Power Meter

The forum for non-component-related silent pc discussions.

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andyb
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Power Meter

Post by andyb » Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:22 am

I ordered a power meter on Friday, and hope to have it by Wednesday the 15th. Links below + Spec PDF.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Mod ... &doy=11m11
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Media/PDFs/L61AQ.pdf

I know this is a cheap and nasty power meter, but I am not interested in exact figures, I plan on using it at work to gauge the power requirements of various PC's (screens, and anything else I fancy plugging in).

I will also test my PC at home (spec below), and pretty much any other setup (of parts that I have) that anyone wants an estimate on.

Hopefully by the end of next week I can post 4-5 PC setups power consumption when idle and under load.


Andy
Last edited by andyb on Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Brian
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Post by Brian » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:17 pm

Kudos. Once your power meter arrives, you can begin optimizing your PCs' power consumption.

Actually, your power meter looks pretty sophisticated compared to mine. Despite its limitations, my homemade power meter is indispensable.

If you're like me, you'll end up pulling your discrete sound card in favor of the onboard one, unplugging unneeded drives, and seeing how far you can undervolt. I also measured my computers' standby power consumption.

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Post by Felger Carbon » Sat Nov 11, 2006 8:30 pm

The Maplin is identical to the Seasonic Power Angel and the Kill A Watt; they are all the same meter with different wrappings. The givaway is the five pushbuttons and the location of the power connector, which are identical on the 3 units. I have a Power Angel (dead) and a Kill A Watt (live), and have taken the wrappers off. Not at all cheap (in the since of lousy) and nasty. Very decent units all.

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Post by Ralf Hutter » Sun Nov 12, 2006 7:34 am

Felger Carbon wrote:I have a Power Angel (dead)
Care to expound on this?

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Post by UndCon » Sun Nov 12, 2006 10:28 am

my server is using less than 9W

http://undcon.no-ip.com

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Post by andyb » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:09 am

Cool, both of those power meters have a good reputation, and if this one is indeed the same on the inside its cheap AND good.


Andy

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Post by andyb » Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:24 am

OK, the power meter turned up today, and does look identical to the "Kill-A-Watt" power meter.

Its dead easy to use, and has everything that you could want to know about AC power usage, even including the Power Factor.

Below are the systems that I was able to do a few quick tests on today, remember that all of the values are in Watts, and are AC input (what the whole system including PSU consumes), the actual amount that the systems consume will be much lower, however the PSU will waste a fair amount of energy.

Hiper HPU350S.
MSI KT6 Delta mobo.
Athlon XP 3200+ (2500+ OC'ed, using the defaul voltage, so should be considered as a real 3200+).
1 x 512MB Stick of Kingston DDR 400.
1 x DM9 120GB PATA.

Idle 102W, Max usage today (actually shutting the PC down.!!!) 120W.

System identical to above, with aditional DM9 80GB PATA, copying data across Gigabit LAN from server, CPU usage 20%-60% 111W-123W (shutting down added a little more).


Hiper HPU350S.
Duron 900 (Spitfire core .18nm).
Integrated VIA graphics mobo.
1 x 256MB DDR
1 x 80GB 7200.7

68W in the BIOS, as the drive is blank nothing else was tested.


Hiper HPU350S.
MSI K9N Neo (nForce 550) mobo.
3500+ AM2.
2 x 512MB DDR 667.
1 x Slimline 160GB 7200.9
6200 NON TC PCI-E Graphics card 64MB??? (passive).

75W Idle in XP, no drivers installed, so CnQ was NOT running.


Tagan PSU (wattage unknown), I will update this tomorrow.
NF3 mobo (unknown), I will update this tomorrow.
3200+ (pinout unknown).
1GB DDR 400 RAM (qty DIMM's unknown).
2x HDD's (one of which I beleive to be a 74GB Raptor).
Watercooling on CPU.
6800......GPU (model unknown).

