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Is this right?

S

shaggy77

Gawd
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Joined
Jul 2, 2005
Messages
803
Hi,

I wound up picking up the Kill A Watt power usage device today. So I was playing around with it on the main rig upstairs. From what I have been reading either I am not measuring right or I really efficient computer system.

The build...

Gigabyte P35-DS3R
Intel C2D E6420 Stable overclock @ 3.2 GHz using 1.31 volts idle 1.28 volts load (TAT 23-24°C Idle/ 41-42°C Load)
Nvidia 7800 GTX video card overclocked @ 480Mhz/ 1300Mhz
Ballistix Ram PC-6400 DDR2 4-4-4-12@ 800 MHz
Seagate 250 GB SATA drive

All powered by Antec Earthwatts 430 watt PSU

Here are my Kill A Watt numbers...
(Rig only. Only a G15 KB, MX518 Mouse USB. Figures are not converted to 80% for PSU. This is just the numbers from the power input of PSU.)

Power line input 122.4V 60Hz .99 PF

Idle
115 Watts/ .94 Amps

SP 2004 Orthos
Max 165 watts / 1.34 Amps

3D Mark 06
Max 203 watts / 1.65 Amps

In Game, COD4 MP
Max 170 watts/ 1.38 Amps

Does this seem right for the rig? Do I have an efficient box? I have seen people state their systems draw alot more electricity than mine. If these are not correct, what would be the best method to find the real watt use? From what I have seen about calculating system watts, my watts used should be much higher.

Looking forward what the [H] community has to say,
shaggy
 
It very well could be right... People tend to think that computers use a lot more power than they do. Also remember that the Earthwatts is a very efficient psu... especially at a partial load
Usually what leads to a psu having insufficient power for a system isn't the total power of the psu, but where that power is. (12v, 5v, or 3.3v rails) Usually the case is that there isn't enough power on the +12v rail
 
Sounds about right for your rig.

7800's aren't that powerful. And Orthos and 3DM hardly "stress" a system.
 
Hi,

Wow! Sounds pretty good for efficiency. I knew the PSU was very efficient. I like the Seasonic built stuff. Runs well in my opinion.

As for the 7800, it was one of the Ebay deals from awhile back that was the big talk over at video. It was an upgrade from my 7600GT but no much in my opinion. I went back to Nvidia from ATI even after a lackluster experience with BFG's products. The phone service was excellent the product was well not. I wound up going with BFG due to a review on the [H] on the product. BB had a good sale on the card and I bought it. However it was an experience in which I got what I paid for.

***NOTE*** This was before your time there johnny according to your web site. (Loved the GURU story I have similar experiences.) So this not a bad mouth to you just relaying my experiences with Nvidia and BFG. So I went out and found a X850 XT PE and was very happy. I just sold the card over the summer.

It was not a good experience with 5900XT OC and its upgrade a 6800 OC. The 5900 blew up pretty quick. The 6800 OC was the same way. I could not even get a working card back from the company. The first one was the same problem it went in with. It was claimed to be working but must have been repacked with it came in. The second one was "tested" before it went out. It worked for about 2 weeks. The last card I got from the company I didn't even touch, sold it and it was still messed up according to the new owner.

So I would like a bit more power in my video. I was thinking about going with a 3870 card over 8800 GT due to availability. As much as I like Nvidia, I would take an ATI card due to my experiences with them were mainly very good when I used them. I used Nvidia longer to starting with the MX200 which I still use to this day.

As I am good for going off topic every so often, back to the PSU. What is a good stress test for systems? I thought it was 3D Mark 06 and a CPU " stress test" program was good for overall system stressing. Still good that I got a good working PSU.

Later,
shaggy
 
shaggy77 said:
Hi,

Wow! Sounds pretty good for efficiency. I knew the PSU was very efficient. I like the Seasonic built stuff. Runs well in my opinion.
Click to expand...

