I've heard a few people mention about testing their PC with a power meter to find out how many Watts the PC is using... I've heard of these power meters that you plug in between the socket and the appliance on TV shows, and most recently on the BBC Breakfast show, they said that B&Q sell them for £9.99, but I went to 2 B&Qs local to me, and I couldn't find it: When I asked about it, they didn't even know what I was talking about! I know maplin sell 1, but it's a stupid price at £25!
I saw on some forums that B&Q had them for £4.98.... Strange - I was planning on checking B&Q out tommorrow.
ebay has them for around £14 delivered. Search for Energy Monitor
I saw them in Maplin and yup they are quite expensive although they have been on offer once or twice before for around £10-£15.
I think B&Q, homebase or even Woolies might have them. Also try Robert Dyas, they tend to sell all sorts of household stuff.
Cavalier-X: Biostar TP45-HP ¦ E4600@3.1ghz - Xigmatek Red Scorpion (OCZ Freeze) ¦ OCZ ReaperX 2x2gb (792mhz @ 4-4-4--12) ¦ Xigmatek NRP-MC651 ¦
Palit 8800gt ¦ X-fi Fatal1ty Gamer ¦ Coolermaster Cavalier 3 (Silver/Windowed) ¦
Poseidon Magma: MSI P45 Zilent ¦ E6300@3.0ghz - Coolermaster Hyper 212 (MX-2) ¦ Corsair 2x2gb (880mhz @ 5-5-5-15) ¦ Corsair HX450w ¦
xfx 9600gt Alphadog edition (780/1950/1000) ¦ X-fi Gamer ¦ Gigabyte Poseiden ¦
I got mine from Maplin for £9.99. Seems to be £14.99 now.
Remember to check the accuracy by testing a standard light bulb with it.
Was your accurate with a lightbulb?Originally Posted by ash_rm
I bought mine from Maplin. I don't use it long term; I was just interested in seeing how much power my equipment drew - especially my computer. I just plugged in a lamp with a 50W rated bulb and got the following: ~244 Volts @ 49.8Hz drawing 55W.
They won't be 100% accurate since they're only budget devices but they're good nonetheless. Just don't show the results to whoever pays the bills! lol
Thank you for the tips on how to test the meter. I need to test the one I bought from Lidl (it's been gathering dust as it gave weird results when I plugged it in to a surge protector).
when did you get one from lidl?!?!!
Lidl? they are stepping up their game arent they? yumm lidl chocolates...
that said i have seen tesco value mouse and keyboard so nothing suprises me
The idea of a tesco value keyboard and mouse is scary!
...even moreso when you know that the value range is normally the old version used for the regular range, which is normally the old version for the 'finest' range. Which means somewhere there may well be a "Tesco finest keyboard and mouse" o.O
"These aren't just any peripherals... these are M&S peripherals"
AMD 3700+ San Diego @ 2.8GHz| Zalman CNPS 9500LED + Arctic Cooling MX-1 | Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe + Zalman Northbridge | 1024MB DDR RAM (2 x 512MB Corsair XMS Pro TwinX) | Leadtek nVidia 6600GT 128MB | Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music | 2x80GB Hitachi Deskstar SATA-II (RAID 0) | Gigabyte 3D Aurora Case | Hiper Type-R 580W Modular | Enermax Ultimate Fan Controller| Microsoft Nautral 4000 | Logitech G5 + fUnc 1030| Ideazon Fang | SpeedLink Medusa 5.1 Surround Headset | Samsung SM913N 19" TFT | Compro DVB-T200
"Dell? You get better tech support with a cheese sandwich"
I have two of these monitors, one was a tenner and is rubbish, the other is the Maplin one which is the one I actually use. I got mine on a half price offer for 12-50.
Check that the monitor has a "power factor" indicator. The cheapest ones have no concept of power phase, and assume that the load is resistive. That is fine for lightbulbs, but not for anything with a modern PSU in it.
I bought some cheapo £7 speakers from Tesco, and they are superb for the money - they sound good, and best of all are weighty so don't fall off the desk every time the cables get dragged. Many other cheap standard PC speakers are just so lightweight and I really don't want to spend more than a tenner to hear my PC beep at me or play the occasional youtube video
Months ago, been gathering dust. Will test before deciding whether I should sell it.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote