TuskenTower on 25 Jan 2008 07:59:36 -0800 |
Eric, You're welcome. A 10 Watt difference with just a new PSU is pretty nice. Check out SPCR's recommended list and articles. If you are planning on getting a beefy video card, be sure to read http://www.silentpcreview.com/article798-page1.html . The after market video cooler makes a big difference. Amul On Jan 24, 2008 11:42 AM, Eric <eric@lucii.org> wrote: > 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 > ___________________________________________________________________________ > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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