I know the specs are a little thin at the moment I will update the above tomorrow.

Idle 120~W
3DMark 2001 Maxed out at 201W (should use 10-20W more using 3D Mark 2005/6).


15" LG LCD screen 13W.


Acer laptop equiped with 15" LCD, some kind of Athlon XP etc etc

Idle 33W, Max 67W (when removing crap software installed, so system not exactly pushed to the max).


Seasonic S12 380W.
MSI K8N Diamond (939 NF4 SLI).
4200+ DC CPU.
2 x 1GB DDR 400.
2 Maxtor 7200RPM HDD's model number unknown, power saving in windows NOT enabled (I will update specifics later).
7900GT 256MB.

Idle 95W
Max during BF2 169W (1280x1024 @75Hz, everything maxxed out).


Coming up later, will be my 19" LCD (LG L1915S)


My System, as specced below, all drives except my T133 400GB will spin down after 3 minutes in windows, and stay that way unless I access any data on them, or start up BF2. For some reason this game starts up all HDD's when I enter a game with a new map, it wont re-spin up all drives if I carry on the same map...... It has been suggested that its because of some software checking for bots etc etc, either way I listed both readings.

Loading Windows Max, 162
Idle all 4 Drive running, 114
Idle 1 drive running, 83
BF2 4 Drives, 206
BF2 1 Drives, 180

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope that these real numbers for real systems will be useful for many SPCR readers, I will add more systems as and when I can, most will be measured in idle, or in mild use, and will be unlikely to be thrashed, I will try to put a meaningful description to just what the system is doing at the time I measured it. This is not in anyway scientific, unlike SPCR's testing, but I hope to help people judge fairly what power their current/proposed system actually needs.


Andy
Last edited by andyb on Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:48 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Post by Felger Carbon » Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:41 am

Ralf Hutter wrote:
Felger Carbon wrote:I have a Power Angel (dead)
Care to expound on this?
I left my first purchase, the Power Angel, plugged into the line outlet strip 24/7 for 6-10 weeks. At the end of that time, I noticed the device was dead. At that time I lived in Santa Clara, where sudden temporary power outages - and accompanying voltage spikes - were common.

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Post by andyb » Sat Nov 18, 2006 6:23 am

I have 2 updates.

My PC, playing Half-Life 2, max settings @ 1280x1024 used 185W.

The following machine has already been tested with a Hiper 350W PSU without CnQ working and NO fans apart from the AC Alpine and the one in the PSU. 75W Idle in XP, no CnQ.

With the Antec SP 2 460W, with the same setup as above WITH CnQ enabled it used 78W.!!!!!!! yes thats what I thought. The Generic £10 Hiper 350W is more efficient than the Antec 460W at this load.

Same system as above with fans.

1 x Generic 80mm @ 12v 78-79W
1 x Generic LED 120mm @ 5v 79-80W
With both fans 81W

At some point in time I will put all of the data I have collected into an easy to read form, that should be of more use to the SPCR readers, in the mean time I will add data as and when I get a chance to.


Andy

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Post by andyb » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:35 pm

Another system.

Hiper HPU350S.
Gigabyte nForce 4 SLI motherboard.
3700+ CPU.
2 x 512MB DDR400 RAM.
7800GS 256MB.
7200.7 80GB SATA.

Idle 74W.
BF2 1024x768 everything maxxed out ~185W (I wasnt checking exactly, I ran out of time).

I will re-test this system with BF2 accurately, and update the "ish" Watt figure.

I will re-test this system with BF2 when I have the new PSU to go into the PC, an S12-330.


Andy

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Post by andyb » Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:00 am

Another Monitor.

Samsung 710N, 17" LCD.

Defaul monitor settings, 1280x1024 @ 60Hz - 23W.

Fast moving images, 1280x1024 @ 60Hz - 24W.

"Check Signal Cable" (i.e. monitor on, PC off) - 23W, this is one to take into account, turn your LCD off when not in use.

