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Old 12-14-2008, 11:52 PM   #8 (permalink)
The Atomic Ass
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Mason, OH
Posts: 535

Overland - '24 Nissan Versa S 5MT
90 day: 40.29 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox View Post
Its pretty horrible when you look at the numbers. 70% efficiency and my computer at idle consumes 150W. That means I'm wasting 45 watts as a best case scenario!
Have you verified that number by a Kill-A-Watt or other meter? I HIGHLY doubt you'll be drawing 150w at idle, unless your monitor is factored in. With my Mac Mini, (smaller than your computer I imagine, but keep reading), 2 external hard drives, external DVD-writer on idle, USB hub with a cellphone charging off it, and a broadband modem, all while running file-sharing to the tune of 10-15mbps, (A lot of disk access), was only drawing about 65 watts average, at the wall, through a UPS. I only get up to about 150w with my monitor running.

Trebuchet: The 8A is maximum burst current draw. As in when all the motors in all the hard drives, dvd drives, and the processor are all drawing maximum load, while the PS capacitors are charging up, which is what happens in a start-up condition, when you have enough equipment tacked on to run the PS at full load afterwards.
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Last edited by The Atomic Ass; 12-15-2008 at 12:00 AM..
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