The AP Environmental Science course has about 20 of these at school, and I used one to measure the wattage from my pc. Amazon.com: Watts Up Pro AC Power Meter: Home Improvement
This is my PSU, although I paid $400 since it was only recently released when I bought it: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2937371&CatId=5115
And the specs:
EVGA X58 3X SLi
Intel Core i7 920 OC'ed to 4.2GHz w/ water cooling.
3X EVGA GTX 480 OC'ed to 850MHz w/water
12GB Patriot 3ch ram
2 HDD (not really much power draw, though)
8 Yate Loon D12SH-12
3 Delta PFB1212UHE (just arrived on tuesday)
3 Swiftech MCP35X pumps
Under full load the room heats up like no other and it is unbelievably loud. All these together it easily gets up to 1500W, mainly due to the OC'ed GTX 480's. Here is a picture for those who don't believe me:
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It really is crazy how expensive it can all get. But my job primarily deals with 3D modeling and rendering, so it is nice to have a powerful platform to operate on. I tend to max out my ram, even at 12Gb, so I'm tempted to add a 24Gb kit to give me some headroom when I run fluid dynamics, especially RealFlow. Program eats ram like no other.
Current US electrical code requires a 20 amp outlet in bathrooms for hair dryers. So if your dorm room has it's own bathroom you may be in luck.
Many dorms ban microwave ovens as they draw too much current. But if microwaves are allowed that should also be a 20 amp circuit.
Most intelligent dorm wiring allows one 20 amp breaker per room with the lights on a separate circuit.
It is legal and common practice to put two 15 amp outlets or more on a single 20 amp breaker. It is not legal to put two 20 amp outlets on a 30A breaker.
So your monster power eater should work if nothing else is on! (Well maybe a small stereo.)
Many dorms ban microwave ovens as they draw too much current. But if microwaves are allowed that should also be a 20 amp circuit.
Most intelligent dorm wiring allows one 20 amp breaker per room with the lights on a separate circuit.
It is legal and common practice to put two 15 amp outlets or more on a single 20 amp breaker. It is not legal to put two 20 amp outlets on a 30A breaker.
So your monster power eater should work if nothing else is on! (Well maybe a small stereo.)
Love it : :
I.love when kids have to.post pics because.nobody.believes them.
Then the adults gasp and are taken back.by the masterpieces the young-crowd has revealed.
Great-post, even better debate. Even Greater Picture!!
Glad.I.followed along.until thee end
Hope all worked out.. Im at Central.& power has always been an.issue. Hope all.is well for you & your enjoying the college experience my.brother !!
Keep it up : :
The AP Environmental Science course has about 20 of these at school, and I used one to measure the wattage from my pc. Amazon.com: Watts Up Pro AC Power Meter: Home Improvement
This is my PSU, although I paid $400 since it was only recently released when I bought it: Ultra X3 ULT40070 1600-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, PCI-E Ready, Energy Efficient, Modular, Lifetime Warranty w/ Registration at TigerDirect.com
And the specs:
EVGA X58 3X SLi
Intel Core i7 920 OC'ed to 4.2GHz w/ water cooling.
3X EVGA GTX 480 OC'ed to 850MHz w/water
12GB Patriot 3ch ram
2 HDD (not really much power draw, though)
8 Yate Loon D12SH-12
3 Delta PFB1212UHE (just arrived on tuesday)
3 Swiftech MCP35X pumps
Under full load the room heats up like no other and it is unbelievably loud. All these together it easily gets up to 1500W, mainly due to the OC'ed GTX 480's. Here is a picture for those who don't believe me:
I.love when kids have to.post pics because.nobody.believes them.
Then the adults gasp and are taken back.by the masterpieces the young-crowd has revealed.
Great-post, even better debate. Even Greater Picture!!
Glad.I.followed along.until thee end
Hope all worked out.. Im at Central.& power has always been an.issue. Hope all.is well for you & your enjoying the college experience my.brother !!
Keep it up : :
Did you buy a job lot of periods and feel the need to use them up quickly before they go stale?
I, an adult, found it difficult to believe that a PC could consume kW but I guess it depends on how patient the user is? When you can only get one program run per day on a central computer (if you are organised) then you make sure each run counts! That was research-level computing 35 years ago.
I, an adult, found it difficult to believe that a PC could consume kW but I guess it depends on how patient the user is? When you can only get one program run per day on a central computer (if you are organised) then you make sure each run counts! That was research-level computing 35 years ago.
Have you ever tried to host a minecraft server?, 8gb of ram? 8 core cpu? peh good luck!
All those plugins don't run on steam.Seriously though that game is the purest example of inefficiency that I've ever seen, but it does do quite a bit of work, rendering all those blocks..
To the OP:
I've had some issues aswell with a Seasonic X900 power supply (900w max rating) and a core 2 quad cpu + 2x SLI gtx260 gfx cards overclocked + 8x hard drives.
