[mythtv-users] Power Con$umption

Rob Comstock mythtv at westcoastlinux.com
Thu Mar 25 00:23:44 EST 2004


I looked at athcool but have not attempted to use it.
I do have "spin down" set on my disks but the system is
also a mail, file, dhcp, etc server so the disks don't get
much rest. For measure I used a "Kill-A-Watt" tool 
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3182968400&category=3240
that plugs into the wall and then plugged my system into it.
Because my machine is so busy with other work items I 
don't think I can sleep it much.

One more item that I have yet to measure. The system
is powered by a small UPS. I have yet to measure the
machine directly into the wall without UPS to see how much
power UPS draws (I don't think its much, I have a similar
UPS driving my router, cable modem, VOIP modem, and
a 10//100 8 port switch and all of that is only 25 watts).

Ciao

Rob


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Billy Macdonald" <whmac33 at yahoo.com>
To: "Discussion about mythtv" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Power Con$umption


> --- Rob Comstock <mythtv at westcoastlinux.com> wrote:
> > I just measured the power consumed by my MythTV server and
> > was suprised to find it ticking away at 175 watts (24-7 of course).
> > Here in California that gets pretty ugly over time. A KWh
> > costs me over $0.24 so that works out to around $32 a month.
> > The box is a Athlon Thunderbird 1.3G running 3 ATA disk drives (all
> > 5400 RPM, two 60g and 1 180g), a matrox g400 dual head for
> > TV-out (that card has a fan on it), two ethernet cards, and a
> > AverMedia brooktree video capture/tuner card. 
> > 
> > Does 175 w seem high to anyone else? Do other processors
> > of equivelent compute power (how does a 2 gig celeron compare 
> > in  performance?) take less power? Have others measured the
> > power consumed by their myth boxes? if someone knows of a 
> > power consumption database that already exists I could take
> > a look there. Failing that if  you would like to post the power 
> > numbers and the system configs I could setup a page to do 
> > that.
> > 
> > Thanks!
> > 
> > Rob
> > 
> Rob,
> 
>    I was concerned about power consuption on my mythtv and heat output in the
> summer here in the desert (Southern Arizona, US).  My electric bill is going to
> start skyrocketing soon so I setup my myth box to shutdown while idle and wake
> up when it's time to record.  It's been going ok like that for about a week. 
> Only downside is that I can't schedule a recording from work via the web
> interface.  I'll be setting up WOL though soon to help with that.   Someone
> mentioned athcool.  I think there are also projects out there that will
> shutdown your harddisks when idle.  They may help too.  
> 
>     Finally how do you test the wattage used by the PC.  Is it a special plug
> you connect to the outlet?
> 
> Thanks,
> Billy
> 
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