Your SETI farm power consumption?

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archae86

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Message 722721 - Posted: 6 Mar 2008, 17:07:18 UTC - in response to Message 722713.  

I have just set up my first quad core and was suprised to find that it actually uses less power than an old PIV machine!

At the rather high power prices paid by some responding to this thread, the payback interval for retiring some older machines and replacing them with a smaller number of new higher performing machines with substantially lower overall power consumption is fairly short.

For the really old machines, the output is so low that it can't amortize the base power consumption of the non CPU components, even were the CPU zero power. And Prescott-era machines are so much higher power and so much slower than Conroe or Penryn generation ones that one can get to financial and computational breakeven pretty quickly if one stays away from the extreme top end.

I replaced a Gallatin (Northwood-generation, so not so bad a hog as the Prescotts) with a Q6600. As I'm overclocking a bit, the box consumption is actually up a little (with a fair amount of extra stuff the box is 230W now, I think the Gallatin was about 200), but the computational output is up by more than a factor of 4 (and I'm not taking credit for ap improvement here). Keeping an older machine with expensive peripherals running whose main purpose is not BOINC may make sense, but for stripped-down crunchers there is real reason to doubt the rationale for keeping any pre-Conroe machine running much longer in the Intel line.

I don't think the AMD line had so abrupt a power efficiency inflection at any single point, so somewhat older machines may make sense, but I doubt that reaches back very many years at all.

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Message 722760 - Posted: 6 Mar 2008, 20:03:20 UTC - in response to Message 722713.  
Last modified: 6 Mar 2008, 20:03:49 UTC

I have just set up my first quad core and was suprised to find that it actually uses less power than an old PIV machine!



Andy, I didn't know that you were expecting.
Congratulations on the new addition!

My electricity bill just went up $3.65/month with the new OC boost :-(
Come summertime I'll need to back off to 3200MHz and 170Watts :-(
Guess it's time to donate another P4 to charity to cover expenses :-)
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Message 722822 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 0:20:16 UTC - in response to Message 722574.  

Due to the new fiscal Year Econnomy Negotiations, the Danish Government has just decided to add a further energy penalty to my electricity bill.

These id***s tends to believe that I can stop the global warming all by myself :(

The next Year's reduction in consumption equals one new plant opened in China next week, so this is crazy. How they tend to negate the other 51 polluting plants opened during the rest of 2008, is beyond me.

Result is, that one Kilowatthour of Electricity now costs me US$ .40 :(

Power consumption since Jan 1st is right now at 1,814 KWh which gives an elctricity bill of US$ 667 for 66 days.

Had I lived in Quebec this bill would be 122,83 Canadian Dollars.

Got room for another immigrant? :)

ChrisD


OUCH!....I feel for ya Chris.....at those rates, my last month's bill of 2515kwh would cost $1006.00......the kitties would put up such a howl!!!!

"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

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Message 722853 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 1:48:59 UTC - in response to Message 722847.  

Yeah Me too, I only used 949Kwh last month($120.86), Hopefully the New heatsinks will offset My usage somewhat(When I get them in July or so I hope). Right now I'm in economy mode though, Cold at night and slow to warm up in the daytime as I have the heat turned off, Even If It has been getting down to 36F outside late at night. :D In any case Mark I've got You beat on costs per Kwh, You do 0.40 a Kwh and I do 0.12 cents per Kwh. :)
I get power from SCE and DWR(Whoever DWR is that is).


Actually, Mark should be paying the same as me, $0.109/KWH. It was $0.106/KWH but Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) jumped up the rates. They have even asked for another rate increase this spring. At these rates, my 4 quads cost me about $15 a month, and I haven't checked the 3 Pentium Ds yet. The server is about $20 a month, but I don't know how much longer I am going to keep it on. I just might replace the 3 Ds with 1 quad and have my 5 in the basemant and be done with it.

Clk2HlpSetiCty:::PayIt4ward

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Message 722858 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 1:56:36 UTC - in response to Message 722853.  

