What is your desktop power usage while browsing these forums?

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What is your "active idle" power usage for your desktop?

  • <20W

  • 20-30W

  • 30-40W

  • 40-50W

  • 50-60W

  • 60-70W

  • 70-85W

  • 85-100W

  • 100-120W

  • >120W


Results are only viewable after voting.

2is

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2012
4,281
131
106
I wouldn't say it's "easy" for laptops to stay under 15watts. In fact, I'll bet only a small number of laptops (not netbooks) can stay under 15watts with the screen on.
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,066
418
126
I wouldn't say it's "easy" for laptops to stay under 15watts. In fact, I'll bet only a small number of laptops (not netbooks) can stay under 15watts with the screen on.

well, all the 3 laptops I tested with my "kill a watt" stayed easily under 15w for very light load, all these 3 were basic, low end laptops with (bad quality) 14-15" screen, the last one with the 15" LCD and a 1.7GHz sandy bridge celeron, idle was 12-13w, occt linpack was 33w.

I've just tested my brisbane (65nm) athlon X2 at 2.4GHz (PSU around 75% efficiency), idle at 53w while loading heavy websites it could go even 20w over that, but most of the time it was around 60-65
 

BallaTheFeared

Diamond Member
Nov 15, 2010
8,115
0
71
Nice, I'm impressed with that given the 7950 in the mix.

Then you'll like this :hmm:

Doing a weird workaround to get EPU-6 (older 1156 board) installed on Windows 8, and taking off LLC, I managed to set my bclk to 142 for idle and reduce the voltage further...

Giving me a 55w idle in IE10 with an i3-540 overclocked and a 7950...

<3 Kill-A-Watt you put a number on my efforts :thumbsup:
 

SPBHM

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2012
5,066
418
126
Then you'll like this :hmm:

Doing a weird workaround to get EPU-6 (older 1156 board) installed on Windows 8, and taking off LLC, I managed to set my bclk to 142 for idle and reduce the voltage further...

Giving me a 55w idle in IE10 with an i3-540 overclocked and a 7950...

<3 Kill-A-Watt you put a number on my efforts :thumbsup:

you should test using only the IGP, it should give an idea about the idle power usage of the 7950, my 5850 eats around 25w for doing almost nothing :|

oh wait, you can probably just use zerocore power for that.
 
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JustMe21

Senior member
Sep 8, 2011
324
49
91
Here's what I got using the Kill-A-Watt meter.
i7-3770 (non K), 2 x 4GB DDR3-1600 SDRAM, Seasonic X750 PS, Hitachi 2 TB 7200 RPM Hard Drive, EVGA Geforce 650Ti Superclocked

Web Browsing - 52W
Playing Mechwarrior Online - 150W
---

Q6600, 4 x 1 GB DDR2 667 SDRAM, Corsair 500W PS, Seageate Momentus 500 GB Laptop Hard Drive, HIS Radeon 7750

Web Browsing - 72W
Playing Mechwarrior Online - 150W (A lot laggier though)
---

AMD E350, 2 x 2 GB DDR3 1066 SDRAM, Mini-box.com 150W Pico PSU w external 150 W PS, Plextor 64 GB mSATA SSD

Web Browsing - 26W
---

Dell Latitude E6420, i7-2720QM (2.2 GHz), 2 x 4 GB DDR3 SODIMM, Nvidia NVS 4200M

Web Browsing - 21W
---
And for grins, the Google Nexus 7 tablet - 6W while web browsing.

I've wanted to build a low power PC for quick powering on or auto sleep just for web browsing, but I also want it to play flash videos decently because the E350 seems a bit too sluggish. I wonder if anyone has a Celeron 847 combo and how that handles things. Or maybe an Android HDMI stick.
 
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exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
Just got around to measuring my rig, plus some other household items with my Kill A Watt P4460.

Computer (tower + external DVD drive + Speakers + 3 displays) = 250-300w surfing web, 325w playing a typical game, and >350w benchmarking.

The most surprising result to me was the power hog 2408wfp display. Leaving this on 24/7 costs over $7/month. My new 2413 IPS only uses about 1/3 of this(!!) Makes me really want to replace 2408wfp sooner, rather than later due to energy costs.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
59
91
Just got around to measuring my rig, plus some other household items with my Kill A Watt P4460.

Computer (tower + external DVD drive + Speakers + 3 displays) = 250-300w surfing web, 325w playing a typical game, and >350w benchmarking.

