[bullet937]

I know this isn't directly a power supply statement / question but I don't know of anywhere else this would fit.

With that, I've been doing some tests with my Kill-A-Watt seeing what clocks use what power and how effective Intel's C-State really is (it takes my idle down about 20 watts in case anyone wants to know).

Anyways... I came into my room and looked at the wattage and it read 80 Watts... I thought, "That's really high especially since my HDDs just kicked off". So I moved my mouse to see if anything was running and as soon as it wakes the monitor back up, the power draw drops to 59-60 Watts! I don't have a screen saver, the monitor was just in sleep mode, and when it resumed i couldn't find it to be working on anything.

Does anyone know why a PC would draw More power when completely idling than when I wake the monitor from sleeping?

PS: I didn't have the monitor hooked to the Kill-A-Watt, it was Just the tower, so that might take away some of the shock

 

[TwoCables]

It must be set to do something only when the system is idle.

 

[bullet937]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables;15327671
It must be set to do something only when the system is idle.

That's what I thought / worried. I don't like it when my PC does things when I'm not around lol. I like knowing all that happens with it -.-

 

[LiNERROR]

the machine could have been doing something in the background... AV scan, file index... bot net...

can you replicate it?

 

[bullet937]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LiNERROR;15327681
the machine could have been doing something in the background... AV scan, file index... bot net...

can you replicate it?

It probably was one of those things, I'll try to replicate it and see if the same thing happens again. I just find it a bit fishy that it'd stop as soon as I move the mouse :S

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullet937;15327694
It probably was one of those things, I'll try to replicate it and see if the same thing happens again. I just find it a bit fishy that it'd stop as soon as I move the mouse :S

That is exactly why I said that it's probably set to only do whatever it's doing while idling. Moving the mouse can interrupt something that is set to only perform its job while the system is idling. This means that no matter how fast you are, you will never catch it in the act.

However, Event Viewer might show what was happening.

 

[bullet937]

Okay, so it turns out it was just doing some work while Idling. I tested it twice again, each time it would start to spike in power usage in less than a minute after the monitor goes to sleep. The 2nd time I tested it, I left resource monitor open and saw that it was mainly mscorsvw.exe, Comodo's CMD Agent, and Webroot Spysweeper using the CPU. Glad to know it's not something malicious, just slightly annoyed to know that even if I go to the trouble to save power, my PC will still work even when I think it's idling. =/

 

[bullet937]

Btw, I was goin over your PC specs and saw that you called your HX650 overkill? Is 650 Watts really overkill for a 4.8Ghz 2500k / GTX 580 setup like yours? Personally, I went with the HX750 and I'm only running a 768meg GTX 460... now that's probably overkill

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullet937;15327897
Btw, I was goin over your PC specs and saw that you called your HX650 overkill? Is 650 Watts really overkill for a 4.8Ghz 2500k / GTX 580 setup like yours? Personally, I went with the HX750 and I'm only running a 768meg GTX 460... now that's probably overkill

It is extreme overkill for me, and so is the HX750 for you.

Check this out (my post from this thread):

My Kill A Watt reads 152W while my system is idling.

However, due to my setup, I have everything plugged into it through a surge suppressor:

1. Rig
2. Monitor
3. Speakers
4. Cable modem
5. Router
6. Cordless phone (not the main one, but one of the 3 slaves)
7. Printer

When everything is turned off, it reads about 22W. Now, while everything is off, all that's left is an idling printer (standby mode), cordless phone, cable modem and router. My speakers pull about 1-2W while idling, but I still turn them off when I turn my system off just because I can.

When my sig rig is idling but my monitor is turned off, my Kill A Watt reads 122W. That means my monitor pulls about 30W.

So when I subtract the 22W of power being pulled by the idling printer (stand-by mode), speakers, phone, cable modem and router combined, I get 132W. When I subtract my monitor (30W), I get 102W.

So, if I were able to have only my sig rig plugged into my Kill A Watt (not possible right now), then it would be reading about 102W at this very moment. If my PSU is being about 85% efficient, then that would mean my system is pulling about 85W while it's idling.

So what about my load? I've never been able to get a reading higher than 495W from my Kill A Watt. However, this is still including everything, so I still have to subtract the monitor, printer, phone, cable modem, speakers (1-2W while idling) and router. That means I have to subtract about 52W. So if I could connect only my sig rig to my Kill A Watt, then I would never be able to get a reading higher than 445W. However, I still have to factor in about 85% efficiency which brings me to a maximum power draw of about 380W being pulled from my PSU under full load (well, at least while running Furmark a few different times to find the settings that pull the most power).

Now, Guru3D.com usually recommends adding about 100W-150W to a power draw reading in their reviews because like me, they're only testing the draw with the video card(s) under full load. So that would come out to be about 480W to 530W for me (that is, of power being pulled from my PSU). Although, I would only be able to add this 100W to 150W if I were to have my CPU under maximum load at the same time as my GTX 580 which rarely happens.

