[Discuss] cpu benchmarking and power usage

[blu at nedharvey.com (Edward Ned Harvey (blu))]

> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Adler
> 
> Then I went off looking for some CPU benchmarking tools so that I could
> run all cores at once thus giving me an idea of how much power the
> system uses etc.

cat /dev/urandom > /dev/null &
Repeat 8 times.
If it's a windows system, just write an infinite loop one-line script in python or something.

I don't have any good way to max out the GPU though.

I normally measure (I also use kill-a-watt) something like 60 or 70 W idle, which accounts for 90% of the time, and usually what matters the most if calculating energy costs.  65W * 24h = 1.56 KWh per day, and at $0.17 per KWh and 30.4 days per month, $8 or so per month.

Idle power is what counts the most toward energy costs.  Max power is what you size your UPS on.