[rescue] SGI goodies anyone? - Power consumption..

[Robert Darlington]

Be careful with this assumption.  If the PSU is rated for 1500 watts, that's
the max it will ever draw.  Most likely it will be much less unless you have
every possible accessory jammed into every possible expansion slot.  I ran
into this when specifying air conditioning systems for server rooms.  Using
the label on the back of the computer or the printed spec in a data sheet
means icing up chillers.  Typically I'm used to actual average power
consumption in a server room being closer to *half* of all the printed
ratings added up.

That being said, your system might in fact pull that much power.   When
you're running, try using an ammeter on the line powering them (split a
power cable into individual conductors and clamp around either hot or
neutral but not both because they cancel each other out).  I'd be very
interested to see where these systems fall.

-Bob

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 10:33 AM, Christopher Purdy
<escher2 at chartermi.net>wrote:

> > My point about this was really that those that "would love a Onyx2"
> > might think about if they could actually run one. Lots of people in this
> > list don't have the facilities, money, or experience to run something
> > drawing that much current. Its not like many other deskside servers. It
> > draws a ton of power. The deskside form factor is deceiving. I just
> > wanted to warn people before they burned their parents house down with
> > some free computer they got off the rescue list.
> >
> >
> Good point - which I have been doing a lot of research on and now plan to
> add a dedicated 20A circuit for my toys...
>
> In my case - I wound up with 3 Origin 300's, the associated router, etc....
> If I run all three units and the router it should draw approx. 1500-1600W.
> Which should be fine on a 20A line (20A*100V=2000W - being
> conservative))...
>
>
> As to cost -- Running 1600W for 24h per day for 30 days = 1152KWh... For my
> locality electricity is $.070923 for the first 600KWh and $.130992 after
> that... so it would cost ($42.55+$72.31)= $ 114.86 per month.
>
> Now - I don't plan to run the machine continuously, and I may not even use
> all three modules, so I will likely be into the $30-$50 range most of the
> time.
>
> It is a good point to take a look at the poeer supply requirements before
> getting a machine - I have an original Onyx deskside (110V) coming - and
> that puppy alone draws 1500W - hence the need for the 20A line.
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