Can I Check My Computer's Power Consumption Before Adding a Fan?

[Dragonfall]

Is it possible to check somewhere (BIOS, etc) the total amount of power used by the computer? I have a 430W PSU and I want to add another fan, and I'm not sure I want to risk overloading it.

 

[rcgldr]

Few systems report this. If you have a UPS that your system is plugged into, this may have a utility that reports the amount of power being input into your system. It doesn't show how much power is being output by the power supply though, only what it is intaking.

 

[Triss]

its not really that important how many Watts you got, its more important how the amps are distributed on the diffrent voltage outputs. I *think* most fans use the 12V line. So the question is how many amps you got on that line (harddisk, optical drives etc. uses 12V). Useally though you would be quite save putting in another fan.

 

[rcgldr]

Triss is correct, it's the draw on the 12 volt line. Some newer power supplies have multiple taps, effectively separate outputs on the separate cables. Fans don't draw a lot of amps, so one more should be OK.

Personally, in addition to using fans to cool off my higher end PC's, I leave the left side door off. The end result is that the fans (especially the video card fan) run slower and the system is overall quieter with the left side door off and slower running fans. If you have a high end Intel CPU, it required that the inside of the case be not much hotter than room temperature (40 degrees Centrigrade), and I figured the easiest way to accomplish this was to open up the case. The other option is to use a case with a direct pipe to the CPU, but then there's still an issue with the video card, so I now use open cases.

 

[Dragonfall]

Open cases work, but dust accumulates much faster with them.

 

[russ_watters]

Fans draw virtually nothing in the way of power - no more than 10w. So don't worry about it.