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Anybody care much about the power draw of your vintage systems?

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Unknown_K

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My first computer was a Timex 2068 which had just a simple wall plug. When I switched to PCs in the 286 era I don't think many of them used a 200W supply (probably 150W). It wasn't until the 3D graphics cards and CPUs that were over 1Ghz that you had to even think about power calculations when getting a new PS.

Over the last few years I have been collecting old gamer video cards and some dual CPU processor systems to add to my collection. A CPU that sucks down 125W wasn't that uncommon (AMD Phenom II x4's for example), GPUs were even worse (GTX 480 or a HD 4870x2 at 300W). You end up having to buy 500-800W power supplies for them.

Granted I never wanted to collect big iron like some people here so I never had to worry about reinforcing the floors or 3 phase power. I still find it kind of funny how power hungry 2010 era systems ended up being. Higher end systems of today are getting back up there as well.

Anybody here care much about power draw when putting together old systems? I wonder if some day things will be so bad that just powering these old beasts up will be too expensive (kind of like people who owned beefed up muscle cars that needed high octane fuel bitched when regular gas was $3.75 a gallon). At least LCD monitors and TVs are using much less power then the old CRTs did.
 
I must admit as a hobbyist i'm more careful on electricity use these days with household bills on the up every year, Electricity / Gas etc. There was a time i didn't give a second thought on having several old computers running, I use LCD monitors and generally only 1 computer running at a time, I've also moved to using old thin clients to do much of the stuff i did using the more power hungry computer, It makes a difference.
 
I care. I tend to max systems out and don't want to over load the PSU. I also have a thing for big high powered systems.
I had this crazy system with a gtx 295,dual xeon 5080s and 32gb of FB ddr2 ram. That thing pulled alot of power. It did not help that I over clocked the system too.
The sure was a heater.
 
I have a Compaq Proliant 6500 that I no longer run due to how much power it (and its three SCSI drive expansion cabinets) used.

Aside from that, I don't really worry about power consumption. What I worry about instead is, heat output. I don't have central air conditioning so I have to be careful about running too many systems at once due to the heat they generate. In the winter I can run more systems without worrying about it.
 
I think we have different definitions of vintage. I don't consider a Phenom II or GTX 295 vintage, just outdated. I understand the appeal of collecting those for some, but I don't know of any software from that era that won't function properly on more power-efficient modern hardware.

All my vintage systems have 200W or less PSUs, far less than most modern desktops. So no concern there.

If we ever get to the point where it's too expensive to power up your old computer, it's also going to be too expensive to drive your electric car.
 
My old mini-mini draws up to 400 watts. Not too bad. In the winter I can just turn off the ordinary heating in the room where I keep it, when I use it.
 
Plasma said:
I think we have different definitions of vintage. I don't consider a Phenom II or GTX 295 vintage, just outdated. I understand the appeal of collecting those for some, but I don't know of any software from that era that won't function properly on more power-efficient modern hardware.

All my vintage systems have 200W or less PSUs, far less than most modern desktops. So no concern there.

If we ever get to the point where it's too expensive to power up your old computer, it's also going to be too expensive to drive your electric car.
Click to expand...

I was just using the gtx 295 as an example, they are not vintage at all.
I have had some older dual cpu system like slot 1 and socket 8 systems that I maxed out with lots of SCSI drives and they pull alot too. And some multi segmented socket 7 PICMG systems.
 
Because the larger RISC workstations I have can operate over 400W and some operate normally at 1500W I closely monitor the total power consumption of my workspace with a secondary kwH meter. Some systems simply because of how inefficient they are at converting electrical energy into compute cycles can only operate in the colder months when the exhaust heat can be sent back into the central heating system to save a few dollars.
 
I am not rich, or even well-off. But I never give a second thought to how much power my electronics use. First, my electric bill is the same every month. $120. If I sit in darkness and never cook, $120. If I run a bitcoin mining farm with 10,000 video cards - $120. Its called the budget plan. They do have a settle up month, May. They average everything out and you either owe or get a credit. mine usually works out to be a minor debt or minor credit. Im not going to sacrifice my sanity changing my routine just to be more green. I like it at 68*F, I like my PCs always on, and to make up for it I use LED bulbs all over the house. The LEDs are more a selfish convenience than me giving a crap about nature or energy costs. LED bulbs tend to last much much much longer than standard bulbs and most of my fixtures require a ladder or chair to stand on to change the bulb. so yeah its really more about me not having to change the bulb than it is about energy usage.
 
True there are vintage systems that are absolute pigs. I wouldn't want to leave an SGI Onyx2 powered up 24/7. On the other hand your average PC/XT/AT with CRT is no big deal.

