[mythtv-users] MythTV box power usage

[Jay Summet]

>     A typical box for mythtv does not draw much power.   A box with
>     efficient power supply, core 2 duo, 2g ram, single hard drive,
>     modest video card (7600gt or 8400gs) will draw about 65 to 70
>     watts at the wall (kill-a-watt) and go up to perhaps 100w if the
>     CPU gets going full bore.
> 

As a reference point:

I have the cheapest computer I could buy from Frys:

It has a Celeron D 3.2Mhz  CPU in it with 1GB ram, 2 HD's and a fanless
NVIDIA GeForce 7200GS graphics card. [I shutter to think about the
efficiency of that power supply...]

My computer alone takes 120 watts idle and goes up to approx 140 when
transcoding, commflagging, watching HD, etc.

The whole setup (when watching TV) takes 335 watts (TV and receiver add
a lot, plus another external HD, printer, antenna pre-amp, HDHomerun,
etc). When we turn the TV and DVD/Amplifier off when not in use, the
computer, HD Tuner, external HD, antenna preamplifier, printer, UPS, etc
take up 141 watts when idle, and around 160 when recording,
trans-coding, or detecting commercials in a television show.

I've estimated that this costs around $10 a month of electricity. (aprox
0.10 a kW/h)

This is why I've set the box to shut itself down when idle. We still
have a constant drain of 36 watts for all of the other components, but
thats a lot better than 140-160 continuously. The complete silence is a
nice side-effect. Having to boot the computer when I want to watch TV
and wait for two minutes is the trade-off.

Jay





-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 260 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/attachments/20090215/6da6fd49/attachment.pgp>