Electrical Costs

[spazzychalk]

Thanks for the great info, Karamiekos. Yes, I must have the newer, 65 nm one. Got it around March '08. I have heard people toss around figures like 200W, 220W, etc., and it certainly doesn't get anywhere close to that.

I don't see anything on the box indicating either way. You'd think they'd put "NOW with state-of-the-art low power 65 nm fabrication of sub-wavelength featuring special imaging technologies, such as optical proximity correction and phase-shifting masks" (from Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/65_nanometer ). Maybe the entire graphics on the box were different before - I wouldn't know.

the 200w and 120w figures are just the power supply ratings not the usage.

[elpablo]

Hi all
Hoping to give all an exact idea about the question, I report here the power consumption while idle and while folding, measured with a professional ammeter on the pc-line.
The difference between folding@100% and no-folding is less than a KWatt-a-day... really cheaper than a coffe...


Good New Computing Year to all

[bruce]

An ammeter may not provide accurate measurements of AC power, depending on the power factor. It's better to get a device that measures true watts. Personally, I purchased a "Kill-a-Watt" and have been very happy I did. Mine fits the US outlets and voltages, but there's a version for european voltages and plugs.

[elpablo]

Thanks to bruce , I've modified my chart to show technically correct values and unit.
So this is my new chart:


Now it's ok, and the meaning is always the same: my PC running folding@home for 24 hours uses 0,80 KWh more than the same PC on-line for 24 hours only to navigate or similar... intelligenti pauca...

[Karamiekos]

Little update just for grins.

Custom built Server: 4 AMD 8356s @ 2.3 GHz, 8 gigs RAM, ubuntu server 9.10
-power usage while folding on 16 cores ~425 watts
-bout 40,000 ppd depending on work unit
- so about 94 points per watt efficiency
-costs me $44.37 a month in electricity at 14.5 cents per KWH

Custom built Desktop: AMD 9950 @ 3.2GHz 2 gigs RAM, ubuntu 9.10
-power usage while folding on 4 cores ~319 watts
-bout 5,500 ppd depending on work unit
- so about 17 points per watt efficiency
-costs me $33.30 a month in electricity at 14.5 cents per KWH

Lots of juice, spendy project.

[Nathan_P]

Here's mine

2 x 8800gt - 1 stock, 1 factory OC to 650/1800/900
1 x GTS 250 9stock
athlon II X4 620 @ stock
asus M3A32 deluxe, 2 gb ram, 40gb HDD

20k PPD @ 440 watts gives 45.45 PPD/watt and costs £39 a month. electric where i am is £.12 per Kwh

[edhere]

Anyone know how much better the PS3 Slim is on power usage? Articles I've seen suggest it doesn't exceed 100 Watts with high usage, so I have it running 24/7. Anyone have PS3 Slim and a "Kill-a-Watt" / ammeter?

I just installed the SMP client on my PC but I haven't decided if I'm gonna run it 24/7 or go back to the standard Windows client. It's an HP with a Q9300 running Vista 64. Worried that it will use double the energy of the PS3 Slim or more.

[Zagen30]

Posts here say around 80 W for the PS3 slim, 100 at the most if you don't have it on screensaver mode. You might want to consider that your desktop would gain far more PPD than your PS3, and it would probably do better on a PPD/W basis. Also, do you normally leave your computer on all the time? If so, then you'd only really need to look at how much more power the CPU would draw when running full blast than at idle, and since the TDP of a Q9300 is 95 W, it wouldn't be that much.

[spazzychalk]

why would you want anyone to consider running one instead of the other that doesnt even start to make sense. everyone should be encouraged to run everything they have

[P5-133XL]

why would you want anyone to consider running one instead of the other that doesnt even start to make sense. everyone should be encouraged to run everything they have

In a world where money doesn't matter that may work. Some people, with limited disposable income, actually have to make monetary choices.

[spazzychalk]

In a world where money doesn't matter that may work. Some people, with limited disposable income, actually have to make monetary choices.

what does 60 watts cost again? thats what you guys are saying his ps3 slim uses. you can find that kind of change on the ground at the fast food drivethrough window. i played this game already. shut down folding for 2 months, thats an old 60 gig ps3, a dual core system, and 4 other single core systems. no difference in the electric bill

[PlayLoud]

why would you want anyone to consider running one instead of the other that doesnt even start to make sense. everyone should be encouraged to run everything they have

Ideally yes, but the reality is electricity costs money. I live in Southern California, and I can assure you the electricity cost is noticeable. Given that I live in a house that already uses a lot of electricity (we love our computers), any folding I do is already in the highest priced tier for electricity usage. I forget exactly how much that is, but I think it is near 40 cents per kilowatt hour at that tier. That's about $70-$80 per month extra for just my dedicated folding rig (Q6600@3.2, integrated video), and my PS3. If you start throwing in big multi GPU systems in the mix, it can REALLY start adding up fast.

I love to contribute, but electricity costs are real, and it sometimes forces me to limit my contributions. If electricity was free, I would probably have another dedicated machine by now.

[edhere]

Thanks for the information Zagen30's. SpazzyChalk, I would like to run everything all the time but I would like to make that decision with good information. I also have to convince my wife.

Points are an important factor in making the decision because Folding@Home uses points to identify value to the project. At the same time, they value all the platforms for different reasons since they can do different kinds of work on each platform.

On the first tier on my last electric bill (the first 1000 KWHs) I paid 11.164 cents/KWH. At 80 Watts, my PS3 costs me 21 cents per day. Without rounding errors it works out to $6.52 per month or $78.24 per year. Not bad.

I didn't run the PC 24/7 until I got the SMP client working yesterday. Still not sure how much it will cost to do so but I wouldn't be surprised if it's 3 or 4 times as much as the PS3. Might need to get something to measure the Watts. Amazon had several different Kill-a-Watts and I wasn't sure which to get. Recomendations?

Zagen30, I don't know how to use the TDP figure. I have read that the Q9300 is relatively efficient but I don't have a high-end graphics card so my PS3 Slim might actually get me more ppd/W than my PC. Not sure.

[Orion602]

Ideally yes, but the reality is electricity costs money. I live in Southern California, and I can assure you the electricity cost is noticeable. ...

did you think about buying couple of solar pannels? Southern California.. just some five 200Watt pannels on the roof and you could run powerful folding rig with very small electricity cost.

i know it can't be done everywhere, but for some it can be good option.

[Slash_2CPU]

Cheaper idea than solar panels:

If you run a large farm, run a 240v/20A line. PSU efficiencies increase when running 240v since the amperage(and thus losses) in the primary windings drops by half. 500W draw at the wall will drop by 10-30W. The line losses(yes, your meter sees that power use as well) from the higher amperages in the 14 awg wire you're on now will also drop.

If you're in the US, look at NEMA 6-20 (aka 6-20P) outlets.

It's easier to never use the power in the first place than to go the solar route.

Yes, I have done this, and yes, it works. Caveat is that the 80-plus supplies are already so good, they will be on the lower end of that gain figure. My cheapo folding-only budget box with a no-name PSU saw the biggest power drop.