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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.
I can browse around with iTunes playing and only draw around 45w, with the system idling out in the upper 30s. My CPU is undervolted at stock speeds with Turbo disabled and my 2133 RAM amazingly gets by on 1.45v. Next step is to get into an 80 Plus PSU to see how much lower that gets me.

Anyways, I can't help but think that the people voting below 30w don't quite know what 'desktop' means.
 
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Termie said:
Are you sure you have Cool 'n Quiet enabled? While your GTX470 draws around 30w at idle, the rest of your system should be capable of keeping you below 100w total.
Click to expand...

Great question, I'll check it when I get home from work.

I guess turning it off every once in a while wouldn't hurt either.
 
Surfing, light use (torrents, media server streaming to other boxes) consumes roughly 22-45 Watts according to the KillaWatt.

Gaming generates around 65-85 Watts and maximum full load (CPU+GPU) around 110 watts.

When I add a GDDR5 6670 for dual graphics and during stressful gaming it consumes around 120-140 watts but this lets me run Crysis 3 at 720P at 60fps 🙂

--

ASRock ITX FM2A85X
8GB (2*4) Samsung Magic DDR3 @ 2133Mhz, 1.45 volts.
AMD 5800K (1.3 volts, 3.6Ghz base, disabled turbo boost)
160W Pico ATX PS + 200W external power adapter. (90+ efficiency)
Intel 180GB 520 SSD
 
Idontcare said:
:hmm: hmmm...interesting thing, when I went back into my BIOS I noticed previously that there were a number of power management options (like C1 and C6 and so on) that were originally set to "auto" when I posted the OP, this time I went in and set them all to "enabled" and now my power dropped another 10% at the wall (hovers between 39-40W).

So thank you grimpr :thumbsup: if I had not entertained your request for disabling my power management then I would not have thought to force the "enabling" of features that are apparently not being enabled by my ASUS bios when they are configured to "Auto".

For others who are relying on the bios to get their power management settings correct, it may pay dividends for you to visit the bios and convert a few of those "auto" settings to "enabled" just to be sure they are truly enabled 😉



I don't follow what you wrote above that I bolded, how is it that turboboost is disabled? Do you mean to say you specifically disabled turboboost on your rig or are you thinking that it is disabled because you disabled power management?



The $$ may not be enough to make any difference to you, but you are paying roughly $1/yr per watt that you consume 24/365 if your electric rate is $0.10/kWHr. That 132W idle load is probably adding a hundred or more bucks to your power bill a year.
Click to expand...


When Asus implemented the "auto" option, they decided that any overclocking meant power saving features set to "auto" should be disabled. It confused the heck out of me when I updated my bios a while back until I figured it out. If you don't OC (or rather, don't touch *any* settings), auto is enabled, but make any change at all, and they get shut off.
 
Ferzerp said:
When Asus implemented the "auto" option, they decided that any overclocking meant power saving features set to "auto" should be disabled. It confused the heck out of me when I updated my bios a while back until I figured it out. If you don't OC (or rather, don't touch *any* settings), auto is enabled, but make any change at all, and they get shut off.
Click to expand...

I definitely know that one of the Asus updates on my P7P55D Evo drastically increased idle wattage. I rolled back to the previous BIOS to avoid that issue. Now you have me thinking - could it have been some of the power-saving features being turned off with "auto"?

The trouble with this being the sole answer is that some of the features can actually be monitored, like core idles clocks and core idle voltage. Those are probably the biggest energy savers, and they can't go unnoticed all that easily if you have CPU-z running. I'm still going to test this out, though, to see if I can drive my idle watts down lower with some of the other power settings.
 
Idontcare said:
:

I don't follow what you wrote above that I bolded, how is it that turboboost is disabled? Do you mean to say you specifically disabled turboboost on your rig or are you thinking that it is disabled because you disabled power management?

.
Click to expand...

Yes, sorry for not being clear enough, i was trying to say that Turbo Boost becomes disabled when all power saving features on the chip are disabled through bios, chip is firing all cylinders at max designated clocks, caches, ring, imc etc so i assume there's no headroom to be exploited by Intels finegrained power algorithms, this makes for a smoother desktop experience albeit in sacrificing idle power.
 
