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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 6213730" data-attributes="member: 32740">I think the simplest answer is yes.&nbsp; Any task your computer performs draws power, whether miniscule and insignificant like calculating a differential equation by sending electrons through a processor, redrawing the display on your screen (and sending electrons to your monitor that tell it what to draw while it draws its own power to actual make the pixels glow), or more substantial like spinning up the hard drive to search for a PDF.&nbsp; None of that, however, is typically a drain worth noting.The biggest power draws should be the cooling fans for the power supply itself, the processor, and graphics cards.&nbsp; Next is probably power to the speakers, although powering the hard drive and disc drive motors might be bigger than that.&nbsp; Furthest down the list would be the various processing tasks themselves.&nbsp; The big power hog there (relatively speaking) is typically graphics processing (hence moving more of that process onto the graphics card itself and off the motherboard and giving it separate cooling).&nbsp; Sending email I should hope would be insignificant enough to be ANY kind of consideration as it requires no intensive calculations or processing whatsoever.&nbsp; Increases in power draw would be tasks that either involve applying power to hardware or that are exceptionally processor intensive - model this thermonuclear explosion, break this code, or redraw my Call of Duty game on the screen faster.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 6213730, member: 32740"] I think the simplest answer is yes. Any task your computer performs draws power, whether miniscule and insignificant like calculating a differential equation by sending electrons through a processor, redrawing the display on your screen (and sending electrons to your monitor that tell it what to draw while it draws its own power to actual make the pixels glow), or more substantial like spinning up the hard drive to search for a PDF. None of that, however, is typically a drain worth noting. The biggest power draws should be the cooling fans for the power supply itself, the processor, and graphics cards. Next is probably power to the speakers, although powering the hard drive and disc drive motors might be bigger than that. Furthest down the list would be the various processing tasks themselves. The big power hog there (relatively speaking) is typically graphics processing (hence moving more of that process onto the graphics card itself and off the motherboard and giving it separate cooling). Sending email I should hope would be insignificant enough to be ANY kind of consideration as it requires no intensive calculations or processing whatsoever. Increases in power draw would be tasks that either involve applying power to hardware or that are exceptionally processor intensive - model this thermonuclear explosion, break this code, or redraw my Call of Duty game on the screen faster. [/QUOTE]

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