Re: [PLUG] Odd hardware problem

[Eric <eric@lucii.org>]

Amul:

Good point.  My UPS has the capability of displaying the power being supplied so 
I powered the Windows workstation off (the workstations share the UPS) and shut 
down the monitor (about 35 watts).  The previous load for this workstation was 
85 Watts.  Now, it's 75 watts.  I attribute that to the new supply being more 
efficient (even at such a "light" load) than the old one.

I chose a more powerful (and expensive) supply because:

1. Athlon chips are supposedly picky about power so I wanted to be well above
    any limit - whatever that might be - that would annoy the processor.

2. I plan on adding peripherals to the system (more drives and a more power-
    hungry video card are on the list).

3. This is my main work computer.  I use it about 10 hours a day and when it's
    down I'm cryin'.  I wanted the most capability and reliability(*) that I
    could get for a "reasonable" cost. I did not go for the $200+ power supplies
    because I did not perceve the value/$ ratio was high enough to warrant the
    much increased cost.

Thanks for the thoughts.  I'll check out the review link you reference. 
"Greener" is good in my opinion and I'm glad that you prompted me to test the 
new power demand.  Nice to know that it's actually lower! :-)

Eric

  (*) For example, I use ECC RAM and a motherboard that supports ECC despite the 
added cost and (small) performance penalty because of the reliability.


> On Jan 23, 2008 11:45 AM, Eric<eric@lucii.org>  wrote:
>> I now am writing you from the recently revived Linux workstation!  I replaced
>> the dead 400W Antec supply with a 650 Watt Antec "truepower trio".  It set me
>> back $160 +tax at Best Buy.  As a bonus it's very quiet.  Now I just need to
>> quiet down the Zalman CPU cooler fan and my ears will get a well deserved rest.
>
> Eric,
> Getting on my green soap box.
>
> Buying a PSU with higher capacity might be bad.  The long story short
> is that most people only need a 400W PSU, because 1 their systems peak
> at a low wattage (about 200W) and 2 because the sweet spot for most
> PSUs is close to their PSU capacity.  Check out Silent PC Review's
> recommended PSUs list
> (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html).  They go into
> great detail about choosing the best silent PSU.  As an added benefit,
> your hummer PSU is not sucking down more energy because its not in its
> optimal efficiency range.
>
> I bought the Antec EarthWatts 380 for my MythTV machine.  It peaks at
> 120W (measured with a Kill-A-Watt), idles at 85W and under load at
> 115W.  Obviously, I could have bought a lower capacity PSU, but my
> previous PSU died before I could test the system's power consumption.
> Assuming a desktop CPU only consumes ~65W + supports power reduction
> and does not have a power hungry video card, the whole machine's power
> consumption is a lot lower than most people realize.
>
> Ok, off my soap box.
>
> Amul



-- 
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr
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