Higher brightness levels will increase the power usage, and newer, very bright screens will use a lot more power. I am told that about 1/2 of all of the power that small LCD's use is due to the backlight, but 32" + LCD TV's for example actually use MORE power than 32" CRT's.


Andy

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Post by Felger Carbon » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:52 am

andyb wrote:...32" + LCD TV's for example actually use MORE power than 32" CRT's.
LCDs are brighter than CRTs. CRT ~100 max, LCD typically 300. I have my 19" LCD monitor turned 'way down, and my 17" HP CRT monitor turned all the way up, and the HP (my backup monitor) is still a lot darker than my LCD.

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Post by andyb » Wed Nov 22, 2006 4:39 pm

I dont own, or know anyone who owns a large 32"+ LCD to test, this is only what I have heard on the net, so take what I have said with a pinch of salt, and if you have a manual that actually says what your LCD TV sucks (power wise) please let us know.

Once I have dug through the entangled mess of cables that is occupying the space under my desk to find the power cable that is attached to my own "LG Flatron L1915S" I will thoroughly test its power consumption using my own monitor tweaks, the default, and the built in "lightview" options.

The measured brightness levels are a quite uniformed standard in the industry, and should be easy to measure, as they will all say MIN, and MAX, I can test MIN and MAX, to see what they really use on MY screen.


Andy

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Post by jaganath » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:04 am

I just got my new power meter; my PC uses 12W when it's off but connected to the mains, 55W at idle and about 70-72W at load; this is pretty much what I expected, to be honest. Specs: Sempron 3000+ @1.9Ghz/1.2V, 5400rpm HDD, onboard GFX,active PFC. I would have to replace pretty much everything to get a significant decrease in power consumption.

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Post by andyb » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:25 am

All of the deesktop PC's I have tested all take between 5 and 6 watts when connected to the mains but not on.

12 is just silly, even if that includes an LCD thats just wrong...........

A 17" LCD I tested takes 1W

What PSU is it.???

The idle results are pretty much what I expected them to be, and at max usage thats really low.

Before I got that power meter, I was considering buulding myself a ultra low power dirt cheap box, that has some performance.

I ruled out epia PC's because their performance sucks, and they are not dirt cheap. I made a costing of £205 all in, for a Sempron 2800 AM2, integrated everything mobo, 512MB DDR2 667, 80GB SATA Laptop drive, 330W SS PSU, and no case as I wanted to DIY one for fun.

what stopped me was the fact that my current PC used less power than I was thinking it did, I thought my graphics card used a lot more when idle, I was guessing 100W - 120W, it turns out to be 83 at idle (downloading, browsing etc etc). I was working on the basis that I could save £100 - £150 per year, so it would pay for itself.

Now I have worked out exactly what my current PC uses, and Epia would be the only PC that would bring significant savings.

I could have got myself a 900MHz Duron box for £60 including an 80GB laptop drive and a SS 330W PSU, but that used 68W so I didnt bother :(

I have the following turning up sometime next week, I will test it with an SS 330W PSU.

Gigabyte GA-M61PM-S2 (6100+430 single chip mobo).
3500+ AM2
1 stick of 512MB 667 Kingston
Low profile Single platter 160GB 7200.9 SATA

Link for the Motherboard, looks good, I will let you know what its like.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot ... A-M61PM-S2


Andy

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Post by jaganath » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:50 am

All of the desktop PC's I have tested all take between 5 and 6 watts when connected to the mains but not on.
12 is just silly, even if that includes an LCD thats just wrong...........
A 17" LCD I tested takes 1W
What PSU is it.???
It's not including the LCD! The PSU is some generic **** (ColorsIT), that's why I was surprised it seems to have active PFC.
I have the following turning up sometime next week, I will test it with an SS 330W PSU.