Yeah Me too, I only used 949Kwh last month($120.86), Hopefully the New heatsinks will offset My usage somewhat(When I get them in July or so I hope). Right now I'm in economy mode though, Cold at night and slow to warm up in the daytime as I have the heat turned off, Even If It has been getting down to 36F outside late at night. :D In any case Mark I've got You beat on costs per Kwh, You do 0.40 a Kwh and I do 0.12 cents per Kwh. :)
I get power from SCE and DWR(Whoever DWR is that is).


Actually, Mark should be paying the same as me, $0.109/KWH. It was $0.106/KWH but Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) jumped up the rates. They have even asked for another rate increase this spring. At these rates, my 4 quads cost me about $15 a month, and I haven't checked the 3 Pentium Ds yet. The server is about $20 a month, but I don't know how much longer I am going to keep it on. I just might replace the 3 Ds with 1 quad and have my 5 in the basemant and be done with it.

Actually...this is what I pay.....

Energy - Off Peak (1,688 kWh x $.053260/kWh) $89.90
Energy - On Peak (741 kWh x $.215890/kWh) $159.97

I am on 'time of use' rates, where the power you use 'off peak' (at night) costs less than what you use 'on peak' (during the day}...

So the on peak use is only the crunchers.....they cost more than every else. The hot water heater and the water bed heater are locked out during the day....only the crunchers run....
"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

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Message 722867 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 2:17:17 UTC - in response to Message 722860.  
Last modified: 7 Mar 2008, 2:19:59 UTC

... As the War against the sparrows is on going as I've escalated the war with upturned Tacks and wood screws glued in place in the pics You'll have to look really close here and there.


Okay, I saw the sparrows, Mustang, & treadmill... I'm confused with the plumbing pics though. And what I really liked was the girl falling out of her bikini on the web hosting site. You're right, I might need to go back and look really, really close...
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Message 722888 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 3:14:30 UTC - in response to Message 722858.  

Actually...this is what I pay.....

Energy - Off Peak (1,688 kWh x $.053260/kWh) $89.90
Energy - On Peak (741 kWh x $.215890/kWh) $159.97

I am on 'time of use' rates, where the power you use 'off peak' (at night) costs less than what you use 'on peak' (during the day}...

So the on peak use is only the crunchers.....they cost more than every else. The hot water heater and the water bed heater are locked out during the day....only the crunchers run....


So what you need to do is buy a nice big UPS that can feed the crunchers during Peak hours and only charge the batteries during Off Peak hours. I'm looking for one myself, but mine surely wouldn't need to be as large as yours. :-)

And did you get anything out of the Point Beach reactor sale? Or wasn't WPS part of that one?
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Message 722893 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 3:24:18 UTC - in response to Message 722888.  

Actually...this is what I pay.....

Energy - Off Peak (1,688 kWh x $.053260/kWh) $89.90
Energy - On Peak (741 kWh x $.215890/kWh) $159.97

I am on 'time of use' rates, where the power you use 'off peak' (at night) costs less than what you use 'on peak' (during the day}...

So the on peak use is only the crunchers.....they cost more than every else. The hot water heater and the water bed heater are locked out during the day....only the crunchers run....


So what you need to do is buy a nice big UPS that can feed the crunchers during Peak hours and only charge the batteries during Off Peak hours. I'm looking for one myself, but mine surely wouldn't need to be as large as yours. :-)

And did you get anything out of the Point Beach reactor sale? Or wasn't WPS part of that one?

Only thing I ever get is rate increases......
And I think that was Wisconsin Electric.....(or We Energies as they now go by...) When they came up with that new corporate name a lot of jokes were made calling them Wienergy.....
"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

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Message 722894 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 3:24:50 UTC - in response to Message 722847.  

I get power from SCE and DWR(Whoever DWR is that is).

The State of California Department of Water Resources.

