How can I see my PC wattage?

[Nika_YT]

Hi, is there any program, that can show me how many watts is my PC using at the realtime? Thanks.

 

[CreationP]

Here you are my friend: http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[MarkW]

In real time? There is only one affordable way that I know of...

P3 P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor $17.57

Easiest way is to do one of the following:

If you do not have a discrete video card, Then assume your system uses roughly 250 watts and you should be good.
If you do have a discrete power supply, find out what the company whose name is on the video card recommends as the minimum capacity your power supply should be, and go a bit higher than that. In other words, if company Xyz sells a video card, and recommends a minimum 500 watt power supply, I like to get a 650 to 750 watt unit.

Why go higher? Because after building computer systems for almost 4 decades now, I have come to the conclusion that buying a high quality power supply, and giving it a fair amount of spare capacity seems to make them last far longer, which means your system lasts longer too.

 

[CreationP]

I'm guessing he means how much wattage the pc use compared to the wattage each part claims to be using. On the other hand if he really means real time as in when the pc is open and running and want to physically check the metrics then you need a hardware monitor as MarkW suggests.

 

[MarkW]

I figured that a Kill a Watt meter was a better choice than a PowerMatic.

:lol:

 

[Rogue Leader]

If you happen to have a UPS with an LCD display many of those will provide you with the power draw statistics as well. I believe the software for my Cyberpower does it too, but I don't think it does logging so easier to just read it from the front panel.

And FYI manufacturer required power ratings are excessive. My R9 280 recommended a 750 watt power supply. I run 2 of them in crossfire now, on a 750, and according to my UPS during heavy benchmarking my worst power draw was 610 watts. I think they make those recommendations based on the assumptions people have crap PSU's that don't put out anywhere near what they are rated at.

 

[MarkW]

oh man... Probably .05% of the people with computers have UPS units. I cannot even remember when the last time was that I have seen a system with a UPS.

Data centers have them.
Server rooms have them.

But gamers? Not so much.

 

[Rogue Leader]

oh man... Probably .05% of the people with computers have UPS units. I cannot even remember when the last time was that I have seen a system with a UPS.

Data centers have them.
Server rooms have them.

But gamers? Not so much.

Uh no thats very closed minded. You should do a search here plenty of people run UPS units, while mine is a bit excessive, I've had one of some sort for the past 15 or more years. Plenty of my friends have them as well. We have them on all the computers in my firehouse even for the simple fact that when we switch over to generator power the PC's don't all crash. People who have home offices that I've done work on have them. I mean you can get a really good one that will give you 10-20 minutes for under $150, and built in software to safely shut down your PC in that time if you're not there. Its something that if you're spending thousands on computer equipment you should absolutely spend the extra hundo to make sure your stuff is protected.

Mine is a sine wave unit as some Active PFC PSU's are sensitive to that, and its a question that should be asked of your PSU manufacturer when deciding. EVGA couldn't give me a definite answer, but the Sine wave unit was on sale so I went for it. I also have a home server that is hooked to another, as it is on 24/7 and I don't want a minor brown out or black out to take out my backup drives.

 

[MarkW]

Outside of businesses and government agencies, I have found that selling a UPS to be a very hard sell. Even with businesses, outside of the server room, and maybe some executive offices, selling a UPS was a tough sell.

 

[Rogue Leader]

Outside of businesses and government agencies, I have found that selling a UPS to be a very hard sell. Even with businesses, outside of the server room, and maybe some executive offices, selling a UPS was a tough sell.

I believe it. People are cheap, you can see it here, guys will not bat an eye at spending $500-$700 on a GPU and then question spending an extra $100 on a good PSU when the "750watt" fire hazard in their computer "works fine". Then we get posts here "a surge in my house fried my computer", "my power went out and now my computer won't boot". Its rare but it happens.

You see it everywhere, I used to work in insurance, and people would pay off a 2 or 3 year old car and immediately drop full coverage. So we would ask "Can you afford to write off this car if you got in an accident?" they would always say no, but they don't care because it "won't happen to them" and they want to save money now.

 

[CreationP]

UPS are a great source to redirect potential problems. The real problem is the maintenance that it needs. Having it's battery run out and then recharge it is not a very well known fact, unless current UPS don't need that. My UPS broke because it stayed always on, it didn't have a "waste your battery" button and after some time without a surge problem it just died. It satyed open but the battery was dead.

 

[Rogue Leader]

UPS are a great source to redirect potential problems. The real problem is the maintenance that it needs. Having it's battery run out and then recharge it is not a very well known fact, unless current UPS don't need that. My UPS broke because it stayed always on, it didn't have a "waste your battery" button and after some time without a surge problem it just died. It stayed open but the battery was dead.

Yeah the batteries (especially if you don't discharge them occasionally) crap after only 3-5 years sometimes. Something to keep in mind.