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Recommendations for SFF Upgrade - Low Temps Priority

D

Ducman69

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jul 12, 2007
Messages
10,561
I have an old Lian Li PC-V350 I'd like to upgrade for my parent's kitchen PC.

It currently has a:
Intel Q6600 CPU
ATI Radeon HD4550 GPU
8GB RAM
mATX Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R motherboard
64GB SSD
2TB harddrive
Corsair 620watt PSU
2x ATI Wonder 650 TV tuners
1489705865_73aa06ee70.jpg


Two main complaints:
1) Its always made people sitting by it unusually warm because of the way the desk is setup, and there is no easy way to relocate it.
2) Stability issues now, probably some failing components.

I'd like to reuse as much as possible, and was thinking of just a CPU+RAM+Motherboard w/ integrated video replacement. Cost is not as important as keeping the temperatures low. This is their primary computer that they also watch/record TV on, so I'd like performance to remain respectable. Ideas??? :cool:
 
I'd suggest going with an Ivy Bridge i3 at the minimum. It is still quicker than the Q6600, according to http://anandtech.com/bench/Product/53?vs=677.

For motherboard, there's a decent selection of 1155 mATX boards w/ 2 PCI slots, but I'm not in a position to make specific recommendations.

Any DDR3 DIMM will do if you need to buy any, but look for 1.35v ones for minimum power usage.

I'd also suggest replacing the power supply with a higher efficiency model. You won't even need 300W with these components, so consider going with Gold at the mininum (~$60) or Platinum if you feel like splurging (~$100).

Last but not least, consider replacing the HDD with a 2.5" model for minimum power usage.
 
Last edited:
Alchemic said:
What is the PC going to be used for?
Click to expand...
A little bit of everything, its their primarily used computer for them and guests (my nephews).

Watching TV and movies (currently only at 1080p, but I may upgrade them to a 4K screen in the future when they are around the $600 range), browsing the web, running flight navigation simulations, and occasional Adobe Photoshop/Premiere brief editing. No gaming aside from angry birds and a couple other such simple games.

They fought me about having a computer in the kitchen, and then they loved it so much they built a little cubby for it, which unfortunately the heat rises and dumps out the front right where you sit. I had considered a fan to suck the hot air into the hollow walls, but then it'd be constantly losing air-conditioned cool air that way too. So instead I figured more efficient modern hardware would do the trick. Worst case scenario I could even go water cooled as they have a cutout by the PC and to the wall-mounted TV above so you can't see any wires and I could stick a cooling tower on the table, heh, but prefer a more elegant solution. ;)

I've been eyeing the Intel Core i5-4570S, which although it doesn't have a crazy low TDP I imagine would finish operations faster and return to idle quickly for lower temps, and the integrated video I'm hoping is powerful enough I can ditch a dedicated video card entirely. I'll look for a thermally efficient PSU then as well, as I was worried about that. :)

The 2TB HDD I'm not TOO worried about, as most of the time its not even spinning. It should only come on when they want to watch a movie, and the OS and all applications fit on the SSD.
 
You can certainly go with Haswell - it will also let you drive a 4K display from a single DisplayPort, something that Ivy Bridge can't do.

I'm surprised to see that there are actually a decent amount of socket 1150 mATX mobos with 2 PCI slots available, so that will work.
 
Biggest heat producer in that is the 95 watt TDP CPU.

Haswell has some 45 watt TDP parts. Grab one of those, and use the integrated graphics. Total system power draw would be under 100 watts at load.
 
Ducman69 said:
I've been eyeing the Intel Core i5-4570S, which although it doesn't have a crazy low TDP I imagine would finish operations faster and return to idle quickly for lower temps, and the integrated video I'm hoping is powerful enough I can ditch a dedicated video card entirely. I'll look for a thermally efficient PSU then as well, as I was worried about that. :)
Click to expand...

^ This. HD4000 or higher should be more powerful than the radeon 4550. The 4550 only has 80 stream processors. Probably could get away with an ivy bridge i3-3225. 55W dual core with HT and an HD4000. Cheaper than the i5-4570S.

My opinion for the PSU, keep the HX620 unless it is giving you trouble.
 
Ducman69 said:
I've been eyeing the Intel Core i5-4570S, which although it doesn't have a crazy low TDP I imagine would finish operations faster and return to idle quickly for lower temps
Click to expand...

If you want "faster to idle" why not go for a normal wattage CPU? They all idle the same. The low wattage CPUs are only capped at a lower max speed.

Screes said:
Biggest heat producer in that is the 95 watt TDP CPU.

Haswell has some 45 watt TDP parts.
Click to expand...

Even an 84W Haswell will likely produce significantly less heat in normal usage, because it will spend more time idling, and it will idle really low.
 
But its basic usage, surely an i3 will do and anything more overkill?
 
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