How much power does your PC need?

That FitPC2 is a nice option if I could buy it in South Africa. I have to stress a point that the Atom processor is NOT really made out to be a server. Everybody should know by now that the Core2Duo is a lot better when it comes to performance/watt. Even the Core i3 delivers similar performance/watt, slightly better but not by a huge margin like the Atom vs Core2 architecture.
 
The programs like cpu-z and such give you the processor power draw. Is that accurate?
 
I refuse to read this article. It will just spoil my day. :)
 
chubster said:
That FitPC2 is a nice option if I could buy it in South Africa. I have to stress a point that the Atom processor is NOT really made out to be a server. Everybody should know by now that the Core2Duo is a lot better when it comes to performance/watt. Even the Core i3 delivers similar performance/watt, slightly better but not by a huge margin like the Atom vs Core2 architecture.
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True. Though it depends on what you're doing with the server. For a small Linux fileserver the Atom should be plenty on a small LAN streaming media, backups etc;

I have a C2D E2140 running Ubuntu 9.10, 4x SATA drives. Does my downloads, apache, file serving, ftp server and various other tasks including a virtualised IPCop router/firewall/proxy and the CPU is very capable. Most of the time the CPU idles at 1% load at 1.2Ghz
 
Hunted said:
Kan ek jou book om te kom "volt-meet" :)
Click to expand...

Don't! :wtf:

The voltage would probably be a fairly standard 230V, 50Hz sinusoid. What you do need to measure in order to determine the power consumption are the current and the phase difference between the current and the voltage. For that you can buy power meters. A normal multimeter or voltage meter will not do the job.
 
nihilist said:
Yes, but you have to note that if it's running 24/7 it's most probably not using 500W all the time, as when surfing or just being idle the GPU and CPU are not pulling much power, so probably 150W when idle/surfing and up to 500W gaming.
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You cannot run at 500W all the time due to the duty cycle of your unit. Also the 500W is calculated at total output, something that is near impossible as you do not use all the voltage output. You only use about half of the power output / different voltages.

If you look at your PSU you will see a correct break-down of your power output. This was something pointed out to me by an electrical engineer during my PC Techie/Retail days.

A 500W is better than a 250W because of the duty cycle issue. The closer you run at "max", the quicker your PSU will burn-out, or need to be shut down to cool off (OK, a rather weak explanation, but any welder can explain the concept to you).

Due to heat loss you need to add in an extra few watts, but you are correct in stating that there is a difference between idle and gaming but your more like 110W vs 220W.
 
Interesting read:

http://windows.uwaterloo.ca/Hardware/PC_Power_Consumption.asp

According to tests conducted by IST, Hardware Support, tests showed the following. On a Pentium 4, 1.7GH machine:

* during boot power in watts is close to 110w
* during idle, no power management,. close to 60w
* during full power saving, no hard disk spin, machine in sleep mode, 35w
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....

The total power consumption of a typical PC and monitor does not consume more than 175 Watts of energy at its highest rate. At night time when your PC is "sleeping" it only consumes 35 Watts.
Click to expand...

*Note, the monitor mentioned here is a CRT and this was still from power hungry P4 from 7yrs back !!!
 
cbrunsdonza said:
You cannot run at 500W all the time due to the duty cycle of your unit. Also the 500W is calculated at total output, something that is near impossible as you do not use all the voltage output. You only use about half of the power output / different voltages.

If you look at your PSU you will see a correct break-down of your power output. This was something pointed out to me by an electrical engineer during my PC Techie/Retail days.

A 500W is better than a 250W because of the duty cycle issue. The closer you run at "max", the quicker your PSU will burn-out, or need to be shut down to cool off (OK, a rather weak explanation, but any welder can explain the concept to you).

Due to heat loss you need to add in an extra few watts, but you are correct in stating that there is a difference between idle and gaming but your more like 110W vs 220W.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wasn't saying a 500W will stay a 500W, obviously it's maximum load will decrease over time, and I agree with the idea of getting more than what you need, due to age over time and of course expansion.
 
I thought this article would be about how much it costs to operate a typical desktop pc / laptop with lcd / crt at the rates of major municipalities in SA.
Deceiving title.
 