When it boots up you know it, it breaks 700w from the wall on startup, typically in dorm rooms I would expect a massive drop of voltage on the mains line, however electricians do design for this and its perfectly safe up to a point.
Its peak output capacity for the shared 12v bus is 72 amps...
I wouldn't be warming my feet from an electric heater though while you're gaming!
Maybe you could ditch one or two of the cards? use the money for a new headphone amp or pair of headphones, Either that or buy a kill-a-watt meter and actually measure the draw needed to run your PC?
Killer system by the way
Check out the dorm rooms at mit now: http://disobedience.mit.edu/?p=813
Woowee!!! You even get a free complimentary stallman.
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I got given a DIGITAL MIPS machine once, cpu was an R3000? i think, interesting machine. It had a missing component that prevented me from booting to an OS.
This was it: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/R3000/Performance%20Semiconductor-PACEMIPS%20PR3000-33PGC.html
Now VAX machines, those are a work of art.
I still miss the old full-tower sized 386 computers which were made completely out of a huge collection of DIP socket chips, mainly industrial grade computers. The motherboard was like 36 inches wide by 40 inches tall, kid you not and had 8x isa slots.
Oh and you can't pull me away from a dual core Pentium Pro 200 system OMG!
For me its a substitute for reality to be able to slip into a virtual world and oogle that girl over there in a virtual bar. Then jump out of the window and kill 300 people with a flame thrower. Then drive a monster truck down the great ravine.
For some its simply a way of life to do this, I personally can't wait until direct neural implants are proven safe and effective for consumer use and for interfacing to the virtual world.
I'll still frequent diyaudio.com tho
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That is all recent stuff. I spent years programming PDP-11s. Originally made from hundreds of TTL chips on multiple large PCBs, then later used the J-11 which was two MOS chips mounted on a carrier. The clock speed was 15MHz, with selected ones doing 18MHz! We could run an entire power station with a dozen of those.
Yeah I'm far too young to be able to have worked on the PDP beasts.. unfortunatley my only exposure to programming has been through AREXX on Amiga and on the Commodore 64 and VIC-20. I never took programming very far.
and people today snicker at a 50MHz overclock, sheesh!
There is one thing that I miss from those days, and that is the sound of spinning disc platters.
I had an external wide SCSI hard drive once, 50MB, not too shabby in the performance area either, came with an 8 bit adaptor card, loved that thing. Was about as thick/tall as 1 & 1/2 phone books stacked ontop of each other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laz-bG8eXYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovjt_UKok74&feature=related
Vintage iron oxide yay !!!!!
Another thing that I miss, the old goldy coloured monochrome screens, those when used for displaying text are just dreamy and very easy on the eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YW63MmFbVTI#t=83s
and people today snicker at a 50MHz overclock, sheesh!
There is one thing that I miss from those days, and that is the sound of spinning disc platters.
I had an external wide SCSI hard drive once, 50MB, not too shabby in the performance area either, came with an 8 bit adaptor card, loved that thing. Was about as thick/tall as 1 & 1/2 phone books stacked ontop of each other.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Laz-bG8eXYM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovjt_UKok74&feature=related
Vintage iron oxide yay !!!!!
Another thing that I miss, the old goldy coloured monochrome screens, those when used for displaying text are just dreamy and very easy on the eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=YW63MmFbVTI#t=83s
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Not counting surges, 12Ga wiring, 20A breaker, breaks at about 18Arms. 14Ga wiring, 15A breaker, breaks ~13Arms. If the current draw is too much for one circuit, you need to split the load between two circuits to prevent breaker tripping. If you only have one circuit at your disposal you might be have an issue. Dangle a large cord between windows, and plug it into another room? Kidding of course.
And in the US & Japan, and a few other sensible places we use 120VAC split phase wiring to prevent electrocutions. 120VAC, if your skin is dry, you can let go of if you get bit. It hurts, but you will let go very quickly. 230VAC can hold you, prevent you from breaking the circuit and send you to boot hill. 
120VAC, if your skin is dry, you can let go of if you get bit. It hurts, but you will let go very quickly. 230VAC can hold you, prevent you from breaking the circuit and send you to boot hill.
Ah I've never really bought that 120VAC is safer... you have a bit more of a chance but if you get bit by it, and it goes across your heart, then you're toast.
Agreed, that the biggest danger we have with 230VAC is that the neutral/cold return is earth based.. so you only have to touch the live/hot to get zapped.
On the other hand, domestically, we never have a problem of overloading circuits... though that might have more to do with the UK "ring main" system used in new installs. There is usually a 32A ring per floor, which provides a lot of capacity.
Agreed, that the biggest danger we have with 230VAC is that the neutral/cold return is earth based.. so you only have to touch the live/hot to get zapped.
On the other hand, domestically, we never have a problem of overloading circuits... though that might have more to do with the UK "ring main" system used in new installs. There is usually a 32A ring per floor, which provides a lot of capacity.
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