How can I know the electrical consumption of my computer?

Question

Hi all,

I have a rather old AMD XP2000+, a simple graphic card NVidia FX5200, one IDE HD (7200 rpm) and only one fan for the processor and one for the power pack.
How can I estimate how much electricity my computer is consuming? I use something called cooler XP, which reduces the amount of electricity consumed by 'blocking' the processor's activity when idle. I can see that the computer consumes less energy this way because when using cooler XP the temperature of my processor drops from around 55C° to 30C°.

Could anyone help me on this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi there:

You can estimate your power consumption using calculations for posted " average" ratings for all the parts of your computer, however, nothing is real, and the power supply rating has nothing to do with the power you are actually using.
Only the electrical meter on the main line is of any value...

I have answered this question in different forms a few times, and a typical answer is listed below:

How can you find out how many Watts your PCs power supply uses?

Let's say in an hour, how many watts have been used...



Best Answer - Chosen By Voters

Hi there:
I looked at the answers above, and only one, CJMT had any inkling of the correct answer

- The only way to know is to MEASURE IT!
You can calculate thousands of calculations all day, but until you actually measure YOUR own computer, you are just guessing!

New power supplies now come WITH and actual Wattage power meter, which is on the back or mounted on a front panel with a plug in cable. Some Motherboards, have a power meter built in as well, and, considering these " new and improved" features, it clearly shows that you are among thousands of computer users who are interested in this factor...

In the " old " days, you would just get a power " Clamp on " meter of some sort, and clamp over ONE wire of the AC power cord ( this is a bit difficult with normal computer power cords, so you plug in an extension which has the the wires separated, and clamp the meter over ONE of the wires.)

Now you can purchase easy-to-use plug in-the-wall meters that have digital readouts.

Simple.

YOU MUST actually measure your wattage - for example, if you have an 800 WATT power supply, this means nothing, except that the power supply " CAN " supply 800 Watts if it " has to " -- you could actually only be using 289 Watts of the available 800.

In order to really know what your " computer " is costing in terms of power, you should plug in the monitor, the CPU box, the speakers, the printer, the modems, power adapters etc. etc. TO A POWER BAR, and then measure the actual total to the wall plug.

Listed below are links on the web to typical measuring tools that are commonly available. You can check out stores and electronics and computer outlets in your area, once you know what you are looking for. If you know an electronics guy or a hydro guy, he could just let you use a clamp meter in a few seconds to get a reading, and save yourself a few bucks - but the $30 home units would come in handy to measure anything in
the whole house -- well worth it !


Power Supplies with WATT METERS
http://www.highpowersupply.com/product-ps-hpc480102df.html
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817171001

Kill a Watt Meter

http://www.gooddeals.com/shopexd.asp_Q_id_E_119

Briggs and Stratton Meter

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/NTEprodprint?productId=200326720&p

rnbr=1704700&storeId=6970&catalogId=4006970&langId=-1

SAFE HOME 3 products
http://www.safehomeproducts.com/shp2/shpsearch.asp?source=adwords&kw=wattage+meter

Professional Watt meters
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/amprobe/clampmeters/digitalac.htm
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/fluke/currentclamps/330series.htm
http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/hioki/clampmeters/3280.htm

There are hundreds of other models and manufacturers available, and since millions of people are interested in actually knowing where the high cost of power is being used in their homes, I expect to see hundreds of more products available
at lower and lower prices as manufacturing gears up.

Hope this helps

robin

Answer 2

The answer to your question is kind of a "Yes & No" scenario. Assuming your old PSU was working fine, a higher output power supply will have internal losses corresponding with it's size. However, the rest of the computer will draw exactly what it did with the previous power supply. When you first turn your PC on, all the HD's & DVD/CD drives spin up & the motors can suck upto 7x their normal current (power) requirements. Low rated PSU's often choke at this point, because they just can't maintain the inital inrush currents. A large power supply will ride this initial inrush out fine, because they are rated high enough Add up the components in your PC & I suspect you will be surprised if it even reaches 200W. For an approximate example see below: CPU 70w Fans (5W x 5) 25W {80mm fans are generally less than 1W, 120mm =7W} HD (2x25W) 50W {Seagate 200GB 7200RPM SATA state max 13.5W when seeking) Motherboard & RAM (2 x 10W) 20W Sound card 20W Miscellaneous 30W That would make a total of 215 Watts usuage. It'll suck that, no matter what PSU you have High End GPU's (such as video cards) can also suck a bit, possibly 100W extra, which is why people often need a better PSU in the first place.