DeathFromBelow
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2005
- Messages
- 7,315
All the fans run at 5v so it's actually fairly quiet. Sucks up dust like nothing else though.
![[H]ard|Forum](/styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}
Taming The Energy Use Of Gaming Computers
- Thread starter HardOCP News
- Start date
All the fans run at 5v so it's actually fairly quiet. Sucks up dust like nothing else though.
How much energy can you save by using more efficient components in your computer? The results are pretty surprising. Do you guys care about conserving energy? Probably not as much as 3-way SLI, 1500w power supplies and stacks of hard drives.
We found enormous performance-normalized variations in power ratings among the gaming computer components available on todays market. For example, central processing units vary by 4.3-fold, graphics processing units 5.8-fold, power supply units 1.3-fold, motherboards 5.0-fold, RAM 139.2-fold, and displays 11.5-fold. Similarly performing complete systems with low, typical, and high efficiencies correspond to approximately 900, 600, and 300 watts of nameplate power, respectively.
A 1500W power supply is a good way to burn down your house. You aren't supposed to exceed 80% of 15 amps (* 120) as a sustained load unless you have 20 amp outlets (they have a sideways prong). And that's before you factor in other things like monitors, speakers, and the fact that the power supply will draw more AC than it outputs DC due to loss.
CreepyUncleGoogle
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2013
- Messages
- 6,871
It is possible to be interested in computer junk without the huge electrical needs. Like there's this group of people that are doing the opposite and trying to get the most possible stuff done on the least power/heat/wasted money/etc.
kbrickley
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- May 13, 2012
- Messages
- 7,514
Get thee behind me Satan
Actually I have a little bit of a mental conflict in this area ... I actually do like efficiency and low electric bills ... I also like efficient running games at max settings ... and doesn't everyone love it when you turn your computer on and the lights flicker and a sound like the packs from Ghostbusters permeates the room
Yup, and what good is it to recommend a $380 Zotac card over a $310 dollar card from ASUS? By the time I see a return on the increased investment I'll be upgrading again. Besides, a GTX 960 is just fine for the 1080P resolution of the monitor they recommended.
Actually I game on a Razer Blade notebook. But in all honesty, I just bought upgraded components to rebuild an old desktop of mine back to proper standards.
I'am all for saving the energy but not cause it will save the planet. It's cause less energy consumed is less heat generated which is a more comfortable game room.
sfsuphysics
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2007
- Messages
- 15,994
People pay more for higher end equipment because they want things to run faster/better. Paying more for electricity to do this is just part of the game.
Less power = less heat. That said, I saw my electric bill jump $0.30/day when I plugged in the PC (and there was no gaming). That was when it was cool out and the AC didn't run much. It jumped again when I put powered up the server.
During the day I often turn the AC up to 78 or 79. And hour or so after it goes off, it gets warm in the computer room. Walk outside that room (just 7 feet and it's chilly).
If I could cut the power in half, then I'd save 75-100/year from what I can tell and my power is crazy cheap. 750 KWH is about 45 bucks. If I was in a different state the price could easily double (the last state I was in it was double).
Get thee behind me Satan
Actually I have a little bit of a mental conflict in this area ... I actually do like efficiency and low electric bills ... I also like efficient running games at max settings ... and doesn't everyone love it when you turn your computer on and the lights flicker and a sound like the packs from Ghostbusters permeates the room
You can still use a smaller PSU in most cases.
Even if you look at most (all?) of the [H] OC reviews they're not pulling 500 watts from the plug. If you assume 80% efficiency, the biggest draw was 496 * .8 is a mere 396 watts.
One's EP may require a KW psu, but most rigs probably don't.
aShrubbery!
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2007
- Messages
- 1,029
Efficiency is dependent on the season you use your computer.
In the winter time your PC serves as a space heater as well.
In the summer it works against you.
In the winter time your PC serves as a space heater as well.
In the summer it works against you.
No it wasn't. That was just how you took it. It wasn't meant that way, i even NOTED SO** simply to make the point that most people think they are saving the world, when really all they are doing is making it worse by going out and spending hundreds or thousands more dollars on equipment that will take them years (if ever) to recoup the alleged savings back. And thats not even considering the power/energy that it took to make said equipment to begin with.
But like i said.. don't assume (but you did, and as others will, thanks Forums of the Internet) that i'm against saving power. It is a nobel goal and can be done for many reasons other then just monetary savings - as you noted, which i knew would be the case given you didn't specify,,,,, but again.. i was just using your example as a jumping off point to make others that may be directly wanting to save coin, actually do some hard numbers. Because the media and others that want to sell you the next-best "green" thing, just want your money.
