Reduce power use on computer

Solution 1:

If this post is correct, then you may not be using as much power as you thought when playing movies. If you want to verify that for yourself, you could always borrow or buy a Kill-a-Watt or similar inline power meter and see how much the PC draws during different activities.

Solution 2:

Easiest thing I can suggest is that if you turn your machine off when not using it, purchase a 1080p HDMI movie player - you can get them from as low as £20, but the good ones (with ethernet ports) start from about £45.

There isn't that much you can do on your computer to significantly lower power (apart from turn off the screen, underclock the CPU)... and as you have a 1200w PSU, I am guessing it is a beefy machine - even idling, those cards will (probably) be taking an awful lot of power....

...If you were to buy the media player and turn off your computer, it will probably pay for itself in no time.