[mythtv-users] Power Con$umption

[Billy Macdonald]

--- 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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