Power consumption calculation help

[poole]

Hey so what website do you guys use to calculate the power consumption of a system? Recently, I was curious  on how much my system could be using. There is a chance that I'm using more that the rated power output of my PSU by a large margin. PC Part Picker, sea sonic and be quiet have different value.

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, poole said:

Hey so what website do you guys use to calculate the power consumption of a system? Recently, I was curious  on how much my system could be using. There is a chance that I'm using more that the rated power output of my PSU by a large margin. PC Part Picker, sea sonic and be quiet have different value.

Normally I use reviews of the CPU and videocard to see their respective power consumptions and then add 50-100W for the rest of the build.

But with @LukeSavenije remaking the 'How much Watts do you need' thread, I just reference that (since he has compiled the power consumption of most of the recent parts).

Go to the bottom of the first post, click open the Spoilers for CPU and GPU consumption and find your parts (or look them  up in reviews, but be sure to read how they measured power consumption).

 

Most of the PSU 'calculators' seem to guess a bit.

Here is the breakdown of a random build on PCPartPicker:

 

The things I would say are (somewhat) wrong:

- CPU could uses more power (up to 80W)

- cooler does not use that much

- board would only use that much if your videocard is not powered from your PSU

- a HDD doesn't use 20W I think

 

So just:

CPU + GPU + (50/100W) = power consumption you should look for.

 

Or you could ask users here and we could help out too.

[mariushm]

i don't use any calculator.

The CPU and video card consume most power.

It's enough to look at reviews for those two parts and get the power consumption for those parts separate from the system power consumption.

Then add the rest ... 20-40w for the motherboard (chipset, onboard devices like network sound etc, usb ports that power the keyboard and mouse) , 2-3w per fan, 8-10w for mechanical drive, around 3w for each ssd, around 2-4w per stick of ram

 

say your configuration and I'll give you an estimation

[poole]

 

CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor 
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING IS-60 53.6 CFM CPU Cooler 
Motherboard: MSI MPG Z390I GAMING EDGE AC Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard   
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory   
Storage: Intel 660p Series 1.02 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  
Storage: Storage: Seagate BarraCuda 2 TB 2.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive + Intel Optane 32 GB M10
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB WINDFORCE
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan 
Case Fan: Noctua NF-P12 redux-1700 PWM 70.75 CFM 120 mm Fan 
Monitor: Dell S2417DG 23.8" 2560x1440 165 Hz Monitor 

[mariushm]

cpu : 120w at stock , up to 180w at 5ghz overclock (measured using programs that use AVX extensions which re power hungry) .... in games, i'd assume 100w or less actual power consumption  but if you want you ca round it up to 150w for safety

cooler : 5w

mobo : let's say 20w

ram: 10w

ssd: 2-3w while reading, when writing lots of data it can reach 10w or so (for a few seconds as it writes to flash memory)

hard drive with optane ... 10w (rounded up, around 7w average for mechanical drive + 1-2w for optane)

video card : around 230w when gaming ... round it up to 250w for safety

case fans maybe 2-3 watts each

 

monitor ... has its own power supply but whatever, i'd say 30-60w depending on brightness maybe a bit more (my 24" monitors that used fluorescent lights not led backlight) used to consume 20-40w depending on brightness.

New monitors may consume a bit more if they try to push a lot of light for hdr and crap like that.

[poole]

With that calculation, I'm like 9 watt more than the current power supply that i'm using (I'm using a 450 watt power supply). My 2080 some how able to boost up to 2000 MHz +/- 75 MHz. The power limit is set at 111%. So I'm just a bit worried about it

[mariushm]

Your CPU and video card will not be BOTH at 100% at the same time.

Also, depending on power supply ... your power supply may have a safety margin of something like 30-50 watts above advertised value.

On some models, it's a higher value and on some they basically take higher models (ex 550w ) and put the 450w label.

 

If you're so worried, maybe you should knock it out and set the power limit to 95% or something like that.

 

What else can I suggest... get a cheap 10-15$ power meter, even the cheapies are fairly accurate. Put the meter between your outlet and your PC and see how much it's consumed.

Digital Power Monitor Meter Usage Saving Energy Watt Amp Volt KWh Electricity Analyzer Monitoring Device Equipment System Wall Socket Outlet

BN-LINK LCD Plug in Power Energy Meter Voltage Amps Electricity Usage Monitor Digital LCD Display Wall Socket Outlet, Power Consumption Monitor, 7 Display Modes for Energy Saving, Watt Meter - - Amazon.com

 

Basically, if the psu is bronze efficiency, it should be around 85% efficient at 300+ watts. A gold efficiency should be around 92% efficient.

 

So, if you see 400w on that meter, that means 85% of those 400 watts are consumed by components, so 400w * 85/100 = 340 watts ... which means you have 110w of room until you hit the psu maximum capability.