Also, NVIDIA recommends a PSU that has a peak capacity of 600W to power a system that has one GTX 580 in it. Most PSUs that have a peak capacity of about 600W should have the ability to continuously deliver about 450W, maybe 480W. The HX650 is capable of continuously delivering 650W while its peak is over 750W.

For the GTX 460, NVIDIA recommends a PSU that has a peak capacity of 450W. Most 450W peak-rated PSUs have a continuous capacity of approximately 350-375W. Therefore, you could be using like the Corsair CX400 and still have plenty of power.

 

[bullet937]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables;15327945
It is extreme overkill for me, and so is the HX750 for you.

Check this out (my post from this thread):

My Kill A Watt reads 152W while my system is idling.

However, due to my setup, I have everything plugged into it through a surge suppressor:

1. Rig
2. Monitor
3. Speakers
4. Cable modem
5. Router
6. Cordless phone (not the main one, but one of the 3 slaves)
7. Printer

When everything is turned off, it reads about 22W. Now, while everything is off, all that's left is an idling printer (standby mode), cordless phone, cable modem and router. My speakers pull about 1-2W while idling, but I still turn them off when I turn my system off just because I can.

When my sig rig is idling but my monitor is turned off, my Kill A Watt reads 122W. That means my monitor pulls about 30W.

So when I subtract the 22W of power being pulled by the idling printer (stand-by mode), phone, cable modem and router combined, I get 132W. When I subtract my monitor (30W), I get 102W.

So, if I were able to have only my sig rig plugged into my Kill A Watt (not possible right now), then it would be reading about 102W at this very moment. If my PSU is being about 85% efficient, then that would mean my system is pulling about 85W while it's idling.

So what about my load? I've never been able to get a reading higher than 495W from my Kill A Watt. However, this is still including everything, so I still have to subtract the monitor, printer, phone, cable modem, speakers (1-2W while idling) and router. That means I have to subtract about 52W. So if I could connect only my sig rig to my Kill A Watt, then I would never be able to get a reading higher than 445W. However, I still have to factor in about 85% efficiency which brings me to a maximum power draw of about 380W being pulled from my PSU under full load (well, at least while running Furmark a few different times to find the settings that pull the most power).

Now, Guru3D.com usually recommends adding about 100W-150W to a power draw reading in their reviews because like me, they're only testing the draw with the video card(s) under full load. So that would come out to be about 480W to 530W for me (that is, of power being pulled from my PSU). Although, I would only be able to add this 100W to 150W if I were to have my CPU under maximum load at the same time as my GTX 580 which rarely happens.

Also, NVIDIA recommends a PSU that has a peak capacity of 600W to power a system that has one GTX 580 in it. Most PSUs that have a peak capacity of about 600W should have the ability to continuously deliver about 450W, maybe 480W. The HX650 is capable of continuously delivering 650W while its peak is over 750W.

For the GTX 460, NVIDIA recommends a PSU that has a peak capacity of 450W. Most 450W peak-rated PSUs have a continuous capacity of approximately 350-375W. Therefore, you could be using like the Corsair CX400 and still have plenty of power.

From my understanding and research, wattage is not what you should go entirely off of since it is the universal unit of measurement (Amps x Volts). Since your PSU puts out 3 voltage ranges (3.3v, 5v, and 12v) it would then be possible that you max one of those rails out in amperage draw while still being under the maximum draw for the whole PSU as a unit. This is seen most commonly in the 12v rail for it is what most of the high power draw components, especially discrete video cards run off of. Look at the some of the cheap high wattage PSUs for example, they often have low rated 12v amp output and high 3.3v and 5v amps to make up the wattage which normally isn't needed. Thus, are where people run into issues when trying to power larger / multiple video card setups.

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullet937;15328003
From my understanding and research, wattage is not what you should go entirely off of since it is the universal unit of measurement (Amps x Volts). Since your PSU puts out 3 voltage ranges (3.3v, 5v, and 12v) it would then be possible that you max one of those rails out in amperage draw while still being under the maximum draw for the whole PSU as a unit. This is seen most commonly in the 12v rail for it is what most of the high power draw components, especially discrete video cards run off of. Look at the some of the cheap high wattage PSUs for example, they often have low rated 12v amp output and high 3.3v and 5v amps to make up the wattage which normally isn't needed. Thus, are where people run into issues when trying to power larger / multiple video card setups.

But these quality PSUs don't have that problem, so that's why I said that you could even use a CX400.

 

[bullet937]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwoCables;15328048
But these quality PSUs don't have that problem, so that's why I said that you could even use a CX400.

Well, that's true... the CX400 most likely would have sufficed fine for what I'm using my setup for, I just like having plenty of overhead for any future upgrades.

 

[TwoCables]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bullet937;15328063
Well, that's true... the CX400 most likely would have sufficed fine for what I'm using my setup for, I just like having plenty of overhead for any future upgrades.

I know, but I'm just making a point.