Gigabyte GA-M61PM-S2 (6100+430 single chip mobo).
3500+ AM2
1 stick of 512MB 667 Kingston
Low profile Single platter 160GB 7200.9 SATA
One good thing about AM2 chips is they don't have the Vcore lock, so you can get them below 1.1V; that should bring some power savings.

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Post by andyb » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:04 am

The "Generic" PSU's I am using at the moment are these, they are dirt cheap, seem to have good efficiency (tested), and are a well known respected brand, and I havent had any faliures yet. They are "hiper 350S".

They are usually found here from £10-£12+ VAT, eBuyer tend to make things vnsih when they dont have stock good thing I have abou 12 spares :)
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/search/i ... owAll=true


Andy

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Post by jaganath » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:21 am

The "Generic" PSU's I am using at the moment are these, they are dirt cheap, seem to have good efficiency (tested), and are a well known respected brand, and I havent had any faliures yet. They are "hiper 350S".
Yeah, I considered those, but some reviews say the fan runs at full-blast on start-up? How quiet are they compared to Seasonic S12?

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Post by andyb » Sat Nov 25, 2006 4:23 am

In my noisy office they are quiet, I havent taken 1 home 2 check though.

They seem to only run at one speed, I havent heard them run fast at all though.

Pretty much nothing compares to the S12's.


Andy

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Post by andyb » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:21 am

I have tested a 32" LCD TV :D

Its a "Samsung LE32T51BX" 1366x768, 2000:1 contrast, and 500cd/M2 brightness, 2x7.5W speakers.

This is interesting in 2 ways, its power usage starts high, and slowly (over 30 minutes) drops down.!!! And secondly the power usage does not seem to change when the integrated speakers are pumped up (I only tested the volume at 0 and 20).

Exceptional power draw in standby mode, 1W.

Startup power 165W going up rapidly to 170W, and then slowly dropping down to 144W after 30 minutes, I imagine that it would not have dropped below 140W even if it was on for several hours, as the rate of power usage decline slowed down a lot the lower it went, it was ~5mins dropping from 155W to 154W.

I did not try any different monitor settings to play with brightness as its not mine, but the screen looks excelent at whatever setting its is currently at.

-----------------------------

Another system, probably still quite a popular rig that many users will still be happy with, anyway, onto the specs and power.

AMD Athlon XP (Sempron), 256K Cache, 1833Mhz, 2 x 512MB Sticks of RAM, Gigabyte nForce 2 Chipset, 2x 7200RPM HDD's, Radeon 9550 256MB graphics card, 4x 80mm fans, Magna 600W PSU (identical in everything but the name to the 500W version).

Idle 113-118W (fluctuates a lot), max reading while loading windows and apps 144W, Gaming - Dark Messiah (based on the "Half Life 2" engine), being run at 800x600 settings medium-high, 132W.

----------------------------

17" Formac Gallery LCD "FGDS1740".

Standby 28-30W for 20 seconds, then dropping down to and staying at 1W.

Full White screen 33W, full black screen 30W, whilst posting on the SPCR forums its currently at 32W, fast moving images appear not to register a difference, so lets classify it 1W to be on the safe side, essentially this monitor maxxes out at 34W.


Andy

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Post by kike_1974 » Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:04 am

I have found that there is a european version of this power meter:
http://www.prodigit.com/e2000m.htm

But I can't find any place where to buy it. Does anyone know where can I buy it?

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Post by Brian » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:18 pm

I'm suprised at the high power consumption of very large LCDs.

If I understand correctly, the backlights of LCDs are fluorescent, which typically operate at 20% efficiency (versus 9% for halogens and 5% for incandescent). In which case, there's little that could be done to reduce power consumption save making the display dimmer.

LCD TVs should have an option to allow you to turn the backlight way down and even off.

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Post by andyb » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:56 am

LCD screens MUST have a backlight, if they dont then they will be unusable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_cry ... ive-matrix

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backlight

If you have the backlight turned down be sure do be in a very dark room.

