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Untangle Power hog

H

Hemi63

n00b
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
21
Hi,

I'm running Untangle on an old Abit MB with the following specs:
  • CPU AMD 3200 (socket 7 something)
  • 2 Gigs Ram
  • Nvidia 4400 MX
  • Samsung HD
  • Intel NIC
  • Antec 600 power supply

At idle it's drawing 100 watts from my UPS... which seems like a lot (at idle).

I would like to cut down on the 100 watt carbon footprint. Would a newer 80 PLUS power supply help decrease the current draw... or just upgrading to a new MB with a 45W quad AMD CPU and builtin graphics give me a better bang for my buck.

I'm probably going to start replacing components (one at a time) with a high efficiency power supply.

Any suggestion for a under $100 GOLD rated power supply?

Thanks!
 
I would replace that whole system with a dual core atom system. It won't be a speed burner but your current system isn't a speed burner anyways. If you need gpu performance I would get an nvidia ion based system. You should be able to get such a system for around $200 US with Windows XP pro installed. This would be less than 50W total load instead of 100W idle for about the same performance as you have.
 
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or just upgrading to a new MB with a 45W quad AMD CPU and builtin graphics give me a better bang for my buck.
Click to expand...

I would not sink any money in an 8 year old system. Changing to a smaller 400W 80+ power supply is likely to take 15 to 25W off that number total so I do not think it would be a fruitful exercise. And BTW why I mentioned smaller is being under 20% load even on many 80+ power supplies is still inefficient. Look at the graphs for the PS if you go this route.
 
It is worth doing the sums on how much the power will actually cost if your power costs $0.10 per kwh (which is somewhat middling for US rates) then 100W will cost you $0.01 per hour. That works out to just under $88 per year.

Even if you cut the power consumption in half you would only be saving about $44 per year. At that rate it's going to take quite a while to pay-back any upgrades.
 
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