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Randolph_Carter
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How do you determine how many watts your computer is actually using?
#4696935 - 09/22/05 07:09 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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See title. I'd imagine it'd be in BIOS, or that there'd be a program to check.
-------------------- "..all those molecules thrashing their kinky little tails, hot for destiny and the street." Gibson Nuke baby seals for Jesus! (This has been a +1 production.)
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Pinback
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Re: How do you determine how many watts your computer is actually using? [Re: Randolph_Carter]
#4699393 - 09/23/05 06:20 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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I don't think it can be done in software, at least not commonly. You can always get something like this:
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Seuss
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Re: How do you determine how many watts your computer is actually using? [Re: Pinback]
#4699438 - 09/23/05 07:16 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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> I'd imagine it'd be in BIOS, or that there'd be a program to check.
Nope. You will have to use something external to measure how much you consume. I am unaware of any computer power supply that has a built in watt hour meter. The easiest would be to measure the current going through the power cord and do the math to convert to watts at your given voltage. Don't forget you are dealing with AC, not DC power.
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trendal
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Re: How do you determine how many watts your computer is actually using? [Re: Randolph_Carter]
#4699471 - 09/23/05 07:30 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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There's two different wattages I can think of that you might want to measure! Which one are you looking for?
-there's the TOTAL watts used by your WHOLE computer, as measured between the wall outlet and your PC
-there's the number of watts being used by your INTERNAL components, how many watts is being drawn fromy our power supply
Measure the voltage at your wall outlet, then with the computer running measure how many amps it is drawing from the line. Multiplying the two together will give you the number of watts it is CURRENTLY using (note this can vary quite widely between an Idle state and 100% CPU load).
Now look on your computer's power supply, at the ratings (it should list the max watts available on each voltage line). Add up all the MAX wattages and you'll get the max watts that the PSU can supply (not the CURRENT watts).
Next you need to know the power supply's efficiency. There should be an amps rating on the supply (if there are two, pick the one listed beside 115v, not 230v). Multiply that by the voltage listed (115) to get the MAX watts the supply will draw from the wall. Divide the max internal watts you got in the last paragraph by this number to give you your efficiency - 800/400 is 50% efficiency.
Now, finally, to get the total watts being drawin internally (from the power supply) you take the watts you measured at the wall and multiply it by the efficiency value you got - if it's drawing 550 watts from the wall, with 50% efficiency, it's supplying about 275 watts internally.
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Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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