Having seen several laptops where the backlight has failed (usually the high voltage inverter), the image is barely visable, and camn often only be seen if its in a bright environment. I use a torch to identify the problem.


Andy

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Post by andyb » Mon Nov 27, 2006 4:47 pm

OK people, I have eventually got around to hunting through all of my very dusty cables to find the one that powers my 19" LG Flatron "L1915S".

I am actually testing this LIVE using a torch to read the power meter under my desk (NON-backlit LCD).

Whist writing this post at 1280x1024@75Hz the monitor is using a paltry 27-28W :o

My personal preferance is the "Normal" setting with the Gamma reduced to -50 (it only has 3 settings -50, 0, +50), I usually change the Brightness to about ~75, and the Contrast to about ~85. By reducing the Gamma everything looks different, it reduces the glare and sharpness as well as the "brightness level", it essentially narrows the gap between Light and Dark.

Below is a much better explanation than any I can give, have a read under the title "A Simple Monitor Test", and look at the 2 semi-circles, both of mine are clearly visible, but most importantly, the left semi-circle that should be nearly black is plainly visible, and the right semi-circle is not too bright.

I am not suggesting that anyone else uses these settings, I personally find them very comfortable and my eyes are more sensetive to bright lights than most peoples, and being able to see in shadows is a huge benefit in BF2 :P

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_correction

Having just written the above I now see that my monitor is now using 28-29W, not quite so good, but still better than the last 17" LCD that I tested.

On with the test------------I tested these right at the start of me writing this, and the power usage has not gone up more than 1W, all of the numbers I have posted are always the highest numbers that I see and not the lowest.

Using the built in "Lightview" options:

Day Movie, Day Text, 29W
Night Movie, 28-29W
Normal, 27-28W

I have unfortunatly run out of time to do any further tests, I will add more info to my montor testing tomorrow. I will test my screen with 100% white, 100% black images to see how much of a difference that makes. I will also test with high and low brightness differences, the contrast should be interesting, I really have no idea whether it will actually change the power usage or not, I suspect +1W maximum.


Andy

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Post by jaganath » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:16 am

I am actually testing this LIVE using a torch to read the power meter under my desk (NON-backlit LCD).
Do you mean the backlight is turned off, or the LCD doesn't have one?

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Post by andyb » Tue Nov 28, 2006 6:12 am

The LCD doesnt have a backlight, the display looks like most basic calculators do, including the crap viewing angle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculator

You have to be in a lit environment, and under my desk is dark, so my new LED torch came in very handy.

I have just checked my order for the new nVidia "single Chip" Chipset with integrated graphics, and its been shipped :) I whould be ablt to test that over the next day or 2 when it turns up, it will be tested with a 3500+, a single 512MB stick or DDR2-667 a slimline SATA 7200.9 160GB and a SS S12 330W PSU. I am hoping for it to idle at 60-65W, fingers crossed.

The board is the Gigabyte, GA-M61PM-S2
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot ... uctID=2373


Andy

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Post by andyb » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:51 am

I am very very impressed with my new toy, and im not talking about the power meter.....

this morning I recieved my GA-M61PM-S2 Motherboard.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot ... uctID=2373

And have put it together with a 3500+, a single 512MB stick or DDR2-667 a slimline SATA 7200.9 160GB and a SeaSonic S12 330W PSU, and an LG DVD-RW.

The lowest power usage i have seen it run at is just 35W, and the highest so far (installing drivers) has been 63W. On the desktop, with only Windows XP and the drivers installed it is varying between 35W and 37W, Coon n Quiet is enabled, DVD drive not spinning.

33-34W as above but without the optical drive attached.

Next up......... I will add another Stick of RAM, and then the fun part, I am going to image the hard drive to a PATA 80GB Seagate 5400.3 Laptop HDD.

The single chip nVidia solution is a must have for anyone who wants a good chipset, and is concerned about power usage and heat, this is MUCH cooler than the previous southbridge chip on its own, let alone adding the northbridge into the equation.

