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SUBMAN1 · 09-20-06, 01:40 PM

This will show you how outragous these power req are for a 250 Watt card. Notice - 147 Watts for a machine equiped with not one, but two hard drives, 2 GB RAM, Athlon 64, etc!!!! That new generation of vid card is pushing 2x the power draw alone that this fully equipped machine draws!!!!

-S

PS. 250 Watts is rediculous!!

http://www.silentpcreview.com/section5.html

NOTES:

All the systems have two hard drives.
The AC input power was measured directly; it is what the PSU draws from the AC line. The DC output power was calculated based on the efficiency of the PSU used in each system. It is the DC power delivered to the components in the system by the PSU. We have measured the efficiency of all the actual PSUs used in the above systems. The results have been posted in previous PSU reviews. The exception is system D, where a clamp meter was used to measure the DC power delivered.
It IS possible to obtain about 10~15% higher peak power draw with the same systems by engaging all the drives in the system to write and read to each other simultaneously. The actual work a PC can do under such multitasking conditions is minimal, and this kind of usage can be considered a gross abuse of the system. However, ensuring some overload margin is not unwise.
Folding @ Home is a pretty good realistic maximum power draw number for a system used with many software applications. The power draw during folding also closely approximates turn-on maximum power draw in these systems.
The highest power consumption was achieved while running PCMark04, a system benchmarkwhich brings the VGA card into play. The recorded wattage is the highest peak seen during this benchmark. Sustained maximum was about 5~10% lower.
These numbers are fairly accurate and based on empirical testing, but for argument's sake, you could say they're as much as 10% too low. The max power draw of any system we've discussed here would still be much less than 300W DC.

POSTSCRIPT — Sept 7, 2006

It's obvious that the data in this table requires some updating now to reflect improvements in CPU power efficiency as well as increases in video card power demand. Dual video card gaming systems also increase power demand greatly. In the context of SPCR, however, SLI / Crossfire are gross excesses. High powered dual vidcard systems just cannot be made quiet without resorting extreme measures, and the benefit is required or appreciated only by a fanatical handful.
Most "power requirement calculators" on the web provide unrealistically high recommendations about how much power you need for a given set of components. Outervision eXtreme's PSU Calculator appears to be much closer to earth. It also has a huge range of input parameters, such as surge compensation and capacitor aging. It seems to yield a fairly precise estimate of your system power needs and allows individual "comfort level" factors to be factored in.

09-20-06, 01:40 PM	#5
SUBMAN1 Rear Admiral Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 11,866 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	This will show you how outragous these power req are for a 250 Watt card. Notice - 147 Watts for a machine equiped with not one, but two hard drives, 2 GB RAM, Athlon 64, etc!!!! That new generation of vid card is pushing 2x the power draw alone that this fully equipped machine draws!!!! -S PS. 250 Watts is rediculous!! http://www.silentpcreview.com/section5.html *NOTES:* All the systems have two hard drives. The AC input power was measured directly; it is what the PSU draws from the AC line. The DC output power was calculated based on the efficiency of the PSU used in each system. It is the DC power delivered to the components in the system by the PSU. We have measured the efficiency of all the actual PSUs used in the above systems. The results have been posted in previous PSU reviews. The exception is system D, where a clamp meter was used to measure the DC power delivered. It IS possible to obtain about 10~15% higher peak power draw with the same systems by engaging all the drives in the system to write and read to each other simultaneously. The actual work a PC can do under such multitasking conditions is minimal, and this kind of usage can be considered a gross abuse of the system. However, ensuring some overload margin is not unwise. Folding @ Home is a pretty good realistic maximum power draw number for a system used with many software applications. The power draw during folding also closely approximates turn-on maximum power draw in these systems. The highest power consumption was achieved while running PCMark04, a system benchmarkwhich brings the VGA card into play. The recorded wattage is the highest peak seen during this benchmark. Sustained maximum was about 5~10% lower. These numbers are fairly accurate and based on empirical testing, but for argument's sake, you could say they're as much as 10% too low. The max power draw of any system we've discussed here would still be much less than 300W DC. *POSTSCRIPT — Sept 7, 2006* It's obvious that the data in this table requires some updating now to reflect improvements in CPU power efficiency as well as increases in video card power demand. Dual video card gaming systems also increase power demand greatly. In the context of SPCR, however, SLI / Crossfire are gross excesses. High powered dual vidcard systems just cannot be made quiet without resorting extreme measures, and the benefit is required or appreciated only by a fanatical handful. Most "power requirement calculators" on the web provide unrealistically high recommendations about how much power you need for a given set of components. Outervision eXtreme's PSU Calculator appears to be much closer to earth. It also has a huge range of input parameters, such as surge compensation and capacitor aging. It seems to yield a fairly precise estimate of your system power needs and allows individual "comfort level" factors to be factored in. __________________