Your numbers have little to do with the PSU's efficiency. Throw another PSU in there and you'll probably see similar numbers. It has to do with the fact that your computer simply doesn't need that much power to run those apps. Period.

shaggy77 said:
As for the 7800, it was one of the Ebay deals from awhile back that was the big talk over at video. It was an upgrade from my 7600GT but no much in my opinion. I went back to Nvidia from ATI even after a lackluster experience with BFG's products. The phone service was excellent the product was well not. I wound up going with BFG due to a review on the [H] on the product. BB had a good sale on the card and I bought it. However it was an experience in which I got what I paid for.

***NOTE*** This was before your time there johnny according to your web site. (Loved the GURU story I have similar experiences.) So this not a bad mouth to you just relaying my experiences with Nvidia and BFG. So I went out and found a X850 XT PE and was very happy. I just sold the card over the summer.

It was not a good experience with 5900XT OC and its upgrade a 6800 OC. The 5900 blew up pretty quick. The 6800 OC was the same way. I could not even get a working card back from the company. The first one was the same problem it went in with. It was claimed to be working but must have been repacked with it came in. The second one was "tested" before it went out. It worked for about 2 weeks. The last card I got from the company I didn't even touch, sold it and it was still messed up according to the new owner.
Click to expand...

I know the old addage of "the customer is always right" but if you go through multiple cards, even when they're pre-tested, etc. I would have to assume that there's something wrong with your machine. Perhaps the motherboard, perhaps the power supply. And yes, you can have components destroy other components and have the computer continue to work in other respects.

Had a big problem like this with some A7V133 motherboards and RAM a while back. There was so much ripple and noise on the VR's for the memory that memory would die in the board after four to six months. Replace the RAM and it would be good for another four to six months. Of course, customers blamed the RAM, not the board. Never mind the fact that other users were having 99% success rate with the RAM, the RAM was tested and the problem only really occured with that board.

Also had a guy buy a bunch of Biostar boards from us. 95% stayed out in the field for well over a year, but we had this one guy that was a system builder come back with ALL of the boards he bought from us within a year. ALL had buldging caps or burned VR's. Naturally, he blames us for selling him crap motherboards. But knowing that other customer have had zero problems with this board, and after seeing the PSU's he was using that he DIDN'T buy from us because our PSU's were "too expensive", I decided to suspect the PSU instead. I scoped the PSU and the ripple and noise on the +5V and +12V with only a 10A load on each was over 200mV. That'll kill just about anything in 6 months time for sure.

shaggy77 said:
As I am good for going off topic every so often, back to the PSU. What is a good stress test for systems? I thought it was 3D Mark 06 and a CPU " stress test" program was good for overall system stressing. Still good that I got a good working PSU.

Later,
shaggy
Click to expand...

3DMark isn't a stress test. It's a benchmark. If you want to stress a graphics card, even ATI Tool works better, but it still isn't a system stress. I find that some of the time demos for games actually consume more power.

Hardware Canucks uses Company of Heroes, Orthos CPU test and HDBench all running at the same time.

For full stress, he uses 3DM's Batch Render Test at 1600X1200 resolution while running a custom version of Prime95 that exercises four cores at a time in the background.

Mike (SKYMTL) will easily pull 800W from the wall running these tests with his Crossfire or SLI builds.
 
The power draw seems normal. I ran this board with a 8800gts 640 and had 125w at idle and 205w at load (Crysis). My cpu was a Intel 6750.
 
You'd be surprised at how little computers actually use. Most people think they need a circuit breaker per machine (or like to think that), when in reality, you are using a fraction.



Now try a hairdryer or a heating bulb on that kill-a-watt. Kill-a-Watt is probably one of the coolest gizmos around, wastes great time and saves great energy :D
 
Hi,

GURU: Excellent tales of experiences and stories. Some pretty good reading there.

Ockie: Hooked it up to my hot air popcorn popper last night. I was pulling 1440 Watts!

Personally I think when you can monitor your own energy needs it is a good thing.

shaggy
 
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