Hi,
Is there any way of knowing exactlly how much electricity my computer is useng?
Phenon/9500/Quad core/2.20 ghz
.Am I using more when rendering firefly /less when watching DVC worklng on word document /these sort of questions..

p

You can get power monitors that either plug into a socket (into which you plug the item to be monitored) or have a sensor which attaches to the power cable.

Plug it into a watt meter?

You will use more power when reading/writing cd or dvd , and using the hard drive. Higher cpu use and memory changes all use a little more power.

A fast way to get a cost is to get the number of watts of your power supply (say 500 watts) and use that as killowatt hours which should be on your power bill. 500 watts is 0.5 Killowatts  so running for 1 hour is 0.5 KWH. My rate seems to be 29c per KWH so a computer costs 0.5 * 0.29 so call it 15 cents for the computer . Add the screen in the same way, and add peripherals like printers, modems etc which have thier own power supplies. That figure is the maximum cost.

a watt meter with recorder is the only way to tell actual use.

*Quote - You will use more power when reading/writing cd or dvd , and using the hard drive. Higher cpu use and memory changes all use a little more power.

A fast way to get a cost is to get the number of watts of your power supply (say 500 watts) and use that as killowatt hours which should be on your power bill. 500 watts is 0.5 Killowatts  so running for 1 hour is 0.5 KWH. My rate seems to be 29c per KWH so a computer costs 0.5 * 0.29 so call it 15 cents for the computer . Add the screen in the same way, and add peripherals like printers, modems etc which have thier own power supplies. That figure is the maximum cost.

a watt meter with recorder is the only way to tell actual use.

  Thanks,Ive looked on the power supply box and all I see is"Max output' 280 Watts ,is this then the figure I should base my calculation on?.

p

Your power supply can only supply its maximum (for you 280) , then use marks conversion.

OK,thanks/thought it might be.

p

280 watts is very light for a power supply these days . Your rate per KWH should be on your electric bill. 

If thats the rating on a laptop or notebook charger it may be a bit misleading , but use it for now.

The processor itself is rated at 95w so the power supply will usually be slightly over what the computer will use.

280 watts is indeed very light. You might want to take a look at this page and run a calculation on what power your hardware actually draws. If it comes to more than 280 you're heading for trouble.

educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

Quote - 280 watts is indeed very light. You might want to take a look at this page and run a calculation on what power your hardware actually draws. If it comes to more than 280 you're heading for trouble.

educations.newegg.com/tool/psucalc/index.html

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When you say  280 watts is indeed very light ,do you mean it should be more?,The Pc is an HP Compaq build date 2007, Ive looked the HP site and all that range is around 250 watts  to 300 watts for the mini tower mid range P Cs, Gaming P cs are up in the 500 watts range.
The info for the power supply I took from the inside of the PC written a sticker attatched to the power supply unit its self.

p

Whether it should be more or not depends on how much you are asking it to do. Every piece of hardware attached to your motherboard draws power as does the motherboard itself. Have you added things to the original system like extra RAM? A new graphics card? It all mounts up.
Do the calculation at that link. If the result is more than your 280W you need to replace your PSU urgently. An inadequate PSU will cause random reboots or shutdowns without warning, program slowdowns and blue screen of death PC crashes. It could even cause corruption of your hard-drive.

 Some pc now come with a 600 or 800 watt power supply. A lot of that goes to run the video card or cards that are now available for gaming. Yours is at the small end of the range but obviously runs your PC with no problems. Be careful adding to the pc.

Hi,
Ok I got it now,actually the PC is running fine(touch wood),no additions to  the memory and runs well on Win 7 64 bit,
Yes my sons got a biiger power supply for his games.
Had some blue scree issues wind xp 32 bit a while ago but the Pc had not been reformatted for 2 years and it gets alot of work(on average 15 hours a day) but formatted 3 months ago and changed the OS and up to date no nasty things have happened.

Thanks for your help everone,Im now a couple of steps closer to understanding my PC.

p