chip you had. So, 200x3+300=900, vs. 1000.

Still less than the 1K chip, but between the power inefficiency, I'd say you'd end up spending more.

And I personally don't think the extra 20% gained by Peltier cooling is worth it.

--Trevor


 
Originally posted by: TrevorRC
TECs are ridiculously expensive. Running a single 226W TEC is the equivalent of running TWO overclocked 165s 24/7.

I was looking into running one for my GPU and CPU, but decided it simply wasn't worth it.


Also, @ Howard;

How is a 10% increase in electricity [Assuming a CPU is run 24/7, 90W unoverclocked, 110 when overclocked..] equal to a doubling of the CPU cost?

A standard CPU (90W) running 24/7:
.090kw/hr*24hr/day*365days*year * .10cents/kwhr=78.84dollars

110W:
.110*24*365*.10=96.36
That's with a near 20% voltage increase. [1.5 vs 1.4 = ~7% increase.]

Now.. 100-80 = 20 dollars/year. Assuming you run the chip 3 years Howard, that's only 60 dollars.

So, I buy a 300 dollar chip and make it run as fast as a 1000 dollar chip for 3 years, costing me 300+60 = 360 < 1000. This is assuming it is running FULL LOAD 24/7.

Also, while I'm doing the math, might as well bring Peltiers in..

A SINGLE 226W Peltier [which runs 24/7 full load :|]
.226*24*365*.10=197.97 dollars/year.
Almost 200 dollars for cooling JUST your CPU.

Not counting inefficiencies, mind you.
If you run one for your GPU, one for your CPU.. that number doubles.

With peltier cooling, if you keep the chip for 3 years.. that's 600 dollars on TOP of the chip you had. So, 200x3+300=900, vs. 1000.

Still less than the 1K chip, but between the power inefficiency, I'd say you'd end up spending more.

And I personally don't think the extra 20% gained by Peltier cooling is worth it.

--Trevor
Click to expand...
When I said "long-term" I didn't mean the initial cost, by the way. Forgot to mention that I was neglecting the upkeep of the cooling system, though.
 
Originally posted by: Howard
Originally posted by: TrevorRC
TECs are ridiculously expensive. Running a single 226W TEC is the equivalent of running TWO overclocked 165s 24/7.

I was looking into running one for my GPU and CPU, but decided it simply wasn't worth it.


Also, @ Howard;

How is a 10% increase in electricity [Assuming a CPU is run 24/7, 90W unoverclocked, 110 when overclocked..] equal to a doubling of the CPU cost?

A standard CPU (90W) running 24/7:
.090kw/hr*24hr/day*365days*year * .10cents/kwhr=78.84dollars

110W:
.110*24*365*.10=96.36
That's with a near 20% voltage increase. [1.5 vs 1.4 = ~7% increase.]

Now.. 100-80 = 20 dollars/year. Assuming you run the chip 3 years Howard, that's only 60 dollars.

So, I buy a 300 dollar chip and make it run as fast as a 1000 dollar chip for 3 years, costing me 300+60 = 360 < 1000. This is assuming it is running FULL LOAD 24/7.

Also, while I'm doing the math, might as well bring Peltiers in..

A SINGLE 226W Peltier [which runs 24/7 full load :|]
.226*24*365*.10=197.97 dollars/year.
Almost 200 dollars for cooling JUST your CPU.

Not counting inefficiencies, mind you.
If you run one for your GPU, one for your CPU.. that number doubles.

With peltier cooling, if you keep the chip for 3 years.. that's 600 dollars on TOP of the chip you had. So, 200x3+300=900, vs. 1000.

Still less than the 1K chip, but between the power inefficiency, I'd say you'd end up spending more.

And I personally don't think the extra 20% gained by Peltier cooling is worth it.

--Trevor
Click to expand...
When I said "long-term" I didn't mean the initial cost, by the way. Forgot to mention that I was neglecting the upkeep of the cooling system, though.
Click to expand...

BAH all in all, i dont think any of us are here to set out a WR in overclocking. We all want the most we can squeeze out of our cpu and the cheapest and highest gain wise its going just water. Thats all i think the op really wanted to know
 
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