Power consumption

[CyberNerd]

Does anybody know, or would like to hazard a guess as to how much power is used by a computer a) at full load b) at idle c) at standby.

 

is it realistic to say a 400W rated PSU uses 400W at full load or is the figure likely to be wildly different from this if it has few periferals.

[Norphy]

The rating of the PSU just tells you how much wattage the PSU can deliver, not how much it uses. The power usage of a PC is dependant on so many factors including the hardware inside the PC and the efficency of the PSU.

[steve]

How about trying one of these

[pete]

I would guess "wildly different", depending on installed hardware + peripherals. I'm assuming we're not talking quad SLI setups here?

 

You could track down the manufacturers specs for each component which would give you the maximum possible power consumption, then compare it against actual, using a meter like Steve mentioned (though the cheaper meters can get confused by switching power supplies).

 

[edit] or you could let Mike Chin do it for you..

 

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article265-page1.html

 

Energy star specs plus proposed testing methodologies might be useful

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=revisions.computer_spec

[CyberNerd]

I'm going to go with the silentpc guestimates of:

30-40W idle

80-100W load

2W standby.

as it mostly matches our specs.

Wide error bars, but enough to compare to a thin client system.

 

Thanks

[Geoff]

I ran across this page at the cutter project which has some useful numbers.

 

http://www.cutterproject.co.uk/Technical/power_consumption.php

 

Admittedly it's discussing thin clients but there is a table with a 'mid range' PC at the bottom too.