I just finished building an HTPC. I'm using many of the components described in a recent Guide.
Asus M3N78-EM (Geforce 8300)
AMD Phenom II X3 710
4GB of 800Mhz RAM
a single WD 1TB Geen Hard Drive
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 370W
I also purchased a Watt Meter just out of curiosity to see what's up.
I am surprised at how little power is being drawn at the wall while playing a Blu-Ray movie. I'm using pass through audio from HDMI so there isn't much load there.
The meter shows 80 Watts at the wall with spikes to 90 Watts while watching the movie (The Dark Knight, cool movie by the way). If I assume an 80% efficiency for the Power Supply were talking roughly 65 to 75 Watts actual, or about a 20% load. Playing a movie from the Hard Drive is another 10watts less.
Asus M3N78-EM (Geforce 8300)
AMD Phenom II X3 710
4GB of 800Mhz RAM
a single WD 1TB Geen Hard Drive
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 370W
I also purchased a Watt Meter just out of curiosity to see what's up.
I am surprised at how little power is being drawn at the wall while playing a Blu-Ray movie. I'm using pass through audio from HDMI so there isn't much load there.
The meter shows 80 Watts at the wall with spikes to 90 Watts while watching the movie (The Dark Knight, cool movie by the way). If I assume an 80% efficiency for the Power Supply were talking roughly 65 to 75 Watts actual, or about a 20% load. Playing a movie from the Hard Drive is another 10watts less.