N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

After reading Joe4holly's thread and talk of power supply, I have some questions!

1. Does a computer use lots of electricity?
2. What $$$ would you save on your electricity bill if you didn't have a computer?
3. Does it make a big difference if you shut your machine off in between use? I usually do just so that my comp lasts longer before components die out -- though i'm not sure if it actually makes a difference or not.

have you thought of getting one of those energy monitor to see how much electricity you are useing at that moment in time. They also keep track on how much you use.

they freaking anoying as the perents can work out if i been on the comp all day=(

Joe4holly's parents > Joe4holly. Something is wrong with this equation!

1. Depends what u define as much electricity. A idling (gaming) comp with a good graphics takes around 150w idling and 300W-400W if u play a game.

2. Assuming it has 150w and it is running 24 hours/day u are consuming 1314 kwh/year. 1 kwh costs in Germany 0.2 €, in canada it is cheaper i guess, so u would pay here 260 Euro for the computer without monitors and real usage

3. Depends on the electricity cost. But i would do it all the time if u don't download sth. etc, why i should pay the eleictricity company during sleeping? and of course that the components don't run 24 h/day! So i would do it all the time.


THe power supply is important because cheap power supplies don't have a high effiency so wasting more elictricity. But Dell has good power supplies (80plus, at least in Germany), so u don't need to worry

[quote=""36drew""]Joe4holly's parents > Joe4holly. Something is wrong with this equation![/quote]

I dont pay the bills = free stuff =D

I hardly ever switch mine off. When I put it in "sleep" mode, it uses something like 11watts (I think, can't remember).

regarding psu you want to definitely get one that is in the "sweet spot" area.
there are tools for measuring the amount of watt your system needs, there are PSU which fit perfectly to your ocnfiguration, which will skyrocket the amount you save like this. like coma said 80+ gold bronze or those silver certificates are pretty awesome.
i shut my pc down when i won't use it in the next 15-30min.

the new generation of ati and nvidia cards are pretty good at idle temps in windows, the generation from 1 year ago was terrible