My current UPS load is 110.15W

The UPS is supporting an SBS server plus a workstation, adsl router, 8 port switch, 3 USB external drives, modem. No monitors.
 
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I me mwa is now switching off the pc to save 400watts ENJOY

Edit: click
 
macboer said:
sorry but i just have to post this link.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
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The specs don't tell much. My 5 year old Mac Mini (1.42GHz PowerPC) uses 17W on a low to medium load, which is a fairly good average. That's about 12.25kWh per month, which at about 19c per kWh equates to around $AU2.33 per month to operate. In addition, I have a schedule set to shut the system down at 23:30 at night, and boot up again at 06:00 each morning. That will cut the power consumption by nearly a quarter to about $1.75 per month - that is assuming the system is never spinning the hard drive down, which it actually does do.
I have built estimates for all sorts of other configs, and have struggled to find anything that comes close to the Mac Mini on power consumption and delivers similar functionality. - I believe the newer Mac Minis have similar (if possibly slightly higher power consumption). - Oh, with the CPU on 100% the Mini uses abotu 33W.
 
nihilist said:
True. Though it depends on what you're doing with the server. For a small Linux fileserver the Atom should be plenty on a small LAN streaming media, backups etc;

I have a C2D E2140 running Ubuntu 9.10, 4x SATA drives. Does my downloads, apache, file serving, ftp server and various other tasks including a virtualised IPCop router/firewall/proxy and the CPU is very capable. Most of the time the CPU idles at 1% load at 1.2Ghz
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True, it depends all on what you going to do with it.

Turning a popcornhour or a Xtreamer (Sigma or Realtek mips cpu) device into a server. Both can be a media player too, both runs Linux. They run at 300/450MHz. The point is they are not as efficient doing the job they are suppose to do. They are optimized to do HD efficiently, not run a webserver and serve 2000+ connections.

The Atom processor is good enough for word processing and maybe a few connections (under 20). But try now to run HD flash based videos when there is no support from the GPU and now you are dependent on a good CPU. Then you will kick your self for buying it hoping it can do all.

I agree we should consolidate, but we should consolidate the same types of services/applications.
 
Hey guys

It seems small potatoes looked at individually like that, but let's consider just one household, mine, as an example.

My main rig runs an 850W, my wife's a 480, and my media/fileserver a little 350. At the rate of 50c per kWh, which is actually a touch low (most places are on 62cents now, with the first round of increases taking that to over 80), that means roughly R200, R150, and R100 per month for these three machines. Add the laptop. lightweight power draw sure but say another R40 a month, two smartphones which are always on charge at a small but constant drain, a media-centre PC which is not particularly efficient with it's own 250W PSU, and the fact that I like big resolutions and therefore continue to use all CRTs.... So let's just estimate all of that to come to another R150, the same as my mid-range PC. That's not even counting things like the surround-sound speaker systems with subs, networking infrastructure equipment, and then regular houshold electricity consumption (fridges, ovens, TVs etc), and it's already coming to R640 / month.

Now double that. At least. Going the other way, if I had an Extra R650/month lying around, I could up my DSL line to a 512K and keep it uncapped...That's quite significant, to me.

Cheers
Russell
 
Sure, this applies to all industries, none being exempt from the need for electricity, but ICT-heavy organisations are going to be among the hardest hit, besides the mines and their famously power-hungry smelters, which I suspect will just close down or have their workloads halved.
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A somewhat biased opinion is expected from a technology (IT) site. This is a blatant misinformed statement, however. So sad. The economic impact of the price hikes can not be comprehended by most people. Humanity will adapt somehow and the poor will always suffer. It has always been like this.

Freedom of speech they say... this is also just my opinion :-)
 
We are paying for the incompetence of a select few monkeys that have supposedly been in charge of eskom for the last few years.
and what do they do for bringing Eskom to the brink of destruction ? Oh they give themselves fat multi million rand bonuses ofcourse.

ViVa Anc, as JimmyJ would so eloquently put it,this is what happens when you put a bunch of monkeys in charge of things.Telkom,Armscor,Eskom,Spoornet....what do they all have in common ?Take a wild guess....
 
While you guys worry about electricity, what about 50c per km toll roads into Joburg?
 
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