SMALL BIZ ADVICE
What would you ask Michael?
The Dell Community has contributed: 9794 ideas | promoted 668272 times | 76278 comments

How IdeaStorm Works:

Post Promote Discuss See
Environment Comments | Environment Ideas | New Product Ideas Comments | New Product Ideas Ideas | Simplify IT Comments | Simplify IT Ideas
520

Software readable power-meter in Dell computers.

520 points posted to Environment, New Product Ideas, Simplify IT by jmxz 12/21/07

I'd really like a software readable power sensor inside Dell computers that could tell me things like "now drawing 350 Watts".

This would be useful for a number of things.

  • Environmental benefits - It can let me see how much benefit there is by telling my disks to spin down when idle; or by disabling 3D effects in my GUI. Based on those results I can decide whether or not they're worth using. Heck - even just seeing how much power it draws might make me want to power it down more.
  • More reliable upgrades - It can show me if I have the power capacity to upgrade to some of the new graphics cards that consume very high power; or to add another hard drive to the 5 i already have.
  • Reduced customer support costs - If someone does try to suck a bit more power from their power supply than it supports, it results in hard to diagnose intermittent failures.


It seems laptops have such sensors (in their batteries?). But so far I can't find similar for desktops.

Extra points if the power sensors can isolate where the power's used (i.e. 100W for CPU, 300W for hard drives, 100W for graphics card, etc).

virushioyo
12/21/07		 if dell system come with this software, i think it will be consider as annoying, memory-hog software.......btw, u can find there is alot of 3rd party software / hardware can do the same thing...

but, some of your idea is great "Extra points if the power sensors can isolate where the power's used (i.e. 100W for CPU, 300W for hard drives, 100W for graphics card, etc)." i love that
jmxz
12/21/07		 Certailny I don't expect them to bundle software; but simply to have an API where software of your choice (probably munin, sysstat, nagios, or similar software that already monitors things like CPU and hard drive temperatures, error rates of hard disks, etc) would read the values.
pattyboy
12/28/07		 There is a device that you plug into the wall socket and then plug your laptop cord into that will accomplish this. They are pretty cheap, and can be used to see how "green" other devices and appliances are. implementing what you are interested in, although seemingly useful, isn't neccesary enough IMHO, to possibly raise the price of a system and possibly slow it down more than Vista already does.
jmxz
12/28/07		 @pattyboy: "There is a device that you plug into the wall socket ... that will accomplish this. "

Not really. Won't that tell how much power the power supply consumes; while what you're really interested for planning upgrades is how much power it's emitting? Actually, how much power's going to the 12V rails and the 5V rails would be ideal for upgrade planning.
pattyboy
12/31/07		 When you say power, jmxz, do you know what you are talking about? Watt goes in, is for the most part what goes out X the rated efficiency of the P/S. Wattage is what is generally the concern for overall power supply adequacy and is what the original question concerned. The item I spoke of will do exactly that for Wattage utilized by the Power Supply. So, If the meter shows you using 350 Watts, and you are switching from a 7950GT to a 8800 GTS, then you know based on the specs of the vid card, that you will need at least 200 more watts. Laptops have an on-board device like this that gives the battery life estimations.

It would be awesome to know what amps the rails are at, but to get that it would likely require a smart powersupply that outputted data to a usb port.
ringerc
Jan 24		 This is available from the hardware through ACPI, all you need is some 3rd party software to poke the ACPI interfaces and read the battery draw rate. I get such a readout on the battery meter when using my M1330 under Linux, and the powertop tool provides it too. For Windows, utilities like Notebook Hardware Control offer the information you're looking for.

Oh. You mean desktops. The hardware its self has no idea of its power draw on a desktop. You'd need a rather fancy power supply with some enhanced self monitoring for that. Think $$$.

You can get in-line power gauges that you plug your machine into, and plug them into the wall. They're your best bet.
jmxz
Jan 24		 @ringerc: "Oh. You mean desktops. The hardware its self has no idea of its power draw on a desktop. You'd need a rather fancy power supply with some enhanced self monitoring for that. Think $$$."

The $$$ I was thinking is probably comparable to a laptop's supply.

Ideally something built into the power supply or motherboard would be even better because it could isolate how much power specific components are drawing; and would have better knowledge of if, say, your 12V or 5V lines were closer to their capacity.
jorge
Jan 31		 It should be mandatory and if you are using too much energy report you to the local power authority and have them come limit your usage, especially during peek hours.
jmxz
Jan 31		 @jorge:
I'm slightly involved in a startup taking the opposite approach --- whereby consumers can voluntarily enable power companies to reduce your consumption (mostly air conditioning) during peak times in exchange for discounts.

I don't like it being mandatory, but incentivizing low peak-usage with lower rates and penalizing high-peak-hour-usage with higher rates makes sense to me.
jorge
Jan 31		 Well your opposite approach isn't opposite, in both there's a limit in peek hours usage, right? Usage limit can also come in the form of higher fee's during peek hours, guess I didn't elaborate.
jmxz
Jan 31		 Yup. I used the wrong word. Should have said "similar" instead of "opposite".

In some states in the US for business users such programs already exist; where companies get better rates if they agree to be cut off first when there are power shortages. By creating networks of thousands of individual users we're trying to bring similar deals to them.
 
Atom feed track comments for this idea
Please log in to post a comment
recently promoted by:
recently demoted by: