How much to run a pc
Discussion
I ran a systems check the other month.
Monitor 90w
HDD 40w
CPU 45w
GFX card 24w. Would go up under load.
other (fans etc) 15w
Total 214w estimated normal power usage.
Considering my GFX card (ATi 5870) recommends a PSU of at least 500W the usage can go a fair deal when running a GFX intensive game. I actually have a 700w PSU in it.
So the equivalent of 4 light bulbs for normal use.
Monitor 90w
HDD 40w
CPU 45w
GFX card 24w. Would go up under load.
other (fans etc) 15w
Total 214w estimated normal power usage.
Considering my GFX card (ATi 5870) recommends a PSU of at least 500W the usage can go a fair deal when running a GFX intensive game. I actually have a 700w PSU in it.
So the equivalent of 4 light bulbs for normal use.
Soft Top said:
Seriously is it really that much? If so I'm glad I gave up the second server and reconciled it all into one.
i'm not convinced about this virtualisation thingif you had a hardware failure, then you'd be totally fooked
but with 2+ servers, at least there's another unit you can fall onto
Depends a lot on the PC. Mine range from 15W to about 125W when left on and not doing anything very much as a server would. That's just the base unit and not the monitor, except for the laptops - although they usually go to some kind of "screen off" power saving strategy.
I would say somewhere between 60-100W for a "typical" desktop computer with a hard drive or two if you're not going to put any particularly crazy hardware in it. Go with the higher figure - about 70kWh a month if I haven't made any stupid mistakes - and you probably won't be too shocked by any electricity bills.
(You can buy various plug-in gadgets that'll give you a reasonable power draw figure for any electrical gadget; they're cheap enough to be worth having one around just for the sake of answering "what does this cost to keep running?" questions.)
I would say somewhere between 60-100W for a "typical" desktop computer with a hard drive or two if you're not going to put any particularly crazy hardware in it. Go with the higher figure - about 70kWh a month if I haven't made any stupid mistakes - and you probably won't be too shocked by any electricity bills.
(You can buy various plug-in gadgets that'll give you a reasonable power draw figure for any electrical gadget; they're cheap enough to be worth having one around just for the sake of answering "what does this cost to keep running?" questions.)
Edited by Timberwolf on Thursday 11th February 21:52
Check this article out....
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/truth-pc-power...
But with a modern pc you may get away with much less as components are a lot more frugal now.
Pete
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/truth-pc-power...
But with a modern pc you may get away with much less as components are a lot more frugal now.
Pete
AlexC1981 said:
Interesting fact for the day:
Boiling a full kettle from cold costs around the same as leaving a 100W light bulb on for 10 hours!
That is complete bBoiling a full kettle from cold costs around the same as leaving a 100W light bulb on for 10 hours!
ks.On those figures with a 3Kw fast boil kettle, it'd take over 20 minutes to boil. Correct if your kettle is the size of a small bath I suppose.
Man-At-Arms said:
Soft Top said:
Seriously is it really that much? If so I'm glad I gave up the second server and reconciled it all into one.
i'm not convinced about this virtualisation thingif you had a hardware failure, then you'd be totally fooked
but with 2+ servers, at least there's another unit you can fall onto
ThatPhilBrettGuy said:
AlexC1981 said:
Interesting fact for the day:
Boiling a full kettle from cold costs around the same as leaving a 100W light bulb on for 10 hours!
That is complete bBoiling a full kettle from cold costs around the same as leaving a 100W light bulb on for 10 hours!
ks.On those figures with a 3Kw fast boil kettle, it'd take over 20 minutes to boil. Correct if your kettle is the size of a small bath I suppose.
Perhaps he said one hour and I wasnt listening
I've recently been looking at our electricity costs very carefully to see what difference we can make by turning things off completely at night, replacing lights with low energy lamps, etc. etc.
I've fitted a current consumption meter at the main meter to measure the total current we use at any one time and with small appliances where that meter isn't accurate enough to register a change, I measured the current with a plug in meter, so I now have a very accurate breakdown of our electricity usage in each room and for each appliance.
The results were quite surprising in some cases and have caused me to be proactive about saving energy (and our money!).
For instance, a big flat screen TV still consumes 30W if you turn it off using the remote, but 18W if you use the button on the TV itself and of course 0W if turned off at the socket.
We've got a lot of dimmable low-voltage lights in one room and they consume remarkably little power considering their output - something like 20W in total when we have them on in the evening.
The PCs were a bone of contention before as I prefer to leave them on 24/7 for reliability, but once I saw how much my main PC is using, I have taken to powering it down at night. The other PCs are left on 24/7 as they are handling stuff like email and security cameras so they need to be available at all times.
In one room I've got 2 x Dell mini tower PCs and my main PC which is fairly hefty with a GTX275 graphics card and a couple of other boards which all consume enough for me to upgrade the original 500W PSU to a 850W one recently.
The main PC when running takes 195W and the 24" flatscreen monitor a further 30W
One Dell takes 65W and its monitor is 39W
The other Dell takes 54W and its monitor is 22W
So the cost to me during each 24 hour period is £0.22-£0.26 for each Dell but £0.62 for the big PC (or £226 per year if left on 24/7).
It's still a bit scary to look at the current meter last thing at night once all the lights, TVs etc. are off and see that we are still using well over 1kW, but it's just not practical to power absolutely everything off.
HTH
I've fitted a current consumption meter at the main meter to measure the total current we use at any one time and with small appliances where that meter isn't accurate enough to register a change, I measured the current with a plug in meter, so I now have a very accurate breakdown of our electricity usage in each room and for each appliance.
The results were quite surprising in some cases and have caused me to be proactive about saving energy (and our money!).
For instance, a big flat screen TV still consumes 30W if you turn it off using the remote, but 18W if you use the button on the TV itself and of course 0W if turned off at the socket.
We've got a lot of dimmable low-voltage lights in one room and they consume remarkably little power considering their output - something like 20W in total when we have them on in the evening.
The PCs were a bone of contention before as I prefer to leave them on 24/7 for reliability, but once I saw how much my main PC is using, I have taken to powering it down at night. The other PCs are left on 24/7 as they are handling stuff like email and security cameras so they need to be available at all times.
In one room I've got 2 x Dell mini tower PCs and my main PC which is fairly hefty with a GTX275 graphics card and a couple of other boards which all consume enough for me to upgrade the original 500W PSU to a 850W one recently.
The main PC when running takes 195W and the 24" flatscreen monitor a further 30W
One Dell takes 65W and its monitor is 39W
The other Dell takes 54W and its monitor is 22W
So the cost to me during each 24 hour period is £0.22-£0.26 for each Dell but £0.62 for the big PC (or £226 per year if left on 24/7).
It's still a bit scary to look at the current meter last thing at night once all the lights, TVs etc. are off and see that we are still using well over 1kW, but it's just not practical to power absolutely everything off.
HTH
Edited by fastfreddy on Saturday 13th February 12:24
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