energy saving computer designs

  • Thread starter Thread starter socks
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socks

just curious ... i've got a "kill a watt" monitor now, and have been
checking out a few things.

i found that my old (still in service) homebuilt dual 800MHz PIII, 512MB
PC100 ECC, 60GB system pulls a little more than 80w in normal operation.
it's a supermicro p6dbe mobo in an antec 830 case (if i'm remembering my
model numbers right now).

i also found that my newer dell 4600, 2.4GHz P4, 256MB PC2700, 2x30GB
system pulls a bit less ... a bit more than 70w.

(leaving monitors out of it right now)

but the real star so far is the 2.4GHz P4, 640MB, 40GB IBM ThinkCentre i
use at work. i only had a chance to monitor it for a few hours (7), but it
seems to average just 40w in use (and just 1w in standby).

now, i'm not going to replace my current computers with Thinkcentres of
similar computational power, just to save a few pennies of electrical
power ... but i'm curious about how they do it?

can a homebuilder do it as well?
 
socks said:
just curious ... i've got a "kill a watt" monitor now, and have been
checking out a few things.

i found that my old (still in service) homebuilt dual 800MHz PIII, 512MB
PC100 ECC, 60GB system pulls a little more than 80w in normal operation.
it's a supermicro p6dbe mobo in an antec 830 case (if i'm remembering my
model numbers right now).
Click to expand...

Just out of interest, how are you measuring the power consumption?
 
Just out of interest, how are you measuring the power consumption?
Click to expand...

the "kill a watt" monitor is a fairly inexpensive gizmo:

http://www.google.com/froogle?q=kill+a+watt&btnG=Search+Froogle

i've used it to shave my power bill, but it is kind of a toy too.

fwiw, searching google groups for "kill a watt" will return the results
other people have gotten for various things, including computer systems.
70w seems pretty typical for a current-generation machine.
 
Thin and light notebook computers are typically the lowest power consumers,
especially if you chose one a bit down the list as far as performance,
and with a relatively small lcd screen.
 
Thin and light notebook computers are typically the lowest power
consumers, especially if you chose one a bit down the list as far as
performance, and with a relatively small lcd screen.
Click to expand...

i agree ... and it becomes a bit subjective about "how low you can go"
both in computational power and display quality. i like my 19" hitachi
crt (approx 75w active, 1w off) and can justify it because it is only
pulling that 75w when i'm sitting in front of it. but i would like a
tower that i can leave running 7x24 and which would pull something in the
ThinkCentre 40w territory.

fwiw, i have everything on a power strip right now (cable modem, hub,
powered speakers, 2 computers, 1 crt, 1 printer) and power them up when i
use them. i put the kill-a-watt on the whole strip, and last week's
results yielded this (i've still got my winter electricity costs plugged
in):

running 165 hours and 0 minutes consumes 4.54 kwh

average consumption 27.515 watts

KWH per year = 241.03

$22.60 per year at 0.09375 cents min charge
$41.08 per year at 0.17042 cents max charge

$1.88 per month at 0.09375 cents min charge
$3.42 per month at 0.17042 cents max charge

dirt cheap, really.
 
for starters get the most energy efficient power supply you can find. most
PSUs claim about 70% efficiency. but the Seasonic Super series and Enermax
Noisetaker series reach over 80%.

also, you may like your 75W 19" CRT but my 20" LCD (which is the same
viewable size or slightly larger than the average 21" CRT) draws 53W and i'm
sure you can do better than that.
 
wooducoodu said:
for starters get the most energy efficient power supply you can find. most
PSUs claim about 70% efficiency. but the Seasonic Super series and Enermax
Noisetaker series reach over 80%.

also, you may like your 75W 19" CRT but my 20" LCD (which is the same
viewable size or slightly larger than the average 21" CRT) draws 53W and i'm
sure you can do better than that.
Click to expand...

But at well over $500.00, is it worth the price just to save a few pennies?

MC
 
Depends on whether he was planning on getting a new CRT. You can get a 19"
LCD, which would have a larger viewable area than his 19" CRT, for under
$500 or a 17" for around $300.
 
I'd like to know what consumes more energy (ie, runs hotter) ...

AMD Athlon 64 3000 (2 GHz), or

Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (800) Prescott ?
 
I'd like to know what consumes more energy (ie, runs hotter) ...

AMD Athlon 64 3000 (2 GHz), or

Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (800) Prescott ?
Click to expand...

I found this posting on a 3200:

http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

and here (mixed german and english) are a bunch more combinations, inc.
2.8 ghz p4:

http://groups.google.com/[email protected]

it seems that homebuilts jump around a bit (based on the quality of the
power supply, or is it the choice in video card?) ... and that the 32-bit
athlon family tends to pull more watts than either 32-bit intel or the
64-bit athlons ... but i'm sure you can look at those/other posts and draw
your own conclusions.
 
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