System idle wattage - too high?

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 4:43 am

My nephew's machine is drawing 115 watt at idle. That seems too high, I was expecting something in the 60-70 watt range.

The main components are:

AMD 810 Phenom II X4
XFX HD 4850 512 DDR3
Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UDP
Corsair VX550W
OCZ DDR3 4 GB

There's only one HDD and one optical drive, and of course a mouse and keyboard attached. Nothing else.

C'n'Q is enabled and working.

I'm not familiar with the ATI settings, is there something like C'n'Q I have to enable? The GPU temp is in the early 40 deg C @ idle.

Do I have to enable GPU scaling in ATI Catalyst CC ? Or anything else I can do?

Thanks,
Thomas

hybrid2d4x4 · Post by **hybrid2d4x4** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 7:06 am

115W is about where it should be. The 4800 series has a really lousy power-saving mode, so your 4850 probably draws 45-55W idle on its own.
Your GPU idle temp is excellent though.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 10:51 am

Thanks

I just re-read the SPCR review, and I forgot to check about idle power, when we choosed this card. Fortunately, his happy, he got the power, and stayed within his budget.

Regarding idle temp - it's in a Antec Ninehundredtwo, with all stock fans at low, so there's plenty airflow. Further, the XFX cooler is the exhausting type.

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 7:41 pm

I think in a situation like that, he just needs to be aware to put the system in standby whenever he is away from it...set it to a low time to go into it when idle as well (like 10 or 15 minutes).

But a nice gaming setup at any rate!

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 8:53 pm

I've assembled a similar computer, which drew from 90W to 95W, for a friend recently.

Phenom II 810 -- AMD stock CnQ enabled
MSI 4830
MSI K9A2GM-FD -- budget 780G board
Seasonic 350HS
ADATA DDR2 800, 2GBx2
1 HDD/1 DVD writer
Seasonic Powerangel -- AC power meter

Aside from 4850, I guess your motherboard choice need to be responsible for higher idle power draw as well. Budget motherboard tends to draw less power than premium motherborad

mgarl10024 · Post by **mgarl10024** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 1:57 am

Hi loimlo,

Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UDP

I guess your motherboard choice need to be responsible for higher idle power draw as well. Budget motherboard tends to draw less power than premium motherborad

Is the thinking in this forum that Gigabyte are 'budget' motherboards? I always saw them as being pretty good...?

MG

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:46 am

loimlo wrote:Aside from 4850, I guess your motherboard choice need to be responsible for higher idle power draw as well. Budget motherboard tends to draw less power than premium motherborad

I believe you're right - 120 watt minus the 50 watt for the HD4850 is 70, which still is quite high.

I get more and more happy with my own Gigabyte 780G board + AMD 4850e, which idles around 42 watt

loimlo · Post by **loimlo** » Mon Jun 08, 2009 6:20 am

To mgarl10024: GA-MA790XT-UD4P is an expensive premium board in Gigabyte's AMD lines. In contrast, MSI K9A2GM-FD is a very cheap budget board. I guess the additional peripheral controllers and voltage phases on GA-MA790XT-UD4P eat more juice than K9A2GM-FD. In sum, every motherboard makers have budget and premium lines, so you can't compare them directly.

To Thomas: Gigabyte 780G is an all-round motherboard by my standard. Excellent choice.