IBMAT5170 said:
I am not rich, or even well-off. But I never give a second thought to how much power my electronics use. First, my electric bill is the same every month. $120. If I sit in darkness and never cook, $120. If I run a bitcoin mining farm with 10,000 video cards - $120. Its called the budget plan. They do have a settle up month, May. They average everything out and you either owe or get a credit. mine usually works out to be a minor debt or minor credit. Im not going to sacrifice my sanity changing my routine just to be more green. I like it at 68*F, I like my PCs always on, and to make up for it I use LED bulbs all over the house. The LEDs are more a selfish convenience than me giving a crap about nature or energy costs. LED bulbs tend to last much much much longer than standard bulbs and most of my fixtures require a ladder or chair to stand on to change the bulb. so yeah its really more about me not having to change the bulb than it is about energy usage.
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A budget plan just averages your monthly usage from last year. I guarantee your electric bill will be more than $120 next year if you start running a bitcoin mining farm.
 
Plasma said:
I think we have different definitions of vintage. I don't consider a Phenom II or GTX 295 vintage, just outdated. I understand the appeal of collecting those for some, but I don't know of any software from that era that won't function properly on more power-efficient modern hardware.

All my vintage systems have 200W or less PSUs, far less than most modern desktops. So no concern there.

If we ever get to the point where it's too expensive to power up your old computer, it's also going to be too expensive to drive your electric car.
Click to expand...
Well there are people who collect computers with tubes in them, they tend to be very inefficient with electricity and nobody would say they are not vintage.

My gaming collection on the PC for example starts at the IBM PC 64K board and ends at whatever was popular a few years ago but includes whatever was in between. I like the hardware collecting more then the actual gaming these days. Some of that gear can be power hungry, which is why I started the thread.

I live in Ohio so electricity is carbon based (plus nuclear) so driving an electric car doesn't really help the environment much.
 
Yes - I do care about the power draw of my systems. The less power they take, the quieter they can be. I don't want too much fan noise. Also, if I am careful about the tdp draw of my modern computer parts, I can more easily fit them into my old beige cases, as nearly all of my computers old and modern are housed in. Unfortunately, these older cases that I like are limited on airflow, so I have to aim on lower tdp components to avoid overheating and needing noisier higher rpm fans. These limitations aren't a big deal for me, as I'm not a really a big gamer. I don't really play any modern games or care as much if I'm getting the best performance and graphics quality.
 
Living Computer Museum has an interesting take. They are all about keeping the machines running for the public to use with as much uptime as possible. But it seems the first priority of larger system intake is to remove the linear power supplies and put in modern switching systems. I saw the internals of their DEC 20 (I believe) where they removed the internals and added modern replacements. I recall him saying they save an estimated $76K annually from the reduced power consumption? But I'm old and my memory suffers from bit-rot. Maybe Josh or someone else from LCM can confirm.
 
Plasma said:
If we ever get to the point where it's too expensive to power up your old computer, it's also going to be too expensive to drive your electric car.
Click to expand...
This. It just blows my mind when people compleain about how much power "old" things MUST use, but then their brand new system requires quad built-in nuclear power plants just to power their gaming video cards and another for their overclocking cooling system.
 
I'm late to this thread. But nah, let 'em rip. When the lights start flickering a little, just toss the gerbil another peanut. :razz:
 
eeguru said:
Living Computer Museum has an interesting take. They are all about keeping the machines running for the public to use with as much uptime as possible. But it seems the first priority of larger system intake is to remove the linear power supplies and put in modern switching systems. I saw the internals of their DEC 20 (I believe) where they removed the internals and added modern replacements. I recall him saying they save an estimated $76K annually from the reduced power consumption? But I'm old and my memory suffers from bit-rot. Maybe Josh or someone else from LCM can confirm.
Click to expand...

Imagine all the money they'd save if they just replaced the innards with Raspberry Pi's. :)

On the topic, I personally don't worry about the power either. My retro systems are off unless i'm using them. My desktop PC does run 24/7 though (since I work from home most of the time, it's easiest that way), but really, nothing can compete with my A/C system that runs 24/7 keeping the place at an average of 72.. My power bill is already quite high because of the A/C so anything else would pale in comparison anyway. Living years prior in a place with no A/C that could get to over 100 routinely during the summer months, I'll pay whatever it takes to have A/C... one bad day (getting the bill) is better then 2 months of bad days (of heat).
 
I don't think about power draw. It helps that I don't run vintage computers often though; I like to look at them and replace their capacitors. If I power up the P4 while the microwave is running, it will sometimes trip the breaker...

I also run my main PC 24/7 though.
 
I don't run my vintage systems more than a few hours a week, so I haven't worried about it much. But just last week, Newegg had a special on TP-Link HS110 smart plugs with power monitoring capability. With them, I can measure power consumption if I need it. I did monitor my desktop (a Lenovo Tiny system). I costs about a buck a month if I leave it on all the time.
 
SomeGuy said:
This. It just blows my mind when people compleain about how much power "old" things MUST use, but then their brand new system requires quad built-in nuclear power plants just to power their gaming video cards and another for their overclocking cooling system.
Click to expand...

When I got my ATI RX580 last year I thought it was broken because the 2 big fans were not spinning in Windows. If you go into the driver program you can see that at idle the card is pulling something like 7-10W, playing back HD video maybe doubles this, but when running full in a game it is 175W give or take with both fans blowing. So newer cards don't use up much power unless you are gaming. The old beasts would use up 50W plus just idling.
 
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