Folding@home electricity use

[Jack Rabbit]

Silent PC Review has an article on making a DIY power meter that will only cost you a couple bucks if you have a multimeter.

** WARNING **
You are playing with mains power here.
Do not attempt unless you two clues to rub together.

[BrainEater]

Thanks ST , for the cleanup/reopen.Lets get this thread back on track.

Accuracy of the meter is moot.It's not important .I use the 'rona special' killawatt clone....18 bux.

I automatically do a (+-) 10% on every value I measure and define any conclusions based on a range.

For example , I'm running at least 1 Kw continuous load.Might be 900 might be 1100 , whatever.Folding power consumption is a dynamic value......yah only need ballpark figures anywayz.

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I will post per rig idle VS loaded values in a bit , I've gotta tear down the whole shootin match neways so.....

[Perineum]

Thanks, that could help....

[Kilauea]

Using my UPS and the program that came with it, my current rig folding (include my modem and router) consumes 183W, pausing the GPU client, I drop to 124W; stopping the SMP client drops the consumptions down to 97W.

Based on those numbers, my power consumptions for each parts while folding:
GPU: 59W (37.69$ per year)
CPU: 27W (17.25$ per year)
System (including idling CPU and GPU): 97W (61.96$ per year)
Total system consumption when folding 24/7: 183W (116.89$ per year)

As far as overclocking goes, here are the numbers for my GPU folding at those speeds:
HD4890 @ 970mhz and 4.6ghz: 59W (37.69$ per year)
HD4890 @ stock: 48W (30.66$ per year)
HD4890 @ 500mhz and 1.96ghz: 11W (7.03$ per year)

I know all my costs for GPU and CPU don't factor in the whole cost of it, rather, its the added cost of folding vs idling.

[BrainEater]

Ok here's some stuff.

These values are all + 10% of measured.

Group 1 :

Main rig ( 8800 GTX,9800 GT,Intel q9450 quad) , both main monitors . This includes the APC UPS.

Idle : 320 watts
Full load folding ( 2x gpu,1x SMP) : 490 watts

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Group 2 :

This includes my network.

Stuff online in this group includes ; cablemodem, dell 2724 switch , the 'routerofdoom' (p3 pfsense router) as well as (UPS as well ) :

AGP1 : Intel 2.6 p4 dualcore + ATI 3850 AGP
and
The e/ rig : Intel e6600 + nvidia 260

Idle load : 350 watts
Full load folding (2x GPU , 2x CPU) : 575 watts

Group 3 :

This is my arcade box.....no UPS yet .

ATI 3850 AGP , (gpu client only)

Idle : 235 watts
Full folding load 310 watts

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Total system draw (no load) : ~ 900 watts
Total system draw 'folding load' : ~ 1375 watts

So in my case the folding draw is about 500 watts continuous load.

[chrisk]

An efficient PSU will help lots. In another thread I posted ~40w in power savings just switching to a high quality and efficient psu.
Going out to finalize a folding box. Need recommendation

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by chriskwarren

An efficient PSU will help lots. In another thread I posted ~40w in power savings just switching to a high quality and efficient psu.
Going out to finalize a folding box. Need recommendation

Don't you have an enermax too Chris the 1050? they should be pretty good too.

But yes, the more efficent the PSU the better off you are.

ST

[chrisk]

Originally Posted by Soultribunal

Don't you have an enermax too Chris the 1050? they should be pretty good too.

But yes, the more efficent the PSU the better off you are.

ST

Yup. The Revolution+ is in my main rig and is very efficient.

[Perineum]

All mine are 80+

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by chriskwarren

Yup. The Revolution+ is in my main rig and is very efficient.

Yeah thats the next Big move for me. My cyber powers show a lot of pull from the wall, that would go down I bet if my PSU's were 80+ units.
I'm still waiting for Enermax's Gold 650's to show up on the market.

ST