APC UPS Reported power usage

[clsA]

Theirs a small app that comes with a APC ups called powerchute
in one area is a view of how much power your using (Monitor System/ Current status)

Is this thing accurate at all ?

My system running pretty much idle is at 158w and if I load everything I can think of (atitool - 3d tool - super-pi - disk defragmentor - prime 95 - firefox - file browser - icq ..you name it it's running) All i can pull is 228w tops ..does this sound right? ..I know my system is getting old and kind of weak but damn 228w is all I'm pulling ?

is thier any other way to measure how many watts the psu is actually putting out

[jonnyGURU]

Yeah. That sounds about right.

The UPS is going to know what your draw is because all of your power is going through the UPS.

Get this... that's how many watts in AC you're using. So DC output is actually a lot less! Multiply your number by 80%!

You can confirm this with a Kill-A-Watt or Power Angel, but I'm sure they'll tell you the same thing. :D

[clsA]

OK I guess that explains why even my crappy old Epower 500w works fine in this pc ...lol

Hell I could be using a 300w Sparkle here with power to spare

[Kvar]

OK I guess that explains why even my crappy old Epower 500w works fine in this pc ...lol

Hell I could be using a 300w Sparkle here with power to spare

Such reasoning only works if the power supply only have one voltage and one rail.

Think of it this way. You're going to need 15 gallons of paint total to paint five cars and you aren't told what color to paint them.

Just because you bought 20 gallons of whatever color paint doesn't mean
you'll have enough paint to paint each and every car the correct color.

If you have an older PC with high power usage on 5 & 3.3v combined, you'll probably have to buy a considerably higher wattage power supply now, since most of the power is in 12v and to get a little more of 5&3.3v, you have to buy a bunch of 12v reserve.