**
Its true, theres almost no ROI on going green other than it slows down the death of the world. It would be nice if other components besides power supplies had better power measurements. One example is a huge power discrpancies between drive controllers, i went through quite a few where changing controllers to an HBA and switching to software raid saved me 90 watts. But the article was shit, someone just bought a new computer and tried to justify the expense as research, otherwise there would have been stairstepping power supplies, and more variations in harware. Its like doing a medical study with a sample size of you and your drinking buddies.
But if there were large differences in power efficiency of motherboards with the same chipset, or video cards, i'd probably buy the more efficient one even at a price premium since energy waste is still waste. Cash is meant to be used and if i can buy some extra trees or polar bears for a couple hundred bucks in my system build while making it cooler and quieter and saving my ac, why not. Unfortunately only power supplies seem to have any kind of grading system.
But if there were large differences in power efficiency of motherboards with the same chipset, or video cards, i'd probably buy the more efficient one even at a price premium since energy waste is still waste. Cash is meant to be used and if i can buy some extra trees or polar bears for a couple hundred bucks in my system build while making it cooler and quieter and saving my ac, why not. Unfortunately only power supplies seem to have any kind of grading system.
Matthew Kane
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2007
- Messages
- 4,233
Article fits into the category of "horseshit". Numbers are even close in real world scenarios.
defaultluser
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2006
- Messages
- 14,398
Yeah, anyone who researches their purchase for 5 minutes already knows this. The E platform has higher base power due to all that extra I/O.
And you can run a single high-end GPU system just fine off of a Core i3. Pentium is cutting things kind of close, but will still work for the majority of games.
But they're preaching to the choir. The people who buy these things don't care, because the "rush" of getting a deal is all they care about. They will never once consider the increased electric costs as significant in their pricing of components, and they don't care about the need to buy a larger PSU, a beefier case, and run the AC in their house more often.
A smaller PSU doesn't "produce" less power. Electricity isn't "pushed", it's "drawn". Current is drawn from the source, a larger PSU simply allows you to draw more current from the line without burning up the power supply.
Basic electronics my friend. If anything there could be many cases where a larger PSU actually saves you money. Let's say you have a 600W PSU in a system that during heavy use is pushing the 12V rail pretty hard and the components are getting warm. As the wires and parts heat up, they become less efficient, they create more resistance and that resistance can be seen as more heat. A better PSU will handle the draw better, stay cooler, less resistance, less heat, more efficient transfer of power.
Burning down your house due to an electrical fire is not very [H]ard.
defaultluser
[H]F Junkie
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2006
- Messages
- 14,398
Yes, but A larger PSU is not required to get higher efficiency.
And the difference in efficiency curve may mean you are in a less efficient operating range if you buy way more PSU capacity than you actually use.
When I was shopping for a new power supply a while ago, I noticed the most efficient point in many was around 50% power use, so for a system that typically draws 500w you'd want a 1000w supply (here's a review with a typical power efficiency curve http://www.anandtech.com/show/7761/seasonic-s12g-650w-power-supply-review/4. One problem I noticed in this was the larger supplies tended to be rather inefficient at idle wattages so that might offset the saving somewhat though given how low the idle in most modern systems is it's probably a pretty small factor unless your system idles most of the time...and smaller supplies tend not to be very efficient either, and it makes sense that the makers would be more concerned with efficiency at the higher draws.
The big problem is guessing how much wattage a system (especially one you haven't built yet) is going to draw "normally". If it's just a gaming rig that might not be too hard, but if you use it for lots of things your usage may be all over the place.
The big problem is guessing how much wattage a system (especially one you haven't built yet) is going to draw "normally". If it's just a gaming rig that might not be too hard, but if you use it for lots of things your usage may be all over the place.
CreepyUncleGoogle
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2013
- Messages
- 6,871
Get thee behind me Satan
Actually I have a little bit of a mental conflict in this area ... I actually do like efficiency and low electric bills ... I also like efficient running games at max settings ... and doesn't everyone love it when you turn your computer on and the lights flicker and a sound like the packs from Ghostbusters permeates the room
LOL, well it is true that you can have a fun time with your games on not a lot of power demand. I've really always kinda found the idea of not using a lot of power to be super appealing. Netbooks make me squee-explode because they're super cheap and last forever on their batteries.
I know that it's not always possible to get to max settings while using not a lot of power, but it is getting more practical and easier to do as Intel catches up to the lower middle range of video cards with their iGPUs that don't demand the same amount of cooling. As long as you don't mind playing games a year or three after they come out (which isn't a bad idea anyhow since they're usually patched properly and have like cheap DLC included), you can very easily game on mid to low end hardware and be a happy little clam doing it.