New PSU Calculator - Watts and 12V amps

SnooP · Post by **SnooP** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 12:06 am

I've been working on a PSU calculator based on measured results off reputable sites, focus is on being as accurate as possible. SPCR users might notice that most average systems are recommended by the calculator to run on 200-350w PSU's.

So far main features are (some unique):

* Works out wattage and 12V amps draw
* whether a dual 12V rail PSU will work or not (appies to SLI systems in particular)
* UPS calculations (work out what rated UPS you need)
* CPU and GPU overclocking, does dual cpu and SLI / crossfire

Anyways i'm looking for more feedback on top of what OCAU users have given, any comments, bugs, suggestions? Anyone with wattmeters can post results to compare calculated AC watts (you'll have to have a rough idea of psu efficiency for that) compared to measured (while running stressful game such as 3dmark06 or fear, or just run any modern game with prime95 in the background). Thanks

http://web.aanet.com.au/SnooP/psucalc.php

DanW · Post by **DanW** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 1:56 am

any chance of getting VIA motherboard chipsets in there too?

SnooP · Post by **SnooP** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:02 am

Hmm maybe, know any sources for power consumption of via chipsets?

DanW · Post by **DanW** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:14 am

SnooP wrote:Hmm maybe, know any sources for power consumption of via chipsets?

not at the moment, I'll start digging round on the net.

burebista · Post by **burebista** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 4:42 am

Congratulations. You are very-very close.

ABIT KN9, AM2 X2 3800+, BFG 7900GS OC, 2 sticks of RAM, 1 HDD, 1 DVD-RW, 1 PCI card, 1 case fan, 80% M-12 500 efficiency at full-load = 136W in full load from your calculations.

This is exact my peak power draw from the wall in full-load measured by a Kill-A-Watt device. Real PC consumption should be 136Wx0.8=109W.

And I like this kind of PSU calculator where are shown Amps on +12V rail(s).

Kudos to you.

ryboto · Post by **ryboto** » Tue Dec 12, 2006 8:47 am

I wish I had a power meter to confirm the results...but, it seems accurate, only 158W, would make sense while gaming with my cpu overclocked. They recommend a 465W generic psu, or a 264W quality psu. I currently use a 485W enermax, I always knew it was overkill.

crap73 · Post by **crap73** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:01 am

wow! thanks!
i'm puting together a new box and couldn't figure out how much power it needed (OC6600, OC7950GT, 2x1GB, 2HDD SATA, 2DVD-RW, 2PCI cards).
i tried a few other calculators and they all rated between 615-680W

, which obviously didn't seem right.

Your calculator recommended 352W, which makes sense so I'll trust it and find myself a PSU in the 350-400W range.

nici · Post by **nici** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:01 am

Seems to work... Though its not yet good enough for a newbie. The 165 Opteron is in the list, but my opty has a TDP of 89W, not 53W. So i chose the FX-60 which has a TDP of 81W, and then OCd it slightly and got 90W. My CPU probabaly draws 95W or something.

My point being that ibn its current state, it is pretty accurate, but you have to know what you are doing.

Oh, i got recommended a 332w PSU, with 267 w AC draw. I have to check actual total draw wnen i get home, without GPU load its about 210W so 267W might actually be pretty close.

SnooP · Post by **SnooP** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 4:37 am

Yep I'll add TDP's to the model listings definitely to make it easier, thing is your assuming that TDP = power consumed which it isn't. For many processors AMD in particular, the actual power consumption can be a lot lower than TDP values, since the TDP is excessive to begin with (absolute worst case - never going to happen in real world) and they use it for a whole line of models - but power consumption increases / decreases with cpu speed. So off:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AM ... processors

the 1.8ghz opteron 165 has TDP of 110w, as does the opteron 185 that is 2.6ghz. Yet from the clock speed difference we know the 185 should use roughly 45% more power than the 165 (same core, same voltage), but the TDP doesn't tell us this.

nici · Post by **nici** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 7:12 am

Yes, but if you check out the TDP thread in CPU cooling(i think) you will see that there is at least three different TDP ratings for just the 165. The software used in that thread shows my Optys TDP at 89W, some got 50Wish IIRC and there was a 110W version too. Got to go now.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:05 pm

The 945G is displayed to need more power then the P965. What is the source of your intel power ratings?
Otherwise good work, though my 945G, Merom and 2,5" hdd aren't yet covered

Nice harddrive power figures:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sto ... power.html
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sto ... r-pro.html
http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/sto ... 7k100.html

SnooP · Post by **SnooP** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:24 pm

Thats what i have, about 15w for P965, and 20W for 945G (not super accurate). Its the 965G that uses more power since it has a high performance onboard graphics.

source:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/chipse ... 50_14.html

Thanks for the digitlife links, i had the enterprise one but hadn't found the more useful consumer hard drives one.

Yes, but if you check out the TDP thread in CPU cooling(i think) you will see that there is at least three different TDP ratings for just the 165. The software used in that thread shows my Optys TDP at 89W, some got 50Wish IIRC and there was a 110W version too. Got to go now.

Yep, same with X2's older ones were 110w, newer ones 85w. All so complicated! Again i'm just saying TDP isn't actual power consumption. for example.

Athlon64 3000+ = 65W TDP, measured by SPCR to use 32W under prime95

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article313-page5.html

klankymen · Post by **klankymen** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:28 pm

jojo4u wrote:and 2,5" hdd aren't yet covered

dang, you beat me

Post by **CA_Steve** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:02 pm

very nice - and timely for my upcoming build.

