[Joshuashawharvey]

With power supplies now hitting 1000w+, and becoming as power consuming as an ordinary vaccuum cleaner if used to their full potential. Do our computers really need this much power at full load? Will the future bring even higher wattage PSUs? Or will computer components companies (particularly graphics cards) focus on the power consumption of their products? AMD are already focusing more on power consumption with their new Quad Core processor, should other companies stand in line and do the same? With all talk of wasting electricity and destroying the environment, will the future of computers play a role in helping to destroy the environment, or will they change their ways? Let us know your thoughts

[Avenger907.NL]

Many of the Graphics card companies are not telling in their adds how many energy their products cost. Yes I am worried about them and I know for sure that these products can be a lot more environmental friendlier if they put some efforts into it. I wonder if there are tools to check how many energy your or mine computer uses daily.

What about the Plasma Big Screen TV's they are notorious with their energy consuming. The standby settings of your devices like printers, battery loaders for the Laptop etc? I use a simple light switches between the power supply wires of the computer and sockets of the enery companies. I don't know the words. So if I switch the lightswitch off all devices will not be able to use energy silently.

It's not much but it saves me now already about 50 euro or more a year and it is less polluting.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Talking about plasmas is going a little off the topic, which could lead to a debate on pollution and the environment, which is not really what this topic is about.
Well a graphics card that uses more than 75W of power has to have a direct supply of power from the PSU, a graphics card that uses less than 75W can power from the bus only.
Many high end graphics cards have to have direct power from the PSU, which is one of the reasons I went for a HD 2600 as the card only uses just 30W of power, and can therefore power directly from the bus alone. My high end PC uses approx 80w of power idle and about 160w load, which in my opinion I think is excellent considering the power of my computer, which I monitor with a small LCD screen at the back of my PSU (Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0, 2GB OCZ PC-6400 4,4,4,12 timings, 500GB SATAII HDD, ATi HD 2600 GDDR4). Nowadays I tend to look for "energy efficient" computer products and try my best to minimize the power consumption of my computer, which I feel I am doing to the best possible

[Atk Spade]

Id say that anyone that can use a ful 1KW to Power their PC would be full of it. Sure they make 1KW PSUs but they are really a bit overkill. I power a Quadcore and an 8800 on a 580W PSU and the Rails are super stable and the PSU temp is A-OK.

[Joe]

well they will be at shock when there electricity bill comes through lol i mean turn the watt down talk about carbon foot print.

[Atk Spade]

Are you referring to me? I try my damnedest to save electricity, mainly to save a few bucks, but my PC (considering computing is my career) is not something I'm willing to go "eco friendly" on. In fact, i'm not sure how one would go about that.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Atk Spade

Are you referring to me? I try my damnedest to save electricity, mainly to save a few bucks, but my PC (considering computing is my career) is not something I'm willing to go "eco friendly" on. In fact, i'm not sure how one would go about that.

No i was talking about the 1Kw Computers Yours is half that amount.

[Joshuashawharvey]

Well try running two 8800's in SLI, or two HD2900's in Crossfire, that will use about 500w-600w itself at full load. Quad SLI and Quad Crossfire is now coming in and a computer could easily consume 1KW of power with the graphics alone, not to mention the other components

[Joe]

yes but this is becoming a bit silly now i mean cant they take the power consumption down a little.