California went through the most highly regulated deregulation in the history of deregulation. The traditional power companies (like SCE) were forced to sell most of their generation (keeping only hydro and nukes) and then buy power on the open market from the new owners of their old plants.

They were not allowed to do long-term contracts for power.

When the whole thing turned sour, the state had to do something fast, so the DWR did some long term contracts to bring some of those plants back into the California market (most were selling power across state lines) and stabilize prices.

DWR rates are usually lower....

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Message 722897 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 3:28:18 UTC

Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......
"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

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Message 722903 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 3:36:30 UTC - in response to Message 722893.  

Only thing I ever get is rate increases......
And I think that was Wisconsin Electric.....(or We Energies as they now go by...) When they came up with that new corporate name a lot of jokes were made calling them Wienergy.....


Yup. Heard that one, but they couldn't come up with a suitable costume to let them join the sausage races at Miller Park...


http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/fan_forum/racing_sausages.jsp
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Message 722916 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 4:48:31 UTC - in response to Message 722897.  
Last modified: 7 Mar 2008, 5:01:43 UTC

Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......

Pfffft, how old that rusty mill was ?
How about some newer models... I hope your front garden is big enough.
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Message 722935 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 7:13:25 UTC - in response to Message 722858.  


Actually...this is what I pay.....

Energy - Off Peak (1,688 kWh x $.053260/kWh) $89.90
Energy - On Peak (741 kWh x $.215890/kWh) $159.97

I am on 'time of use' rates, where the power you use 'off peak' (at night) costs less than what you use 'on peak' (during the day}...

So the on peak use is only the crunchers.....they cost more than every else. The hot water heater and the water bed heater are locked out during the day....only the crunchers run....


I'd be an off peak cruncher if I had those rates available to me ;)
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Message 722936 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 7:30:27 UTC - in response to Message 722897.  

Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......


Yeoutch!
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Message 722961 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 10:51:49 UTC - in response to Message 722936.  
Last modified: 7 Mar 2008, 10:52:56 UTC

Ah yes....the cost of crunching, ya plugs 'em in the wall, and ya pays da bill.....unless you got one of dem newfangled Wind turbeen thingys......


Yeoutch!


Yep, it was placed around 50 miles from my home.

Vestas said that it was lack of maintenance, but who has the service? :)
You figure this one out Yourself :)

During the last month we have had 4 severe storms averaging 55 gusting up to 85 knots. This is very unusual for Denmark, so I think they did not check the feather device very often. Maybe they will in the future.

When these pictures were taken the wind speed was between 60 and 70 knots, and the wind turbine should have stopped altogether when wind speed reaches 50 knots.

In 2001 when this government came into power, they started out by negating every subsidies to renewable energy sources. No wind turbines has been erected for the last two Years, and the old ones has not been replaced.
8 or 9 plants producing water filled solar collectors were deminished to 2. Arcon, which is situated 15 miles from here had to reduce staff from around 30 to a bare skeleton of 8, including the office staff. Most of the others simply went broke.

'nuff of this 'off topic' stuff :)

For info, my mediacenter cruncher has just finished its last WU and has been shut down for the time being, reducing power consumption by 325 Watts.
(Its high power consumption is due to a powerful Graphics Card for the HDTV and 2 Tuner Cards).

In the meantime the Phenom3 host is fighting its way up the ladder. This is a bare skeleton, I have even removed the Graphics card leaving only CPU, RAM and HDD. Control is through Remote Desktop, and it seems to work.

'ntill later.

ChrisD
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Message 722971 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 11:40:25 UTC

Three computers running 24/7.
C2Q at 160W
C2D at 148W
PentM (desktop) 78W

Seven cpu's at less than 400W. All other computers retired due to high UK electricity costs.

Note C2Q uses 12W more when the two raided data drives are in use.

ChrisD, Have to ask why so powerful a media centre, the PentM is mine, uses onboard graphics, and has dual input TV card. TV card uses about 10W, without it fitted the computer uses less than 70W when crunching.

