Power usage by computer

[frankyk]

How do you determine how much power your computer uses?

Obviously a computer has so many volts it uses but every computer is different due to the different peripherals inside of it.

so, i'm curious to see how much energy my computer uses, how would i calculate it since i have a few HDs, a graphics card, a cd-rom, etc.

anyone know how to figure that out?

 

[BillParrish]

To determine the actual amount of AC power pulled out of the wall you have to pay for, the best way is to get one of these, about $20. No other estimation etc comes even close to being as accurate. I am buying one first time I see one.

http://www.p3international.com/products/special/P4400/P4400-CE.html

A google will turn up lots of online sellers and I think lowes and home depot will have them too.

there is a thread a little further down where people are posting their results if you are interested. One guy with a powerfull machine figured out it would cost him over $40 a month if he left his machine on 24x7.


there are on line estimators, one is in one of the stickies I think where you can get the guesstimated power draw of your components, then factor in your estimated power supply effeciency and get some sort of ball park guess at the AC watts. It would be very rough. You can do the same thing looking up the specs for your stuff from manufacturers data pages or from labels on the equipment , but its all very rough.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=power+estimator+computer

 

[Gorankar]

Kill A Watt is one way, many ups have a feature built in that tells you your current draw.. You could try adding it all up with a calculator, but it would not be accurate unless all you want to know is the maximun possible wattage it can draw..
I can tell you that my opty175, nf4, x1900xt, audigy 2, 2gigs ram, 3x 7200rpm hds, dvd drive, silencer 750, and 19" benQ lcd draw 150-160 watts just web surfing, 220 to 240watts watching a movie, and almost 400 watts while gaming.. That is according to my ups anyway.. I don't know how accurate it is.. But the numbers seem reasonable..

 

[Michael Daly]

To determine the actual amount of AC power pulled out of the wall you have to pay for, the best way is to get one of these, about $20. No other estimation etc comes even close to being as accurate. I am buying one first time I see one.

Anyone use or consider the Watts Up Pro? It's considerably pricier, but has more features like logging over long periods and getting better estimates of variable power draw.