Old Pentium III Running 24/7

[dylan_m]

I have just got my old Pentium 3 computer set up again, and I was planning on just sitting it in the back of my cupboard with an extension cable running through the door and leaving it on 24/7 to download torrents and contribute to BOINC projects.. And I was wondering if the power usage would build up over time, rendering it expensive to run. It only has a 200W power supply, so I know for a fact that it can't use more than that, but because BOINC tasks keep it very busy at all times, it could easily use, all day long, as many watts as my good computer does at idle.

Here's a few specs for it: 200W PSU and Pentium III (as already mentioned), one 20GB 5400rpm hard drive, 128MB of 357MHz RDRAM (haven't even heard of it before), two optical drives and a floppy drive but I disconnected them from the PSU, and an old graphics card with 8MB of memory and without any kind of cooling design, so I assume it bareley uses anything. And finally it runs Windows XP Professional, but I have stripped it down a lot - no unnessecary processes, startup programs, lowest possible screen resoloution, 16-bit color, and I have activated XP's "Advanced Power Management" feature. By the way, I couldnt find anywhere that says how many watts a P3 processor is.

So yeah any estimates as to how many watts this thing is really using, and how expensive or inexpensive it is to run 24/7, and if you have any recommendations as to how to make it even more power saving, let us know

And sorry if this post has a bit too much useless information, I just wanted to include everything I know in the original post.

 

[dylan_m]

I am a work from home tech (refurbing towers,virus cleanings,speeding and cleaning up OS,Windoze installs etc)
and make my own schedule

with a high maintenance wife, high maintenance 10yr old daughter,high maintenance 6yrold female AmerBull Staffordshire Terrier
and a grumpy old mother in law this is my time to work uninterrupted

I only sleep about 4-5 hours on a good day LOL
Semi-insomniac also LOL

Pretty cool though
kill time on Toms helping people while doing my thousandth XP Pro install and making money at the same time

Haha, high maintenance.. Sounds like a alright job though, minus the working all through the night part. And why are you still installing XP, it's so old? Microsoft's only supporting it till 2014 anyway..


Anyway getting off topic

 

[king smp]

Ah it is your thread afterall

To answer your question
I am in a income challenged urban crime challenged zone (Ghetto)
Most of the towers I fix are XP Pro
I would love to work on some new builds but most people are still
chugging away on Pent4,PentD and Athlon 64 x 2 towers with XP
remember this is an enthusiast board where members are mostly
up to date
money isnt the greatest but compared ot working 60-70 hour weeks plus travel time
and never seeing my kid it was worth taking the pay cut
I think she would rather have me around and skip the expensive vacations and shiny toys

 

[4745454b]

LOL. I was in a local shop the other day picking up some SATA cables. There was a lady in front of me just finishing up dropping her tower off. When she left, he left her tower sitting there while he went and got the cables. When he came back I told him thats why I could never work in a shop. With a puzzled look on his face he asked me why. I told him because if someone came in and dropped off a Celeron 700MHz machine, I would just bust up laughing. And thats not good for business...

 

[king smp]

Oh tell me about it!
I am happy when I get a Pentium 4 HT to work on LOL
A Athlon Turion dual core is actual joy!
the funniest though every once in awhile I will have somebody with a Core I-series
complaining it runs slow (hard drive full of crap,viruses,too many unnecessary startups etc)
Had that happen twice in past two years or so
All they were doing was email,browsing and Facebook Farming!
That is like using a 12 guage shotgun to go Fly hunting LMAO

 

[king smp]

BTW Dylan are all your questions answered?

if so select a best answer (definitley NOT me) that helped you the most

 

[king smp]

A Pentium 3 CPU generally consumes a max of 10w - 28w of power depending on which one you have.

Your CPU will be idling most of the time, except when it is scanning for viruses. Based on the parts that you have I would guess-timate that your PC will use roughly 60w of power.

If you live in NYC where it costs about $0.19 per KWH, then you are talking about $100 per year in electricity running 24/7. Is it worth building a new computer to reduce power consumption by a little bit? The answer is no.

Edit:

The above is assuming you are using the 1.0GHz Coppermine Pentium 3.

I also forgot to take into consideration the power supply. If you are using an older power supply, chances are it will probably only be about 65% efficient. That means while the PC may actually be using 65w of power, the power supply will be drawing 92w from the outlet. 35w of that 100w is wasted as heat and noise. That would bring up the cost to $153. Also, as a PSU ages it's efficiency drops and becomes more prone to failure like any electronic component.

Many modern PSUs have an 80Plus rating which means they are at least 80% power efficient. If you replace your old PSU with one that has been 80Plus certified, then you will be drawing about 75w from the outlet which means your electricity cost will work out to about $125 per year based on $0.19 per KWH.

this was a really well thought out and researched post IMHO
Even though I dont like his avatar and quote
Jag REALLY knows his stuff
no offense to other posters please

 

[dylan_m]

Best answer selected by dylan_m.

 

[dylan_m]

Yeah I'll best answer that one You were just as helpful though.

 

[nukemaster]

I know this is done, but i bet your system(you daily use, not torrent box) stays well under 200 at load. Seeing as you have no video card in there.

Gonna guess your idles are under 70 with ease.

You should hit up a local hardware store for one of those meters.

X4 955 overclocked to 3.7 with 4870 video card. 80+ silver psu

 

[king smp]

Yeah I'll best answer that one You were just as helpful though.

Thank you very much

I enjoy helping people
and hearing that is very nice

 

[jaguarskx]

this was a really well thought out and researched post IMHO
Even though I dont like his avatar and quote
Jag REALLY knows his stuff
no offense to other posters please

Is this something more to your liking?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZlVaAMsoM8

 

[king smp]

LMAO

Its all good jag

I feel in a Puppy Dog and Butterfly kinda of mood



for dinner that is.........