Faulty power meter?

[Sharft6]

I got a $20 voucher for Christmas and decided to buy a power meter. I've been around measuring various appliances to find quite a few surprises.

Here are my findings

The reason I think it might be faulty is because my computer struggles to use 83 watts! what is the use of a 1200w PSU??

 

[GhislainG]

It depends of what components were used to build your system. Why did you get a 1200W PSU? Do you have 3-4 high power video cards in SLI?

 

[Sharft6]

nah i just have a 430w psu. (see member configuration for specs)

lets just pretend that my 4850 consumes all the power(83w) and all other components use nothing. Then we add another 3 4850s so its 83*4=332w. I know my 4850 isn't the most power hungry card in the world but could the most power hungry card really use 3x the power of my 4850? ...hmm that's not a very good way of making my point but it'll do

either:
-my power meter is faulty
-1200W PSUs are useless
-the 4850, 90nm 5600+ and other components are very energy efficient.

 

[GhislainG]

It's difficult to determine if you have a faulty power meter since we know nothing about it nor do we know how you are using it.

 

[Sharft6]

sorry. I the plug power meter into the wall then i plug a device into the power meter. Just like those timer thingys except it tells me things like volts, amps, watts and has a few other features I haven't really used.

Oh and apparently my computer doesn't use a constant stream of power. it spikes by about 0-10watts every second.

 

[RetiredChief]

My system draws/consumes approx 220W Idle (320W under load) As measured at the outlet.

You could check your meter by pluging 3 100 W lamps into a extention chord then plug into watt meter and then turn lamps on 1 at a time. Regular light bulbs a pretty much resitive.

 

[hazakins]

He is probably using something like a kill-a-watt.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882715001&Tpk=kill-a-watt

 

[GhislainG]

Sharft6, you had a $20 voucher, but that doesn't tell us if you bought a cheap $20 meter or a high-precision one that costs a lot more. Which unit did you buy?

 

[Sharft6]

oh you wanted exact model?
http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4987d0c7011abd64273fc0a87f3b0724/Product/View/M7319

its one of those except its cost me $20 which is about 10USD lol.

My system draws/consumes approx 220W Idle (320W under load) As measured at the outlet.

Yea i would think my rig only uses a little less than yours

You could check your meter by pluging 3 100 W lamps into a extention chord then plug into watt meter and then turn lamps on 1 at a time. Regular light bulbs a pretty much resitive.

i've measured 3 60w bulbs and 2 20w ones. All of the tests were within 3w of the bulb watt rating. All 5 bulbs going at once were 217w

 

[cjl]

Seems wrong. My computer (4870x2 + i7) draws around 150W idle, and around 500W full load. Yours would definitely be below that, but with a 4850, you should at least be over 100W full load.

 

[RetiredChief]

Your Power meter is working for a resistive load. Your computer is a reactive load and your meter could be inaccurate.

I agree with cji that under load you should be closer to 150 W.

Take a measurement at Idle, then run FurMark and note the increase - it should increase about 60 - 70 watts. The 4850 by itself should be approx 47 W idle and 109 W at load.

Link for fur mark
www.ozone3d.net/benchmarks/fur/

 

[Sharft6]

yea supposedly my whole computer uses about 61-75 idle and 80-88 with furMark which was pretty impressive. I can't find anything that uses as much power as furMark

 

[delluser1]

Time for a new meter.
You don't have to pretend that the 4850 uses 83 watts, it has been shown to use 110 watts when running 3Dmark
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/ati-radeon-hd4850_14.html
Running Furmark would only increase the amount of power consumption.

 

[Sharft6]

oh I just did a factory reset/master clear and its working fine. up to 270 with FurMark and 123 idle.