Underclocking to reduce power consumption?

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FlangeMonkey

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 11, 2010
Messages
161
Hi Guys,

I have an existing board with LGA 2011-v3 socket, which I'm want to re-purpose. However I'm also wanting to reduce my power consumption, as its a 24/7 box.

I'm considering a E5-2620 v3 or i7-5930K. I cannot find the idle power on the 2630v3 but the TDP is a more reasonable 85W rather than 5930k's 140W. I also understand that idle on the 5930k is about 71W.

Now what I'm thinking of is underclocking the 5930k to reduce power consumption. Has anyone done this? I'm unsure how this would go?

Thanks,
 
Are you trying to reduce idle power consumption or 100% usage power consumption?
 
I see no point then, because the chip by itself will underclock and undervolt by default.. you will hardly will do anything to reduce idle power consumption.
 
ok,

So if I understand correctly, if want to reduce power below the 71W of the 5930k, I'd need to go with a different processor.

Thanks for replying and making this clear.
 
FlangeMonkey said:
ok,

So if I understand correctly, if want to reduce power below the 71W of the 5930k, I'd need to go with a different processor.

Thanks for replying and making this clear.
Click to expand...

I highly doubt a 5930K uses 71 watts at idle, where did you see this?
 
man, that's the whole system power consumption...
 
Granted, but I'm seeing that as best case because most other results I've seen are in the 80's and 90's.

If only I could see similar results on the 2630v3...
 
I really don't think you are going to find a notable difference in idle power consumption between modern Intel chips. Even if the 2630v3 used 2 watts less power at idle, would that change your mind?

Having said that, one of the reasons I went from a overclocked 2500K to a stock i5 6500 was to reduce idle and in-use power consumption. I've swapped my whole house over to LED lighting and done a bunch of other things to reduce monthly power usage. A more efficient PC was just something else on my list... And this Phoronix review sold me on the 6500 being one of the best combos of processing power/watts:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel-i5-6500&num=6
 
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I really don't think you are going to find a notable difference in idle power consumption between modern Intel chips
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Agreed. A modern Intel CPU will under clock / under volt and shut off parts of the chip during idle. You will not do much improve on what already is done for the idle CPU power draw.
 
ZodaEX said:
To op: Enable Intel Speed Step in the bios.
Click to expand...

it should be enabled by default.. as any other C State.. since sandy bridge onward they are Enabled or AUTO which its basically the same.
 
Araxie said:
it should be enabled by default.. as any other C State.. since sandy bridge onward they are Enabled or AUTO which its basically the same.
Click to expand...

This has been the case with almost all recent motherboards I've used as well. The power saving features are enabled by default and it usually only gets worse if you start tweaking.
 
What are you even looking to do with this PC? Your goals would have more to do with advising parts than anything else.

PS: You're chasing dimes to make dollars. The amount of time or money you're spending on this isn't worth the savings. If you save 10 watts on idle you're really only saving $10.51 per year (using $0.12 / KWHR). You could save more by consolidating your laundry or turning your AC off. I've been all over the spectrum with this, $2100 and $55 utility bills.
 
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