> > Even my rig - hotter, doesn't reach 300W when I artificially torture the > > system. Normal 'max' load is in 200W range. An normal desktop? Under 100. > > > > OK -- just to find out the truth I've attached a kill-a-watt to my current > workstation which is ~4yrs old w/ slow cpu and ancient video card but > has been upgraded w/ 7 SATA Drives: >
So the figures below are AC in, not DC out. Pretty sure the figure everyone uses for comparison is DC out. > Idle - ~285W > Light Use (emerge --sync) - ~310W > Kernel Compile w/ video app running and minor torture- ~340W > > This is definitely much higher than 100-200W stated above. > > Anyhow, given that the discussion was about a system lasting ~8yrs, which > is > twice the current age of my system, I don't think it's unfeasible that > future > upgrades (especially if video card related or if moving cpu from 2 core to > 8 > core) could get normal power util 20% higher to ~372W eventually. > > If you conservatively state that PSU wattage should be 1.66 * normal util > (so > that PSU is normally running at 60% of peak) then: > > 1.66 * 372 = 617 > I think you've double dipped there....see above comment. My 2c WRT power supplies - buy a quality brand as they are one of the least reliable components in a PC.