SnooP · Post by **SnooP** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 8:44 pm

jojo4u wrote:and 2,5" hdd aren't yet covered

Now they are

I've added a few notebook models, suggest any if theres notable ones that are missing.

nici · Post by **nici** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 1:48 am

SnooP wrote: Yep, same with X2's older ones were 110w, newer ones 85w. All so complicated! Again i'm just saying TDP isn't actual power consumption. for example.

Athlon64 3000+ = 65W TDP, measured by SPCR to use 32W under prime95

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article313-page5.html

I get that, but since my CPU is OCed to 2,8gHz, it should be pretty close to the TDP. Its the same core as the FX-60 at 2600mHz, only mine runs at 2800mHz. I dont know what TDP the FX has, probably 110W. But i only run 1.375V, i suspect the FX has a higher vcore. All things considred, you probably know bettert than i what im talking about

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:42 am

SnooP wrote:Thats what i have, about 15w for P965, and 20W for 945G (not super accurate). Its the 965G that uses more power since it has a high performance onboard graphics.

The 965P is more evil than you might think. Probably it's not the chipset alone but mainboard design:

hudge roundup of intel chipsets
viewtopic.php?t=33733&highlight=p965

945P vs P965 vs 975X
viewtopic.php?t=33974&highlight=p965

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 9:11 am

SnooP wrote:Hmm maybe, know any sources for power consumption of via chipsets?

http://www.epiacenter.com/powersim/powe ... tor_v2.htm

It's an existing power calculator for epia boards, but you can probably figure out what you need by playing around with it.

MC FLMJIG · Post by **MC FLMJIG** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:36 am

Very nice calc. I like it.

The final # is how much power is drawn on the 12 right?

Great job!

Where it says dual cpu = quad core? Or is it if you have an X2 or C2d dual? Kind of confusing.

stv · Post by **stv** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:47 pm

excelent!!!!!

kike_1974 · Post by **kike_1974** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 3:56 pm

Great calc!! I really like it.

Since the last time I checked you have added the TDPs of the processors to the list and I like it.

Could it be possible an optional selectable TDP value for the calculations?. For example, the TDP info is embedded in "E" stepping athlon processors, and different values are obtained as it is shown in these threads:
viewtopic.php?t=30627
viewtopic.php?t=30626

In any case, good job!!

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:09 pm

Nice calculator! Said the total consumption of my rig was 210W which is pretty close... it takes about 225W max straight from the wall when gaming (IRC - it's been awhile), though I don't know how efficient my Fortron PSU is so I just guessed. I also have 5 cold cathodes so that's another thing you can add to the calculator.

Just to let you know there's an error in the video card section. The default memory speed for the X850XT is listed as 1.880Ghz which is much too high. Default is 1080Mhz. Also, I suggest you put your contact information up on that page so others can send you feedback.

Edit: hmm after going thru my records turns out I actually used 261W maximum in 3DMark03 (which I found uses more power than any other single application). Did get up to 222W with Prime95 though.

SnooP · Post by **SnooP** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 12:27 am

I'd assume the forton would be about 80% efficient at load, so 261w in 3dmark06 x 0.8 = 208W, pretty damn close

x850xt speed is fixed.

The final # is how much power is drawn on the 12 right?

Great job!

Where it says dual cpu = quad core? Or is it if you have an X2 or C2d dual? Kind of confusing.

dual cpu has nothing to do with dual core cpu's. Its when you've actually got 2 seperate cpu's on the motherboard, i may just ditch the feature though to keep things simple, since i added it for support of the AMD 4x4 platform, but they sell the cpu's bundled anyways, so listed them as bundle.

The 965P is more evil than you might think. Probably it's not the chipset alone but mainboard design:

hudge roundup of intel chipsets
viewtopic.php?t=33733&highlight=p965

945P vs P965 vs 975X
viewtopic.php?t=33974&highlight=p965

Ok i'll look into it, i was going off this, which shows the 965p as the best of popular intel chipsets.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q4/nf ... ex.x?pg=21

http://www.epiacenter.com/powersim/powe ... tor_v2.htm

It's an existing power calculator for epia boards, but you can probably figure out what you need by playing around with it.

Cheers, i'll see what i can do with it.

Could it be possible an optional selectable TDP value for the calculations?. For example, the TDP info is embedded in "E" stepping athlon processors, and different values are obtained as it is shown in these threads:

At this stage i'll say no, thats going to add a lot of complication, or hundreds more entries into an already big list of cpus. Also the majority of users will just go off what the cpu box says ie the typical 89w/67w/110w/125w and so on when choosing what cpu to use, metioning the embedded TDPs could be confusing. I could add a little hack to let you manually input the cpu wattage however.

kike_1974 · Post by **kike_1974** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 6:06 am

SnooP wrote: I could add a little hack to let you manually input the cpu wattage however.

That would be great

Thanks SnooP.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Fri Dec 15, 2006 6:20 am

SnooP wrote:
The 965P is more evil than you might think. Probably it's not the chipset alone but mainboard design:

hudge roundup of intel chipsets
viewtopic.php?t=33733&highlight=p965

945P vs P965 vs 975X
viewtopic.php?t=33974&highlight=p965
Ok i'll look into it, i was going off this, which shows the 965p as the best of popular intel chipsets.
http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q4/nf ... ex.x?pg=21

I got one topic more to consider: viewtopic.php?p=301051#301051

New PSU Calculator - Watts and 12V amps

So any good?

New PSU Calculator - Watts and 12V amps