The total power consumption of a computer is the electrical energy that powers all of its devices. You need to know it in order to choose the right power supply. Well, it's also nice to see what a constantly-on computer costs a family budget.
Instructions
Step 1
The power consumption of each device can be found by looking at its characteristics on the manufacturer's website.
One of the main consumers of electricity in the system unit is the processor. Its power consumption ranges from 45 W (Core 2 DUO E6300) to 135 W (Pentium 640). It should be noted that overclocking increases this figure by about 25% for every 10% of overclocking.
Step 2
The motherboard can draw between 15 and 30 watts. In the "Device Manager" look at what integrated devices are on the system board of your computer: sound cards, RAID devices, network adapters. They all increase power consumption.
Step 3
The video card requires 50 to 130 watts. This indicator depends entirely on the characteristics of the video adapter and on the mode in which it operates. Additional power supply increases power consumption by almost 2 times. Heavy operating modes - 3D graphics, high screen resolution, work with powerful graphic editors - also lead to an increase in power consumption. When calculating, take into account the operating mode of the video adapter.
Step 4
The power that a hard drive requires depends mainly on its condition. Peak loads are on power-up, when diagnostics of the hard disk state are started, on file searching when the heads move over the surface of magnetic media, and on copying large amounts of information. On average, this is 15-60 watts. Consider what actions you most often perform on your computer.
Step 5
Optical disc drives consume between 10 and 25 watts. Most of the energy is consumed at high write speeds, as well as when reading low-quality disks, when their rotation speed is constantly changing. Combines - devices capable of recording CDs and reading DVDs - consume a lot of power.
Step 6
The power consumption of the sound card depends on the class. The higher the sound quality, the more power is required to reproduce it. The average sound card requires 5 to 10 watts. Visit the manufacturer's website to find out the power consumption of your sound card.
Step 7
Cooling fans require 1-2 watts. Since in a modern system unit, as a rule, there are at least two of them, multiply the average power by the number of fans to calculate their total power.
Step 8
You can find out the power consumption of your computer using online calculators. Go to the site and enter the device data in the appropriate boxes. The program will calculate the energy consumption of each component and the entire system as a whole.
