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Wow!! My PSU is complete overkill!

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PWatterson

PWatterson

Member
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Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Location
Virginia
I was browsing through Newegg last week and I found the Kill-a-watt on sale with free shipping :thup:.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001&Tpk=kill+a+watt

For those of you who might not know, the little device measures wattage, volts, amps, KWH, and a few other things. I decided to figure out how much power my computer actually consumes. My PSU is in my sig. I estimated about 400 to 425 watts load and maybe 225 idle. Boy, was I far off. Check this out.

Idle: 183W max

3dm06: 342W max. 325W avg. ~265W max on cpu test.

Orthos on StressCPU mode: 254W max

BF2: 342W max

F.E.A.R.: 350W max

Super Pi: 227W max


Note: These readings show the number of watts being drawn from the wall. I think the Powerstream has an efficiency of 75% or so, so that actual wattage that the hardware is getting is about 3/4 of the totals above. I was shocked to find that my system could easily be powered by a solid 350w PSU. I bet I could even use 300w if I absolutely had to. I know my rig is not the most modern, but it really gives you an idea of the power consumption (or lack of) in computers.

Edit: Here would be the actual at 75% efficiency.

Idle: 138W

3dm06: 257W max. 244W avg. ~199W max on cpu test.

Orthos on StressCPU mode: 191W

BF2: 257W

F.E.A.R.: 263W

Super Pi: 171W
 
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Yeah, it's quite a trend today, I've seen people shell out for kilowatt range PSUs only to discover that their rig doesn't even need more than a third of that kind of power.
 
I found the calculator to be way off.

I put in my specs and set it at 75% TDP and 80% system load and it told me 500 watts.
 
there are other things to consider about a psu being complete overkill. you need to think about stress on the seperate rails and stuff like that. if your 12v rail is pulling almost all of that 330w, then its getting close to stressed. either way, that psu will last you atleast through c2d, or it should. so having overkill right now isnt always a bad thing
 
CCUABIDExORxDIE said:
there are other things to consider about a psu being complete overkill. you need to think about stress on the seperate rails and stuff like that. if your 12v rail is pulling almost all of that 330w, then its getting close to stressed. either way, that psu will last you atleast through c2d, or it should. so having overkill right now isnt always a bad thing
Click to expand...


True. That would be 27.5 amps roughly on the 12v rail, but this PSU seems to be able to do that on the +12v rail, according to the specs.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104901


I think having this amount of overkill is great. I had no idea it was so much. It is just interesting to know I could be just fine with a lower wattage PSU.

Edit: I am currently on track to use 1KWH in 4 hours and 50 minutes. This is with some light gaming, internet surfing and listening to music.
 
Running a quality PSU closer to its limit is not dangerous, is not possible because a modern PC will never use up all the 3.3 and 5v current, and is a better investment than a PSU rated for twice what you're drawing.

People still don't understand that, though. The car analogy is a powerful tool in the fool's toolchest.
 
Hmm... I need to pick one of those up to see what kind of overkill my 650w BFG unit is. Tho, with the 8800, superoverclocked pwnteron, 6+ fans and 4 HDD's I'd rather have too much :)
 
muhon_zen said:
It is good to have some more people interested in checking how their PSUs work. Check this link out PWatterson, mcoleg did a great research on PSU using the same Kill-a-watt

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=511180
Click to expand...

I saw that thread when it just started. Thanks for reminding of it.

To all, check out the original post. I added the wattage levels after the juice has gone throgh the PSU.

On another note, my rig draws 8 watts when it is turned off!
 
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lol, you think you got it bad, look at my rig, a single core, and old out-dated video card, 2 IDE hard-drives, 2 gigs of ddr1, and a mediocre mobo, basicly, no wattage consumption, and i got a 750watt in this guy haha.


but don't worry guys, im not an idiot, im soon gonna have SLI and quad core. :attn:
 
longerlasting said:
I am kind of surprised that FEAR put more of a load on the psu then 3dmark did.
Click to expand...
thats because some games are either cpu or gpu power hungry moreso than others.
 
longerlasting said:
I am kind of surprised that FEAR put more of a load on the psu then 3dmark did.
Click to expand...


Well, it was only a quick spike. It average at 3dm06 levels, but there were the higher spikes with F.E.A.R.
 
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