is my pc really going to consume 500w per hour?

[BobVersyp]

hello,

i am planning on building a pc, but my dad is freaked out that it wil consume 500w,
is it going to consume 500w per hour, or not, do you get what i mean?, and can you please explain how powerconsumption works?

 

[cdabc123]

Probably not. what is the build?

 

[EricNL]

The PSU only draws as much as it needs at that time.

 

[hdmark]

if you have the system maxed out (very unlikely depending on what you have in there), then yes, if you leave it on for an hour , it will use 500Wh .

but most computers dont run nearly to the max . Its just good to have a stronger PSU in there than needed in case you ever do spike close to the max

 

[Martell1977]

No, the PC only draws what it needs, when it needs it. That is why there are things like sleep modes and low power states. Even sitting idle it will draw much less than when under load. Power consumption is based on workload, more energy is needed as you push the system harder.

Having a 500w PSU just means that you can push the system up to about that point before the PSU falters.

 

[inerax]

a 500w PSU will not consume 500w all the time.


http://powersupplycalculator.net/

Assuming you pay $0.20/kWH (might be high) and there are ~8760 hours per year, you will pay $876 per kilowatt year. (using 500W for all 8760 hours). This is assuming that your computer is running at 100% load.

I leave my computer on 24/7 and use it 4-6 hours a day. My idle power is about 88w. That would give me a total of about $600 a year. I also have a feeling that my setup uses a bit more power than you.

Triple monitor
6 core intel CPU
16GB ram
1x SSD
2x HDD
2x 970 4gb GPU
TONS of fans and other USB stuff.

 

[USAFRet]

hello,

i am planning on building a pc, but my dad is freaked out that it wil consume 500w,
is it going to consume 500w per hour, or not, do you get what i mean?, and can you please explain how powerconsumption works?

Even at some version of 100% full load on the CPU and GPU, it probably won't get close to that.
That 500watt is a worst case scenario, and leaving some breathing room.

My current main PC, with a 750 watt XFX PSU, draws ~200watts under a high load. Prime95 and Heaven 4.0 benchmark running at the same time.
i5-3570k CPU, R9 280x GPU, 16GB RAM, etc, etc.
Wattage measured with a Kill-A-Watt device.

It's like a car with 200 horsepower engine. It's there, but that is used only rarely, and just for a moment.