How many watts am I using?

inerstrength

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Oct 20, 2010
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Hello Tom's Hardware community!

I was wondering before I go any further with upgradeing my system, how many watts am I using? I currently have a 750 watt PSU, I do not have a volt-meter or similar device, I also tried a online tester which is pretty much enter what you have and it will tell you how many watts you are using, but the number didn't seem to be real 350 watts.

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Could someone help me out here?

Thanks!
 

tigerg

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Feb 24, 2013
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There are online calculators, which it looks like you tried. But based on your specs and your power supply, you should have plenty of headroom to add stuff. What are you planning to add? If it's just a graphics card, you can find out the difference in total power of the two. Chances are the difference won't be too much and you will still be well within the sweet spot for that 750 watt power supply. What brand is the PSU? Or, what model number?
 

Traciatim

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Just as a reference I have an i5-3570k with a 7850, 2 spinning disks and an SSD. When I'm gaming the kill-a-watt reads about 160 watts from the wall. If I run Futuremark, Prime95, and all 3 drives running drive benchmarks at the same time I peak at about 220 watts from the wall. My PSU is an 80Plus Bronze which puts it somewhere near 82% efficient . . . so my machine is actually being supplied about 180 watts at that peak.

According to this chart while playing games the 7850 and 460 use similar amounts of power and our processors are near identical . . . http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/549?vs=542&i=413.412.414.415

SO I Would probably say your machine is being supplied 180-220 watts or so from your PSU, which, depending on it's efficiency (say 65% - 85%) would pull about 210 - 340 watts from the wall.
 

inerstrength

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Oct 20, 2010
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Hello Everyone,

I am thinking of upgrading my CPu and GPU. But the online calculators shows that I am using about 350-500 watts soo I have no idea how much headroom I have. I am using a Corsair 750 watt. HOLY @#$% I am only using that low of wattage?? wow lol. Well I am using dual monitors a 19 in and a 22 in. The only major users of the power that I can think of is the GPU and CPU. Thanks for the input peeps!

lso I forget if there is any other necessary precautions from replacing the CPU other than taking the old one out and putting the new one in software wise included.