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Core i7 920 @ 3.8GHz (1.32v)
Noctua NH-D14 (12"+14" fans)
ASUS Rampage GENE
3x 4GB Kingston 1333MHz @ 1450MHz (1.65v)
ASUS Direct CU II HD6950 1GB @ 880MHz
120GB Intel 320 SSD
2GB Seagate SATA III 5900rpm
SONY BluRay SATA
120" fan(directed to NorthBridge heatsink)
Enermax Revolution 85+ 850W

Idle 133W
Browsing 145-155W
Gaming 260-300W
 
Core i7 3770K @ 4GHz (1.145v)
Default HeatSink
ASUS Maximus V GENE
2x 4GB Kingston 2133MHz @ 1866MHz (1.65v)
ASUS Direct CU II HD7950 @ 1GHz
1GB Seagate SATA III 7200rpm
Be-Quite 80+ 1KW

Idle 63W
Browsing 65-79W
Gaming 250-270W
 
Idontcare said:
I don't follow what you wrote above that I bolded, how is it that turboboost is disabled? Do you mean to say you specifically disabled turboboost on your rig or are you thinking that it is disabled because you disabled power management?
Click to expand...

grimpr said:
Yes, sorry for not being clear enough, i was trying to say that Turbo Boost becomes disabled when all power saving features on the chip are disabled through bios, chip is firing all cylinders at max designated clocks, caches, ring, imc etc so i assume there's no headroom to be exploited by Intels finegrained power algorithms, this makes for a smoother desktop experience albeit in sacrificing idle power.
Click to expand...

C3 and C6 states are what affect the Turbo Boost, C1E and EIST don't matter (Well, EIST does in the way that if you disable it you will idle at 3.9GHz and drop down to 3.6GHz under 4 core load, using 3570K as example). As I understood it what happens is that C3/C6 states completely turn off a core and effectively turn the cpu in a single, dual or triple core cpu, which can then run at a higher clockspeed.

Termie said:
I definitely know that one of the Asus updates on my P7P55D Evo drastically increased idle wattage. I rolled back to the previous BIOS to avoid that issue. Now you have me thinking - could it have been some of the power-saving features being turned off with "auto"?

The trouble with this being the sole answer is that some of the features can actually be monitored, like core idles clocks and core idle voltage. Those are probably the biggest energy savers, and they can't go unnoticed all that easily if you have CPU-z running. I'm still going to test this out, though, to see if I can drive my idle watts down lower with some of the other power settings.
Click to expand...

I found the lowered vcore doesn't do too much in idle, it's more the c-states being active. If I overclock to say 4.3Ghz I get the same idle power use, no matter if I use offset or manual vcore. You do need offset vcore for EIST to work properly but the powersaving effects of that on a desktop are probably quite marginal.
 
10w, Mac mini (excluding U2412M at 50% brightness), which I specifically bought for a low power office box. Chucked my original Win 8 desktop. My gaming build is for gaming only. Saved a bit on my bill already ($5-$10 last quarter). I certainly wouldn't browse on a big fat fully loaded gaming build. Its a waste.
 
Mine is a piggy at 113W after page load.

Of course, I also have 1 200mm fan, 6 90mm fans, and 2 sealed liquid cooling pumps running constantly, 2 7200 RPM HDs, an SSD, and 2 680s.

Furmark by itself makes the power draw over 600W, and add in IBT and it gets around 700W
 
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~150W. Nehalem wasn't exactly known for its low power use. ._.

Ci7 920
6GB DDR3
P6T Deluxe V2
HD 6950
3x Hard drives- Those might be on at the moment since I had to reboot.
850W Thermaltake Bronze- I would've chosen lower but oh well.🙄

The ipad should be about 4W though.😎
 
Well I just checked and Cool'n'Quiet was disable. Turned it on but the speed isn't changing much. With just CPU-Z open its bouncing between 3799.x mhz and 3810.x mhz. V-core is flipping between 1.344v and 1.352v

Power draw appears unchanged.
 
About 2.3 amps, so 276w when I times by 120 (actual voltage at the socket). Using a ~$100 multimeter though so no idea if it's true RMS. If it's not that reading may be off. Not sure by how much though. I'd have to get one of those killawatts but can never find them anywhere.
 
CHADBOGA said:
I'm surprised so many people have killawatt devices or something similar. 🙂
Click to expand...
I have one because it works as two multimeters at the same time for measuring voltage at the outlet and amperage of the load - and can show me watts in realtime, as well.

When I check it's accuracy with a meter, it is just as accurate as a meter costing the same as it, or even more... and I have the P4480, the fancy expensive one... so when you compare it to the cost of two decent but cheap multimeters, it makes a whole lot of sense to have one. 🙂

IMG_0265-t.jpg
 
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