PC power consumption

[tikker]

I'm debating with myself whether or not to keep this system doing its NAS/HTPC duty or cave and buy new stuff, which would be a Synology and a new HTPC. The thing is, for the same price as a 5-bay Synology I can buy a better case and 3 new 6 TB WD Reds for my current one. Soon I'll go and buy a kill-a-Watt to check it's actual power consumption, but in the mean time I though maybe some of you have an idea out of experiences. The system is:

 

CPU: i5 4690k @ stock

Motherboard: MSI Z97 SLI Krait

RAM: 2x 8GB Kingston HyperX Fury 1600 MHz

PSU: EVGA GS 550W

 

I'll try undervolting and underclocking the system to save some power. Furthermore, it's in sleep mode waiting for a WoL signal most of the day, being woken in the evening usually to watch a movie or something. I know the chip's TDP is 88 W, but even when watching, it's DirectPlaying most of the stuff so it's still hardly doing anything. The Outervision PSU Calculator says ~240 W under load at its default settings, which I'm taking as an upper limit. So my questions are basically (before I get my kill-a-Watt):

 

a) How much am I seeping and how much can I realistically get it down to?

b) Will it be worth the hassle getting a Synology or the likes, seeping ~30-50 W when active and a separate HTPC which will have the same cycle as the current one.

Currently I feel the answer is no to question b), given it's rarely used, hardly under load most of the time and I  don't need 24/7 access, nor fast (i.e. no boot/wake) access, so it's mainly a) that I'd be interested in  

[Levent]

I would suggest you to get a killawatt before making any plans on power consumption, as there is a significant difference with real life values and those internet calculators.

[DocSwag]

Honestly you might be pulling under 150w or even 100w. The CPU probably isn't drawing more than 50w

[tikker]

15 minutes ago, Levent said:

I would suggest you to get a killawatt before making any plans on power consumption, as there is a significant difference with real life values and those internet calculators.

Yeah I'm also not sure how those "% of TDP" factors influence the calculation etc.

12 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Honestly you might be pulling under 150w or even 100w. The CPU probably isn't drawing more than 50w

Hmm that'd be cool. If it's around a 100 W then getting separate stuff would make zero sense as it'd be probably 50 W for Synolog + 50+ W for another HTPC. Maybe I can squeeze out another couple of Watts with some undervolting.

[keskparane]

FYI right now I'm watching Netflix on 3440 x 1440 while writing this on 2560 x 1440.

Other specs

CPU: i7-8700

RAM: 2 x 8GB Hyper X Savage 2666Mz.

SSD: 2 x 512GB NVME

PSU: Seasonic Ti 650w

ADSL modem

Total draw from wall 86w

[17030644]

54 minutes ago, tikker said:

Yeah I'm also not sure how those "% of TDP" factors influence the calculation etc.

 

 

1

Just do one calculation with 90% and another one with 100% and see what happens

[tikker]

1 hour ago, keskparane said:

FYI right now I'm watching Netflix on 3440 x 1440 while writing this on 2560 x 1440.

Other specs

CPU: i7-8700

RAM: 2 x 8GB Hyper X Savage 2666Mz.

SSD: 2 x 512GB NVME

PSU: Seasonic Ti 650w

ADSL modem

Total draw from wall 86w

Hmm,100 W may not be a bad guess then, given that the TDP of the 8700 is 20 W lower.

40 minutes ago, 17030644 said:

Just do one calculation with 90% and another one with 100% and see what happens

Haha true, I meant more as in what's actually done with it. Looks like it's just added to the CPUs power draw.

[17030644]

2 minutes ago, tikker said:

Hmm,100 W may not be a bad guess then, given that the TDP of the 8700 is 20 W lower.

Haha true, I meant more as in what's actually done with it. Looks like it's just added to the CPUs power draw.

Yup I guess if the R7 2700 is a 65W CPU and you put 90% TDP that is 90% of 65W

[tikker]

3 minutes ago, 17030644 said:

Yup I guess if the R7 2700 is a 65W CPU and you put 90% TDP that is 90% of 65W

Was a bit confused with the power draw being 200 W, while it's a 88 W TDP.

[17030644]

2 minutes ago, tikker said:

Was a bit confused with the power draw being 200 W, while it's a 88 W TDP.

Power draw isn't proportional to TDP

 

look at the ryzen 1200, 1400, 1600, 2700 and i7 8700

 

completely different cpus, even in some cases completely different architectures yet they are all 65W parts

[17030644]

4 minutes ago, tikker said:

Was a bit confused with the power draw being 200 W, while it's a 88 W TDP.

Also the way intel and amd measure TDP are different and in case of intel TDP is measured at the base clocks but turbo boost mode is allowed to exceed TDP if it needs to so...

 

 

[tikker]

1 minute ago, 17030644 said:

Power draw isn't proportional to TDP

 

look at the ryzen 1200, 1400, 1600, 2700 and i7 8700

 

completely different cpus, even in some cases completely different architectures yet they are all 65W parts

Yeah I realized that later on, that they can't be the same thing  

[17030644]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

Yeah I realized that later on, that they can't be the same thing  

don't worry, it always happens

[keskparane]

9 hours ago, tikker said:

Hmm,100 W may not be a bad guess then, given that the TDP of the 8700 is 20 W lower

....

I still think that's high. For just watching stuff I would expect you to be more in the region of 70W