Computer power consumption

[tesco]

So I decided to do a little experiment...
I've created a rig for testing amperage of whatever I want to plug into my rig (an 1110 box with a receptacle, and a meter hooked up inline of the hot wire).

The current running through my computer is an average of 0.6amps at idle.
Watching a fullscreen hd video it can get as high at 0.7A, average of 0.8A.
Playing a game the average is 0.78A, getting as high as 0.81A.

Testing the line voltage gives me a reading of 121.8volts.

So wattage = volts * amps = 121.8*0.8 = 97.44watts.
Now I know that's not accurate because I'm not taking inductance (this is ac we're talking about) into account, but It's still close...

Who said we need 1000watt power supplys? I could get away with a 150watt...

Unless someone can prove me wrong here. What am I missing?


btw, to prove the meter is accurate I tested my basement's lighting circuit which gave me ~460watts. It's 8 50watt (8*50 = 400w) pot lights (low voltage, so they have a transformer = inefficiency).
I also tested a plug-in space heater which si rated at 15 amps, it gave a reading of ~10amps once it was running (I didn't leave it too long as I have a 6amp fuse in this meter that I don't want to burn...).

Other interesting readings I found:
My Monitor (19inch widescreen lcd from samsung) = 0.18amps
My TV (32inch widescreen lcd from sharp) = 0.86amps
xbox 360 = 0.8amps in low-power mode, 1.1amps in a game

[kaiweiler]

Interesting..
What kind of parts are in that computer of yours?

[tesco]

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
MSI K8N NEO4-F Motherboard
1gb PC3200 RAM
160gb Seagate SATA Hard Drive
GeForce 6100 something something

Other things that use power:
DVD Burner (no disc in drive)
USB Mouse Charger + Transmitter thing
Keyboard
3 80mmfans running at 7v (with leds)
80mm CPU fan running at 50% (speedfan controlling it)

and btw the cpu is overclocked (can't remember by how much), though the voltage is stock on that...

[Shiranai_Baka]

Oh.. those parts aren't that high end which explains the low consumption.

[clocker]

Put an 8 or 9 series vid card in there and you'd double your wattage I'll bet.

[tesco]

Oh.. those parts aren't that high end which explains the low consumption.

Right.
But back when I was reading about 1000watt power supplies being needed they weren't even out yet.

Put an 8 or 9 series vid card in there and you'd double your wattage I'll bet.

Wow. Double. So 200watts.



You guys can waste your money on 1000watt power supplies while I buy high-quality 300watt ones for fractions of the price.

[clocker]

You guys can waste your money on 1000watt power supplies while I buy high-quality 300watt ones for fractions of the price.

Oh, you canny Canuk you.

Wattage alone is hardly the reason I buy a PSU- only have a 620w unit anyway, if you want to be accurate- it's all about the quality of the power delivered*.

Sadly- but not at all surprisingly- manufacturers put all the good stuff in the high end units and those are mostly 500w + designs.

Besides, you're making some pretty sweeping statements based on what is basically a low end PC.
Show me the "quality" 300w supply that could run my computer and I'll eat it.

*Just for shits and giggles Ross, dl OCCT (my new favorite stress tester) and run your CPU maxxed for a few hours. Then look at the graph (it'll graph all your voltages) for the vCore and tell us what you see. Even tiny spikes can be fatal to an overclocked chip since they are typically running on elevated voltage levels to begin with.
If I wasn't struggling with a weird video problem I'd run mine for comparison but I haven't the time just now- too busy flailing away and getting nowhere.

[tesco]

Besides, you're making some pretty sweeping statements based on what is basically a low end PC.
Show me the "quality" 300w supply that could run my computer and I'll eat it.

Just out of interest, have you ever tried it?

[clocker]

Not lately, no.

Can't think of any 300w PSUs that have the required 5 SATA connections, 24 pin and 8 pin motherboard connectors and 6 pin PCI-e connectors.
Can you?

[tesco]

Not lately, no.

Can't think of any 300w PSUs that have the required 5 SATA connections, 24 pin and 8 pin motherboard connectors and 6 pin PCI-e connectors.
Can you?

Wait, they have 8pin motherboard connectors now?
Does that replace the 4pin one or do you need that as well?