Cost of folding per month?

[LifeLongGamer]

Hi guys, I am new to this whole folding thing but I really want to help out however I am wondering about the potential cost of running my PC for extended lengths of time. Generally I don;t leave it running 24/7. I will for instance only leave it running overnight if I have a particularly large WU that is going to take a significant amount of time. On average I would say my PC is running 8 hours a day.

Below are the specifications for my PC:

-Intel i7 3930k @ Stock. This will be overclocked soon when I get better fans for my H80 or when I setup a true liquid cooling solution.
-Asus Sabretooth X79 motherboard
-16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance RAM
-Corsair H80 with 2 Sythe Gentle Typhoon fans running at 1800RPM
-Asus GTX670 (Not the TOP edition).
-Corsair AX750 PSU
-Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD
-Crucial M4 256GB SSD
-LG Blu Ray Drive (Can't remember exactly which one)
-Themaltake Chaser MK-1 Case.
-I am also using the 2 stock Thermaltake Colorshift fans that come with the case as well as the 140mm included case fan which I re positioned at the top of the case until I can get a better replacement.

Both the CPU and the GPU are both running as stock most of the time. I will be OC'ing the CPU to atleast 4.3GHz, Maybe 4.5 when I have a better cooling solution for the VCORE.

Anyways, I have no idea how to work out the cost per month to run this, if it was my own place then I wouldn't mind but I am still living at home with my family so I can;t expect my parents to foot the bill for the electricity so I am going to pay them however much it costs, cheers guys,

Dan

[kirk46]

Hi mate

its hard to give an estimate without knowing what your rig is pulling from the wall when its folding....

take a look on ebay for a electricity monitor that you can plug appliances into etc

i have a i7 920 @4GHz and a GTX460 OC'd folding 24/7
H80 and the usual gubbings and that pulls about 420w from the wall

just to give you an idea

[Slowlemon]

Hi LifeLongGamer

To work out an accurate cost you need to measure the power consumption and know the cost of units of electricity and the number of hours folding per day etc. etc. But you can estimate the cost. A high end CPU and GPU will be using roughly 400W of power. 400W running 24/7 will cost about £1.00 per day so 8 hours is 33p per day or about £10.00 per month.

Fold on.

[Ben Lamb]

Originally Posted by Slowlemon

Hi LifeLongGamer

To work out an accurate cost you need to measure the power consumption and know the cost of units of electricity and the number of hours folding per day etc. etc. But you can estimate the cost. A high end CPU and GPU will be using roughly 400W of power. 400W running 24/7 will cost about £1.00 per day so 8 hours is 33p per day or about £10.00 per month.

Fold on.

This sounds about right mine is 12.9 per kw/h + 5% vat = 13.5p so 400w x 24hours = 9.6kw/h 9.6x13.5p = £1.30 per day

[LifeLongGamer]

Originally Posted by Slowlemon

Hi LifeLongGamer

To work out an accurate cost you need to measure the power consumption and know the cost of units of electricity and the number of hours folding per day etc. etc. But you can estimate the cost. A high end CPU and GPU will be using roughly 400W of power. 400W running 24/7 will cost about £1.00 per day so 8 hours is 33p per day or about £10.00 per month.

Fold on.

Ah ok, thank you very much. I will try and get something to measure the total power draw from the wall so I can get a better idea of exactly how much it is going to cost but thanks for the estimate, I'm hoping I can contribute somewhat

[LifeLongGamer]

So after I've started folding my Electricity Bill has apparently gone up by £10 a month :/ I'm going to have to cut back my folding for the time being. When I am working more then I will fold more but for the time being I am only going to be completing a couple of large WU's per week. I'm hoping I get smaller WU's, I am more likely to pay off through the bonus points that way

[coolamasta]

Think im going to have to have a cut back again, namely with the SR-2 rig as British Gas are about to put the prices up 7% damned percent!

All in all I am pulling around 1000w (£3.24 per day, £97 per month) just for folding, not to mention my VMware server, my 12TB NAS and various other bits and bobs.

I have £140+ electric bills every month with the extra 7% will soon be £150+

[jondi_hanluc]

Originally Posted by coolamasta

Think im going to have to have a cut back again, namely with the SR-2 rig as British Gas are about to put the prices up 7% damned percent!

All in all I am pulling around 1000w (£3.24 per day, £97 per month) just for folding, not to mention my VMware server, my 12TB NAS and various other bits and bobs.

I have £140+ electric bills every month with the extra 7% will soon be £150+

Switch! you just know their next announcement will be record profits like always, I've been with British Gas for 12 years, and finally switched a couple of weeks ago after their recent price hike. Uswitch site says I'll save £100+ a year now, and my usage is not as much as yours, I don't fold anymore but I do a bit of crunching.

[LifeLongGamer]

Originally Posted by jondi_hanluc

Switch! you just know their next announcement will be record profits like always, I've been with British Gas for 12 years, and finally switched a couple of weeks ago after their recent price hike. Uswitch site says I'll save £100+ a year now, and my usage is not as much as yours, I don't fold anymore but I do a bit of crunching.

Who did you switch to?

[cave_diver]

One thing I am considering to help subsidise the cost of folding and general living is building up (very slowly) a solar panel/wind turbine farm.

It will involve some electronics, battery packs, and the opposite of a UPS (use mains if battery is low) and will probably have an initial outlay of a few k ... but I'm thinking that as a long-term investment its a good idea.

[bawjaws]

Originally Posted by coolamasta

Think im going to have to have a cut back again, namely with the SR-2 rig as British Gas are about to put the prices up 7% damned percent!

All in all I am pulling around 1000w (£3.24 per day, £97 per month) just for folding, not to mention my VMware server, my 12TB NAS and various other bits and bobs.

I have £140+ electric bills every month with the extra 7% will soon be £150+

Bloody hell, £100 a month just for folding! Not being a folder myself, is this typical usage for the guys on here? It seems like a ridiculously large amount.

[TaRkA DaHl]

Originally Posted by bawjaws

Bloody hell, £100 a month just for folding! Not being a folder myself, is this typical usage for the guys on here? It seems like a ridiculously large amount.

I pull almost 200W, so a total of £22 per month.

Depends on your level of dedication

It is possible to get a really low power draw and massive PPD, but you need large upfront investment for E5 chips or a quad AMD setup.

It is also possible to get huge PPD by throwing in a lot of cheapo systems (2600k OC to 4.8Ghz with multiple GPUs etc) but you will pay massive bills to get similar PPD.

Depends how much cash you have upfront really.

[Christopher N. Lew]

Originally Posted by bawjaws

Bloody hell, £100 a month just for folding! Not being a folder myself, is this typical usage for the guys on here? It seems like a ridiculously large amount.

I try to get by with £1 per day on folding, which is about 300W running 24/7. Running cost, not initial purchase cost.

[kirk46]

ive worked out its costing me around £75 a month to fold

[LifeLongGamer]

When I first started folding a couple of months back I was running my PC overnight to complete those massive WU's with the best bonus possible but now I am only running my PC during the day, probably for around 4-5 hours a day on average. My PPD has gone way down but hopefully so has my electricity bill XD

Also, You may notice that some days I seem to get loads of points and then other days I wont get any at all. Usually when I'm not getting any points its because I have a massive WU. I have to say though that I prefer the smaller WU's