The most surprising result to me was the power hog 2408wfp display. Leaving this on 24/7 costs over $7/month. My new 2413 IPS only uses about 1/3 of this(!!) Makes me really want to replace 2408wfp sooner, rather than later due to energy costs.

Interesting find. I have a pair of 2407's that I use, but have never bothered to measure their power usage. Just assumed it was "low".
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,572
10,208
126
I swapped my Q9300 @ 3.0 back in as my main rig, so that plus a HD4850 512MB card, with an Antec VP-450 PSU (not sure if 80plus), gives me around 115W idle, and 260W full load (CPU + GPU doing BOINC).
 

Ayah

Platinum Member
Jan 1, 2006
2,512
1
81
Interesting find. I have a pair of 2407's that I use, but have never bothered to measure their power usage. Just assumed it was "low".

Yeah.. My 2412m's use 1/3 of what my 2005fpw's did. It was an insane revelation. It also doesn't heat my face up anymore ^_^
 

exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
Interesting find. I have a pair of 2407's that I use, but have never bothered to measure their power usage. Just assumed it was "low".

I thought it was very interesting too. Instead of measuring everything together, I measured each component one by one for this reason. I don't even want to get into the wattage of my 46'' Samsung LCD from early 2008. Lets just say it is on-par with my whole CPU tower in power usage...that is definitely another device I could replace. :)
 

pcunite

Senior member
Nov 15, 2007
336
1
76
41 watts idle - 109 watts running Prime95
  • Intel i5-3570K (stock)
  • Asus Maximus V Gene (mATX)
  • 8x2 DDR3-1333 Crucial 1.5V (16GB total)
  • HD4000 (iGPU, stock)
  • Intel X-25M & Crucial M4 256
  • Corsair 650TX
  • 3x120mm fans

40 watts
  • 24" NEC 2490WUXi2 monitor

15 watts idle
  • Thinkpad SL510 with an Intel X25-V SSD instead of the stock drive
 

2is

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2012
4,281
131
106
I thought it was very interesting too. Instead of measuring everything together, I measured each component one by one for this reason. I don't even want to get into the wattage of my 46'' Samsung LCD from early 2008. Lets just say it is on-par with my whole CPU tower in power usage...that is definitely another device I could replace. :)

I've got a 46" Sharp LCD from around that same time, just measured it at a pretty steady 219 watts. 360 watts with all my components. PS3 (standby), Wii (standby), Apple TV (standby), Slingbox HD (standby), Sony Receiver w/powered sub (on, fairly low volume), DVR with external HDD, (on) and of course, the TV itself which is on. I also have an APC UPS that everything is connected to which probably accounts for a small handful of those watts.
 
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exar333

Diamond Member
Feb 7, 2004
8,518
8
91
I've got a 46" Sharp LCD from around that same time, just measured it at a pretty steady 219 watts. 360 watts with all my components. PS3 (standby), Wii (standby), Apple TV (standby), Slingbox HD (standby), Sony Receiver w/powered sub (on, fairly low volume), DVR with external HDD, (on) and of course, the TV itself which is on. I also have an APC UPS that everything is connected to which probably accounts for a small handful of those watts.

That's a lot of power usage! I measured my other TV, a 40'' Sony from about a year ago, and that only uses about 50w. It's pretty crazy the difference in power consumption between the older TVs and the newer ones. Same for any LCD displays, really.
 

Durp

Member
Jan 29, 2013
132
0
0
i7 920 C0 @ 3.5Ghz with hyperthreading enabled
gigabyte X58 ud3r sli
GTX 460 hawk
6GB of ram
samsung 840 ssd
western digital black 640gb mechanical
DVD drive
2x 120mm fans
1x 140mm fan

Power consumption from the killawatt = 103 at idle.

I'm not too happy with that result. Can't wait to purchase haswell and see that number plummet.

EDIT: I didn't realize the poll was closed, sorry for bumping this month old thread.
 

Idontcare

Elite Member
Oct 10, 1999
21,110
59
91
Power consumption from the killawatt = 103 at idle.

I'm not too happy with that result. Can't wait to purchase haswell and see that number plummet.

Gazanga! :eek: Exactly, that will be cut in half I'd imagine.

EDIT: I didn't realize the poll was closed, sorry for bumping this month old thread.

Its my thread and even I didn't realize the poll is/was closed...I must have set it up that way for some good reason. Oh well. No worries and thanks for posting your results :)