Energy Efficient Gaming HTPC...

[haxxorboi]

I have a server that went to hell last week and I plan on using my old HTPC setup (e6600, 2x1GB Ballistix, P35-DS3L) to replace the old server hardware and build a new HTPC setup. Normally I'd just get an A2 240, 2x1GB ddr3, and a Gigabyte UD2H or even an Ion setup for a nice low power setup. The problem I'm running into is that I plan to be using that to LAN against my girlfriend with SupCom, SupCom2, and WoW at 1680x1050 so it actually has to have some gaming potential.

I currently have an Ati 3850 which works fine, but it has a pretty high idle wattage and I'd prefer to keep the whole system under 100 watts if possible. I don't think switchable graphics are available yet for desktop which would've worked perfectly for this issue.

So what do I do? WoW is mainly CPU bound so a 2.8 regor would be fine, but the graphics will suffer badly. SupCom is pretty heavy on both CPU and GPU which would kill the IGP badly.

Should I use the IGP and turn down the graphics or is there a discrete card that is low power and will give me good enough FPS?

 

[Dangman]

There are switchable graphics of sorts for desktops. It's called Hybrid Graphics and it'll work with 8200/8300 chipset motherboards and with the following GPUs:
9800 GT, 9800 GTX, 9800 GTX+ 9800 GX2, GTX 260 and GTX 280

However, those GPUs, as you figured out, are not the best bang for the buck GPUs out now. In addition, considering that ATI's latest video cards uses pretty low power at idle to begin with, not much reason to go the Nvidia route.

The HD 5670 actually uses 14W at idle and full power is 61W. The HD 5770 1GB uses 18W at idle and 108W at full load. For 1680x1050, I'd recommend the HD 5770 1GB.

Supcom is multi-core aware. So multiple cores would be a good idea. So you might want to check out the AMD Phenom II X3 705e 65W CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103683

So that takes care of the two parts in a PC that uses the most amount of power.

All in all, having a gaming system under 100W using desktop parts is virtually impossible.

 

[96redformula]

Best thing you can do for a HTPC is make sure your sleep mode is working fine. Be sure there are no audio drops offs with the receiver or funny things happening going in and out of sleep, best way to save $$$ for sure.

 

[Omegas]

I have a functional Hybrid HTPC right now (8300/9800GTX+) and it's not bad but with the new ATI cards and their rediculously low idle power Draw, I'd go that route if I was building new today. Also the Phenoms have a nice program that drops the idle clock to very low numbers(can't remember name..) I'd say if you were just watching a movie and had a highly efficient PSU you could go under 100w pretty easy. Of course gaming you would see 200w or so.

*edit*
MSRTweaker and k10stat are the two programs that downclock the Phenoms heavily.

 

[CrimandEvil]

I totally agree with Danny. An 65w X3 and a 5770 would be perfect. If you can you might want to think about getting one of the 45w X3s but they're hard to find.