PSU power usage...

[shovenose]

my electric bill was unusually high...assumably due to the Ultra 550w PSU in use in my latest build...when the pc is under does it use more power than wehen idle

 

[Upendra09]

yeah you want to use an 80 plus PSU, they use less electricity compared to the one you have and the higher the rating the better such as 80 plus gold is the best 80 plus silver and 80 plus bronze are all good

if it just says 80 plus then it is just more efficient than normal ones

 

[shovenose]

whats the cheapest good 80plus psu out there (at least 450w) preferable above 500

 

[shovenose]

ps it needs to be a good brand

 

[shovenose]

is this ok?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371029

 

[Upendra09]

that is a good one it is 80 plus and it is antec very reliable

the thing with PSUs is you don't want to skip on cost even if your PSU is expensive it will make or break oyur computer

a bad PSu can cause your system to be unstable and sometimes might cause problems to other components such as frying the cpu or shorting the mobo and the worst would be damage to a HDD

so good brand are: OCZ, Corsair, Silverstone, Seasonic, PC&PC, Antec

they are equally reliable and in the end it comes down to hjow much power you need and what brand you prefer

the PSU you linked is good, now just see if it meets the power requirements of your computer

 

[shovenose]

the antec psu calc says i only need 255w (peak load, no capacitro again) is that really all? with a 4890 i only need 301w...ill get the 400w it whould be fine...

 

[JackNaylorPE]

OK, let's get real here:

1. Changing PSU's, all by itself, should not change power draw at wall.....if anything, the new PSU would be more efficient and supply only what the puter needs.

2. 550 watt PSU at "average" (not hard core gamer) usage will draw about 300 watts, tops ..... at 80% efficiency, that's 375 at wall.

3. 4 hours per weekday, 8 on weekends means an average of 5.14 hrs per day

4. 375 watts x 5.14 hrs x 30.4 days in month x $0.10 per kwh / 1000 watts per kw = $5.86

5. At full 550 watt output at 8 hours a day at $0.20 per KW = $33.44

It ain't the puter.

 

[shovenose]

so its not the pc thats making the bill go up? its the 1st time ive used a large tower coputer with a psu more than 350w, so i guess its just the heater LOL

 

[delluser1]

2. 550 watt PSU at "average" (not hard core gamer) usage will draw about 300 watts, tops ..... at 80% efficiency, that's 375 at wall.

When I'm gaming my system only draws a max of about 280 from the wall.

 

[Upendra09]

how do you guys test this?

like a probe or some kind of app that you use?

 

[delluser1]

how do you guys test this?

like a probe or some kind of app that you use?

I use a Killawatt meter

 

[shovenose]

i acrually have one, but i havent hooked it up yet..but i did observe that my miniitx VIA low-power computer only used between 25 and 40w

 

[theholylancer]

its MINI-itx lol those things are built to sip power, my gaming rig would pull at least 600w if not more with its stuff in there and I plan to cross fire so that would pull maybe 850 w at the socket when I do

 

[jsc]

Great thing, the Killawatt Meter.

shovenose, it does not help if you do not use it.

 

[shovenose]

Im using it on my via machine, since when i figure out my netwrking issues i will be doing foldig@home for toms hardware team either12 or 24 hours a day... I want to kind out how much power that takes. When i had it running yezterday for 35mins it usex up 0.01 kwh... Can someone figure out how many kwhs that is in a day? The wierd thing is that it only drwas 25-35w when on and a whooping 2w whn off.

 

[jsc]

Basic algebra

(60min/35 min) * .01 kwh * 24 hrs = .41 kw