Power usage

Two electricity questions if anyone can help. #1 My power supply is 350 watts. Is it drawing that 350 watts anytime it's on, or does it draw less if sitting around twidling it's electronic thumbs? I am thinking about distributing computer projects but wondering if having one of those run during idle time will up my electric usage. Question #2 I have a 19" LCD screen. Does it draw less power when the screen is blank, or the same power if blank that it draws with a screensaver running? I'm trying to be more environmetally friendly, but don't worry. I told my family if I ever stop using soap or deoderant to please stage an intervention!

 

your PSU at any given time is running (depending on your system) at about 65%... under load if you unfortunately max your PSU you can use all 350W at max... pretty much: no, its not drawing too much power at idle... if your worried about power, put it PC in standby mode and turn off the monitor... LCD's turn on fast...

 

So if I had something like the SETI@Home distributed computer program set to run when I'm not doing anything else, do you think my PSU (a 2.9GHZ dual core Pentium) would be drawing more power than if it was just sitting idle?

 

Simply yes it will draw more current when in use,it varies alot from computer to computer but it will use around twice as much power when under full load

 

Not sure how much cpu usage Seti uses but lets assume its 100%

When idle your cpu will draw only a few watts of power. However, depending on the cpu at 100% then it could be drawing 100 watts.

At 100% my oc'ed SD4000 is probably drawing about 110 watts or so.

Good Luck