I had no idea some CPU's sipped power like this

[mazeroth]

I have a few PC's in my house, ranging from an i5-2500k, i7-5820k, 1700X, 2600. All are hooked up to large APC battery backups that have digital displays showing power draw. Most of the systems draw 50-75w in idle state, all having discreet graphics cards.

I recently wanted to buy a cheap prebuilt PC to use as a Plex server, since upgrading to Plex Pass, which allows hardware transcoding. I found a killer deal on this i5-3470 Lenovo PC on ebay ($69), took out the HD and threw in a small SSD for a boot drive. All movie storage is on my NAS.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1VK-0003-002K2

I plugged it into my battery backup, and after booting I was sitting at 11 watts power draw in Windows 10. I was shocked. I then downloaded Cinebench R15 to stress it, and it drew a maximum of 52 watts while scoring 480. After running Cinebench, back down to 11 watts. I know some devices aren't accurate at reading low loads, so I plugged a 5 bulb lamp into it, with 5 23 watt bulbs. Reading was around 110 watts. I turned on the PC, and sure enough, it went up 11 watts. I even tested it with my Kill-a-Watt meter and got the same thing.

Sorry if this is old news, but I had no idea you could get a cheap, fast Plex server that just sips power and can handle 5 transcodes (max I tested; still headroom) with hardware transcoding.

I'm still scratching my head. All reviews show this should be drawing way more power, even with the iGPU. Take a look:

https://hothardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i53470-quadcore-cpu-review?page=8

 

[Brian_B]

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/u...5-3470-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-60-ghz.html

The CPU is rated to 77W TDP (this is before Intel redefined TDP to be "nothing meaningful"). I could believe 52W at the wall under load. Cinebench probably isn't the end all / beat all of stress tests for max power pull, but I'm sure it's doing a decent job of it. And you don't have a whole lot else in that case pulling power. Also decent chance Lenovo capped P-states / boost clocks based on internal HSF and case vent.

 

[mazeroth]

But what's strange is that second link, it's drawing 45w idle with the integrated GPU. That's literally 400% of what this little Lenovo is drawing. I'm not shocked by how much it draws at load, I'm shocked at idle. You'd think they'd be similar.

I downloaded AIDA64 and did a full stress test. 56 watts, and 62 watts with the iGPU. Still, very impressive.

 

[Brian_B]

TDP includes both IGP and CPU loads. Probably uses less power with the IGP than not, because the draw from the IGP will further constrain the CPU (and your link shows that)

That being said, looks like your Toms link just has a higher base load. The delta between idle and loaded is about the same... a couple of more hard drives, a few more peripherals plugged in, a different chipset, something eating another 30-40W on that review that your system isn't.