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PC Power Consumption review.

N

nas82

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 7, 2005
Messages
234
Click for review

"This brings us to the last question, How much power does a computer system draw from each DC voltage rail on the power supply?

We can answer this question and the question of how much power is demanded by various components by measuring the actual current drawn on each voltage line while the computer is in use. In fact, these are issues so often discussed in the SPCR forums without any clear conclusions being reached that we decided to measure the power distribution within half a dozen different PC systems in an effort to shed a bit more light on the topic. The results should bring some real empirical data to these discussions, and should help determine what can — and what can't — be predicted about the power draw of a system."

Interesting read.
 
1) It seems to be highly unlikely that a modern system will ever overload either the +5V or +3.3V lines of a ATX12V 2.x compliant power supply. Neither of these lines ever drew more than 5A under any circumstance, and many power supplies rate them above 20A. The power draw on these lines tended to be quite stable and did not fluctuate much with load.
Click to expand...
jonnyGURU, back to the cross-loading problems we were working on last month! :rolleyes:
 
Excellent read. Should be a eye opener to all the people who insist they need massive 500+ watt PSU's for a normal rig as well ;)
 
Cool article, but unless I missed it overclocking wasn't really tackled. I continue to be amazed how little power an A64 uses compared to a Pressy ;)

Though I run a 530w 5v heavy supply on my main rig, in reality I could easily get by with a 300w. The 420w CWT I ran on the same rig before it wasn't even breathing hard itself. My choice at the time came down to the 350w FSP350-60PN, but at the last minute I decided to go extreme overkill and grabbed the 530w instead.
 
davidhammock200 said:
jonnyGURU, back to the cross-loading problems we were working on last month! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

;)

On my latest tests, I've actually lowered my 3.3V and 5V even more. Pretty much, the load I put on those rails is simply to "fill in" the wattage not used by the 12V rails.

I will certainly consider lowering the 3.3V and 5V rails even more, but with these numbers it's actually getting harder and harder for me to get to "500W" or "600W" or whatever the power supply is because the 12V rails are only capable of 360W or 408W. I'm having to load the 5V rail up to "unrealistic" numbers just to see if a 600W power supply can really do 600W.
 
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