Side/Downgrade to energy efficient gaming rig

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juden666

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1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Source games pretty much only DoDS and L4D. Thinking about getting the new Battlefiled BC.
Surfing the web and what not.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Not much I plan on selling current rig to pay for this one.

3) Where do you live?
Wa

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific. CPU HSF MOBO RAM PSU CASE

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model. Optical Drive and 2.5 250gb HDD

6) Will you be overclocking?
Nope

7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
Samy T240 19x12

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
Sooner then later.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc. Not suck and not be DoA.

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
Technet FTW

Current Rig: E8500, P5E-VM, 4GB RAM, 4870, HX620, 80gb HDD.

Im looking for something extremly power efficient and low powered. My current build is completly over kill for what I do. I play DoDS and surf random forums.

Leaning towards itx but no current cases appeal to me so Ill most likely stay mATX. Ill also be buying a SSD once the prices go down.
 
Your biggest savings of energy would be the video card. Replace your current card with a fanless one and save over 120W. I suggest an nVidia Gforce 220 fanless.
 
That would definitely be energy efficient but not so good at gaming. If the OP sells the current system buying that he would still have cash leftover.
 
My biggest motivation Is my power bill since I generally keep my rig on 24/7.
 
juden666 said:
Source games pretty much only DoDS and L4D. Thinking about getting the new Battlefiled BC.

...............
Im looking for something extremly power efficient and low powered. My current build is completly over kill for what I do.
Click to expand...

Just a FYI, your current setup would be just adequate for BF:BC2. So I would not downgrade GPU performance if you really want BC:BF2. In addition L4D is a bit GPU heavy as well.

Now, your current setup is actually pretty power efficient in regards to the CPU, PSU, mobo, and RAM. The E8400 only draws about 35W to 50W at full load. That's significantly lower than many new CPUs out now. The only part you need to modify is the video card: I recommend the HD 5770. The HD 5770 performs about the same as the HD 4870 but draws a full 70W less.

Also, it's very very hard to create a build list if there's no set budget. So please try to finalize your budget. Saying "Not much I plan on selling current rig to pay for this one" doesn't really help because you can sell that PC for $200 (if desperate) to $800 (stupid ebay buyer).
 
 
There is not an extreme difference in the efficiency of the current rig to AMD system you suggested. The AMD cpu is more efficient at idle but less efficient at load. The new GPU is more efficient at idle and load than the old. The new memory probably less efficient. Reducing the power supply size will probably save some power.

I guess it depends on how much the OP can get for his current system whether this is worthwhile. I mean if he could sell the current rig for $400 US this would make a lot of sense. If he could sale the current rig for $250 this would make no sense at all.
 
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Cheapest route is to sell off the 4870 and buy new gpu, HD 5770 is a good alternative.
 
i have a similer pc in spec to yours i found turning on intel speedstep and other things in bios to drop cpu speed's voltages and etc to save power when idle
just turn on the intel speedstep etc see how much power you save befor you think about building a new machine.
 
450 said:
Do you need your computer turned on all the time?
Click to expand...

:D Of course I dont, but I usally do anyways. Ive been making a point to turn it off when I goto bed but it happens like 1 out of 3 nights.



troisanh said:
Cheapest route is to sell off the 4870 and buy new gpu, HD 5770 is a good alternative.
Click to expand...
Dasimpson said:
i have a similer pc in spec to yours i found turning on intel speedstep and other things in bios to drop cpu speed's voltages and etc to save power when idle
just turn on the intel speedstep etc see how much power you save befor you think about building a new machine.
Click to expand...

That was my inital plan but then I read somewhere about some x3s and x4s that downthrottled them selfs while idle (cant find the post anymore) and figured I should think about moving completly back to the AMD camp.



Another motovation is Id still like to move to ITX but PICOs and gaming dont go hand in hand.

And for the sake of budget I could get 400 for everything. So 400.
 
Both AMD and Intel have the concept of C1E. If enabled at idle the processor drops the voltage and goes to the lowest frequency. Your current chip does that. So at idle it uses less than 20W.
 
Aside from the GPU your other possibility is the PSU. The HX620 gets a lot of high marks for efficiency but the newer silver and gold rated PSUs can offer better savings over time. Though this is dependent on the state you live in. When I was comparing PSUs based on the energy prices in NYC vs the national average the upfront of the more expensive 80+ PSUs was wiped away by the cost savings in two years as long as I lived in NYC.

You're going to have to make similar calculations on how long you expect you use the PSU and where you live.
 
ok just to play the devil's advocate. Can someone show some quick math as to how much power this system uses and how much it would cost per year to operate? When I hear people saying they pick these components over other due to power efficiency, my first thought is so what? its not that much is it?
 
The formula is 0.744 X (average computer power) X (power rate)

So for example my average power is 130W
And my rate is 0.125 per KWh

so my main computer costs me about $12.09 per 31 day month to operate.

This computers average is probably in the ballpark of 175W as it sits now.

For that I get $16.27 per 31 day month.

Switching out the power supply can save 10 to 30W off that average power or between $0.93 and $2.79 per 31 day month

Switching out the CPU to the AMD one suggested above can save 10W to 15W off that average or between $0.93 and $1.40 per month

Switching out the video card can save between 20W and 100W or $1.86 and $9.30 per month
 
so you are suggesting that if the gpu saves 100w/month @ $9.30/mo or $111.60 per year??? If he saves the max amount you suggest it works out to $161.88/year!! That seems very high.

At these rates the pc could pay for it self in 2-3 yrs. I must say this seems weird
 
That is if he gives up gaming (or at least high end video on gaming) and moves to the a low end fanless card that uses less than 20W power instead of his current card.

The 100W is probably a little bit of an exaggeration. I am not sure of the exact power usage of his current card especially any power saving features that cut idle power.

The power supply numbers are probably also on the high side. I did not use a calculator to figure out the actual numbers for that. Also the savings will be less W (but still a higher percentage) as the total system power goes down.

Looking at the my numbers for power supply savings, cut those in half.
 
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Not to sound like a jerk or anything, but what's so hard about using the off switch? I don't know why so many computer users leave their crap on 24/7. Are we so impatient nowadays, that we can't wait a few seconds for a computer to boot up?
 
great point, not to mention the fast that your components will last longer and less chance of getting hacked.
 
I believe a second alternative is to put your system to sleep during the hours you are not using it. On a windows 7 machine coming out of sleep to full functionality takes less than 5 seconds.
 
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