Program to check power consumption?

[EthanTheFrogMan]

is there a program I can use that is accurate for checking power consumption?

[Samfisher]

A physical watt meter.  They are pretty cheap.

[ForsakenLive]

No. You should get a hardware watt meter. They don't cost much and are pretty accurate.

[EthanTheFrogMan]

No. You should get a hardware watt meter. They don't cost much and are pretty accurate.

ok, I will get one, I assume the PSU will draw what my PC is using?

[mrswagbhinav]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001

[ForsakenLive]

ok, I will get one, I assume the PSU will draw what my PC is using?

No. The PSU will draw more than what the system uses.

 

A 80+ PSU will at 50% load be 80% efficient.

Let's say you have a 200W PSU, and a system that really only uses 100W.

The PSU will take 120W from the wall.

Remember the PSU is actually a big voltage transformer with different rails. On that voltage downgrade (from 110v (or 220v) to 12V on the CPU rail) there is power loss. The more efficient the PSU is, the less watts it wastes on the conversion.

 

So always calculate the PSU rated efficiency at the % of load.