# How to Monitor Power Supply Usage



## Humanfactor

A multimeter would be the best and most accurate, but also clumsy.


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## Dopamin3

Multimeter. I think 850w would be enough for another gtx285 in your system too. Here is a power supply calculator that is probably somewhat accurate.


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## pm1109

Asking this question because I was thinking of adding a third Hard. Drive in my system.


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## NorthWoodPecker

The best way I could think of is using a watt-meter.

I think they are to find at reasonable prices, else try you're library, they sometimes lease out these things.


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## linskingdom

Use multimeter. You can use online power supply calculator but that is just an estimate. GTX285 is a 183w GPU and draw about 165w on load. The Q9450 at that speed/vcore may take 150w. The TT850 can do 62a/744w on 12v. You got plenty of power.


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## pm1109

Quote:


Originally Posted by *linskingdom* 
Use multimeter. You can use online power supply calculator but that is just an estimate. GTX285 is a 183w GPU and draw about 165w on load. The Q9450 at that speed/vcore may take 150w. The TT850 can do 62a/744w on 12v. You got plenty of power.

So no worries about adding a third internal hard drive or fourth


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## Flux

nope, I run 4 HDD on 520W and 2 GPU's with no problem, granted they are not high end gpu's.
Go ahead and grab your extra drive/s


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## pm1109

Out of curiosity would 2 hard drives in Raid 0 use more power than if they were used as 2 single hard drives?


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## linskingdom

Quote:


Originally Posted by *pm1109* 
So no worries about adding a third internal hard drive or fourth

Hd usualy draws from 10w to 25w. Yes. You can add another gtx285 if you want.


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## Flux

Good question.
I say no because they are still both powered off the same source, regardless of setup of the drives. I may very well be wrong.


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## pm1109

Thanks for all your replies!


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## blupupher

Quote:



Originally Posted by *pm1109*


Out of curiosity would 2 hard drives in Raid 0 use more power than if they were used as 2 single hard drives?


It would use a little more power, since both drives are always running, but not enough to really make a difference.

The Kill-a-watt is probably the easiest, but not the most accurate (from what I have read, it samples to slow to get a 100% accurate reading, but is good enough for a quick ballpark).


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