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Message 723045 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 15:43:50 UTC - in response to Message 722853.  

Yeah Me too, I only used 949Kwh last month($120.86), Hopefully the New heatsinks will offset My usage somewhat(When I get them in July or so I hope). Right now I'm in economy mode though, Cold at night and slow to warm up in the daytime as I have the heat turned off, Even If It has been getting down to 36F outside late at night. :D In any case Mark I've got You beat on costs per Kwh, You do 0.40 a Kwh and I do 0.12 cents per Kwh. :)
I get power from SCE and DWR(Whoever DWR is that is).


Actually, Mark should be paying the same as me, $0.109/KWH. It was $0.106/KWH but Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) jumped up the rates. They have even asked for another rate increase this spring. At these rates, my 4 quads cost me about $15 a month, and I haven't checked the 3 Pentium Ds yet. The server is about $20 a month, but I don't know how much longer I am going to keep it on. I just might replace the 3 Ds with 1 quad and have my 5 in the basemant and be done with it.


Thru the Kill-a-watt on the server last night. It told me this morning that it will cost me $35 a month for about 35 credits per hour. OUCH!! Guess I will set it to NNT.
Clk2HlpSetiCty:::PayIt4ward

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Message 723048 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 16:05:00 UTC - in response to Message 722971.  
Last modified: 7 Mar 2008, 16:06:22 UTC

Three computers running 24/7.
C2Q at 160W
C2D at 148W
PentM (desktop) 78W

Seven cpu's at less than 400W. All other computers retired due to high UK electricity costs.

Note C2Q uses 12W more when the two raided data drives are in use.

ChrisD, Have to ask why so powerful a media centre, the PentM is mine, uses onboard graphics, and has dual input TV card. TV card uses about 10W, without it fitted the computer uses less than 70W when crunching.



I intend to replace the mainboard and the cpu in the Mediacenter. I have a GigaByrte Board, which can not run a Phenom. Running an Athlon62 X2 5600+ it still uses the same as the ASUS N2M32 Board. Seems that these Nvidia 590 chipsets are powerhungry..

Furthermore my Mediacenter has been fed crap WU's for the last 10 days, lowering the RAC to 2300. 2 hours for 36 credits stinks.

Amongst other CPUs I also have a 5600+ which is more than sufficient to do the recording and playback and even do a couple of SETI tasks on the side, but I intend to only turn it on when I need it, so SETI throughput will be limited.

The Phenom3 cruncher still needs some testing. I intend to run it without keyboad, mouse and graphics. BIOS can be told to ignore all errors. I still need to install BOINC as a Service so when the power is applied, it should just start crunching automatically. I need to find a way to force Task Manager into operation, so I can see the CPU utilization when connecting to the remote desktop.

ChrisD
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Message 723158 - Posted: 7 Mar 2008, 21:06:46 UTC
Last modified: 7 Mar 2008, 21:07:01 UTC

Only one of them is crunching, but I have four servers that run less than 35 watts each.

The cruncher is running NT, which is supported. It takes it forever to do a single WU, but it'd be running anyway, so it might as well crunch.

I suspect that a similar machine would make a fair video recorder/media PC.
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Message 723418 - Posted: 8 Mar 2008, 15:39:27 UTC

My powerbook portable ran on 32 watts with screen on and 28 when display was off. Obviously I left screen off when I wasn't at the keyboard. Not for the energy saving, but to keep the lamp from wearing out. New ones use LED's and probably have much longer life and lower power use as well.

On my big Mac tower it runs about 200 watts on one processor and adds about 45 with three running. Next step to all four. Since its last years model it has only four. On standby idle is uses 5-6 watts. For those who took EE or physics the power factor on the running machine is .99. That is a new requirement for power supplies I believe. Some of the older ones were really low pf. At zero the current is 90 degrees from the voltage.

duke
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Message boards : Number crunching : Your SETI farm power consumption?


 
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