power use

[alan-r]

how much is my comp using, i know it probably like asking how long is a piece of string,
i have 500watt power supply, 2 hard drives, pentium 4 cpu,3 gb memory
i know what the monitor uses.
for some reason this comp will NOT go into stand by ,if i put in hibernation it will not wake up.not bothered about that as i can set the power settings to shut hard drives off and monitor within 3 mins so i suppose that's the same as stand by ??
just seeing if i can cut down power energy bill it normally on for 18 hrs a day,
any info welcome

[snags]

I haven't read the following link but it might help you work it out:

http://michaelbluejay...ricity/computers.html

[vivandorron]

You say you have a 500watt power supply. Are you saying that that is what your computer is rated at consumption wise.?. Sounds rather high to me. Nevertheless, irrespective of your computers components, any electrical item which is rated at 500 watts would use one unit of electricity in 2Hrs.( a 100watt lamp would require 1 unit for ten hours usage.)

Ron.

[JonnyBoy12]

Sorry to hear that but 500 watts seems very high to me. I am not sure how to advise you but all computers should be able to do on standby.

[alan-r]

the power unit in the comp is a 500w supply G7 ATX PSU.
when i go to standby in my comp (xp pro and its staying xp till 2014 thanks)it looks like its gone into standby, the fans are still on but when i move the mouse to come out of standby the comp restarts fully, doesn't bother me as it's done this for years, as i say i have a setting in power options to turn off monitor and hard disk within 3 mins

[ChuckFickens]

Spinning your hard drives down and back up again so often will shorten the life of them though.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Running at 50% capacity it will cost....0.25 x 14p per hour =3.5p/hr

[alan-r]

thanks for all your answers
chuck.. i didn't know that one cheers

[vivandorron]

Chuck....I am regularly putting my comp to 'sleep' Are you suggesting that it is better to leave it fully switched on with all mechanical parts in motion.?

Ron.

[ChuckFickens]

Technically..... yes, Ron. as with any electrical equipment most wear is caused by power cycles.

in the case of hard drives, you have to make a decision based on use. spinning them down every 3 minutes is excessive by any standards! I'd say 20-30 min is more acceptable on a desktop/laptop.

For the "proper" stuff with hard drives in (servers and any hard drive array) any power saving along those lines is not advisable.

[vivandorron]

Thanks Chuck for your prompt reply.

Please forgive me alan-r for asking Chuck a further question in your thread.

How long will my comp survive if I leave it switched on all day..Say 12hrs.?
(Perhaps this is an unfair question.!!)

Ron.☺☺☺

[ChuckFickens]

How long is a piece of string?

For most individual items in a computer you can find a MTBF value. (Mean Time Between Failure).

but as in any value, it's only an indication, for example, a western digital hard drive might quote a MTBF of 1.4 million hours.... but that's a pretty meaningless value TBH, the drive (or any other part of your computer) will last as long as it lasts and that may only be one hour!

You're safer thinking "it will fail" and preparing for that.

[ChuckFickens]

(oh and about 14 years is the best I've seen for one computer..... 3-4 years without a hardware problem is about the average IMO though)

[AlBags]

Yes .. One of my mates reboots once a year.
You can bet your bottom dollar that's when any problems will show tho!

[vivandorron]

Thanks Chuck and AlBags for your responses. I'll switch off now....Not my computer, but asking further questions in alan-r's thread.

Apologies if I am sometimes a pain in the posterior. You both know me by now and that I always respect your advice.

Thanks again....Ron.

[Mobius1]

Looking outside the obvious answer of the initial question in that any piece of string is twice as long as half it's length; why not buy a power consumption meter? You plug it into the socket and then plug your PC's mains cable into it and it will give you an LCD readout of the consumption in watts.

Of course, have a power supply rated at 500W means simply that; it is rated to supply a maximum of 500W under full load. That in no way at all means that it will consume that amount of electricity during day to day operation. As snags link points out in a table, the energy consumption of a PC will depend on both it's components and also it's usage patterns. Surfing the net and typing a word document will, for example, use significantly less energy than playing a modern PC game or encoding video. So really, there is no way to say exactly aside from testing it yourself and recording power draw when doing the things you do with it. Even then, the best you'll be able to work out is a semi educated guess.