On Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:24:42 +0100 (BST), Dave Liquorice wrote:

On Sun, 6 Sep 2009 09:19:06 +0100, PeterC wrote:

As for the power monitor: at first my PC was shown as flicking between
80 - 90W, which is about the same as on the above MM. Turning off the
monitor dropped it to 40 - 50W, which is about right for a 35W monitor.
Next time I turned on the PC it was 190W! The monitor dropped it by
~100W - not bad via a 12V 3.3A PSU.

Did you let it settle or was that the first reading after the switch
on. OK SMPSU's shouldn't have much of an inrush compared to a motor
or transformer based PSU but there will be a bit.

I let the PC boot fully and settle down, so about 2 min.
I do wonder why it was 'right' the first time and then 'wrong'.

If the PC were to run at 90W+ the CPU would fry as it's 65W TDP and is
very rarely at 50%.

The CPU load does affect the power it takes but I'm not convinced
it's a great deal and there will be other stuff taking power like the
north and south bridges, graphics, and memory. Still it does look a
bit odd.

It's a quiet, low-power job. The PSU is a Seasonic 330W with aPFC; the fan
never speeds up and the outflows from PSU and case are cool, so no way is
it taking ~100W. The heatsinks on the mobo are warm, not hot.

I have a CurrentCost CC128 with the serial data hooked up to the
server for logging. It's fun ploting out the days usage, I always
turned the coffee machine off once the jug was half empty to stop the
coffee stewing but having seen the plot will be better at that. As
for the kettles "keep warm" feature...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/allsorts-60/3891740435/

Yes, have to be wary of the 'keep warm' feature.
I went next door to feed the new puppy. I needed hot water, went to turn on
the kettle and it was at about 40 - 50C and no-one had been in the house
for 3 hours. My neighbour hadn't realised what was happening - the kettle
is now turned off at the wall.
--
Peter.
The head of a pin will hold more angels if
it's been flattened with an angel-grinder.