[mythtv-users] Requesting some sample kill a watt meter numbers

[Matthew McClement]

On 01/17/2011 09:30 PM, Joe Hickey wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 2:19 PM, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org> wrote:
>> What is non-standard about the form factor?
>>
>> I would think that something like this would suit your needs:
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104075
>>
>> I don't own your case so I can't guarantee a fit, of course.
>>
>> Eric
> 
> Thanks ... unfortunately it's a bit too deep -- the old PSU was 3.75"
> deep, that one is 3.94".  The problem with this case is that there is
> very little room between the PSU and the hard drives, so 0.19" --
> seemingly minor -- is actually the difference between just barely
> fitting and not fitting at all :-(.
> 
> All in all I've become disenchanted with the custom chassis - If I'm
> going to spend money, I'd rather move in the direction of using parts
> that are more mainstream for easier replacement.  That's why I'm
> curious to find out what a miniITX board mated to an 80+ PSU draws at
> the wall outlet.

It's worth noting that the form factor doesn't really dictate the power
usage all that much, so a miniITX system in and of itself won't reduce
power usage. In fact, some of the lowest power usage systems out there
are actually matx based(based on posts at SPCR).

It would be worth knowing what other components you have in the system,
to put some kind of perspective on the 85W draw. By way of example, my
combined FE/BE draws ~80W at idle, but that's with 10 drives, 4 tuners(2
singles and 2 duals), a GT240 and a undervolted AMD Athlon II X2 245.
However, ~60% of the idle power draw is the drives, with maybe ~20%
being the CPU and motherboard itself.

While I could replace the CPU/MB with, say, a Sandy Bridge setup, I'd
likely only be reducing the idle usage by ~8W. Not a huge saving, all
things considered.

Matt