-------------------

UPDATE 1:

I have added another identical stick of RAM to the system, the peak reported power usage has now hit 67W (while loading windows, which of coure was quicker). The idle power usage has now risen to a huge 35-36W 8) which ever way you look at thos numbers you have to be quite impressed.

-------------------

UPDATE 2:

Things keep on getting better :o how does a 30-31W at idle system grab your attention, I used a drive imaging program to image the previous drive to a single platter 5400.3 PATA drive.

-------------------

UPDATE 3:

I have kept the system with the Laptop HDD, but I have now removed 1 stick of RAM, it now idles at 28W......... this is way way lower than I could have hoped for. Remember for all of you "low power usage junkies" you can still reduce the power usage, it will cost you more than an SS S12-330W PSU but you can happily use this system with a PICO PSU which has a higher effieciency than the SS S12's at this power draw, AND you can buy a slower CPU AND even have a go at undervolting :D

For me this represents an excelent price tag (without a case, and using a Sempron 2800+ I can buy all of the components in the UK for £205 +delivery (VAT included).

-------------------

UPDATE 4:

I decided to unplug the S12-330, and use a couple of "Generic PSU's", first on the bench is a "Sansun SN-350", I thought I would bring PSU efficiency into the game out of interest. I am only going to test these 2 PSU's using the lowest power setup (Update 3) as testing them on a high powered rig is exactly what this rig is NOT, also PSU's efficiency is nearly always the worst at the smallest amount of power usage.

The "Sansun SN-350" scored at idle 34W, thats 6W more wasted by the PSU than the S12 330.

The "Hiper HPU-3S350" scored at idle 33W, thats 5W more wasted by the PSU than the S12 330.


Andy
Last edited by andyb on Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:22 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Post by jaganath » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:51 am

The lowest power usage i have seen it run at is just 35W
That's 20W less than my idle consumption, and I'm running a S754 Sempron! What the h*ll!?
single platter 5400.3 PATA drive
How quiet is this HDD?
how does a 30-31W at idle system grab your attention
I must say I would be damn happy with a 30W idle, that's less than a lightbulb! Congrats on your new system. :wink:

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Post by andyb » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:59 am

This PC is actually replacing one of our old "Test Rigs", we use it for everything from web browsing, to virus scaning other people PC's, and backing up their data accross our Gigabit Ethernet to our server.

This machine will be subjected to being on for 8 hours a day, being restarted up to 15 times a day, and is a general workhorse, the CPU never really gets hammered, and watching movies just doesnt happen. The reason why we bought this is that AM2 is the future (well current since DDR-2 prices have dropped), and Gigabit LAN is a MUST for us.

As far as most users are concerned, this system represents something that can be used for the vast majority of uses by people on a budget that are not serious gamers. On to of the overall performance that is available with a high efficiency PSU the power usage whilst web browsing, using MS word etc etc is remarkably low.

For many people who have been put off of buying an "epia" PC because of its crap performance and high cost this is the ultimate offering that is available right now. I just cant praise this system enough. :P

The 5400.3 is an excelent drive, but seems to make a horrible clicking noise every minute or 2, I have used 4 of these drives and have only noticed it on 2 of them, they have both been thoroughly tested and work flawlesly. I can also recomend the Samsung Laptop Drives which are slightly louder while spinning but the seeks are not audiable, and they dont "tick" at all.

Updates 3&4 have now been added.


Andy
Last edited by andyb on Wed Nov 29, 2006 6:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Wed Nov 29, 2006 5:09 am

For many people who have been put off of buying an "epia" PC because of its crap performance and high cost this is the ultimate offering that is available right now. I just cant praise this system enough.
Yeah, it is possible to get idle power consumption all the way down to 15W by going with a Core Solo and integrated GFX but the cost is just ridiculous; whereas this probably cost, what, £200 all in?

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