Lowest Power consumption PC with i5/i3

[michael]

you posted about 4 monitors and such, is that going to be the intent with this pc? if so i would recommend the board you are looking at now. the NUC is good for everyday web surfing and low setting gaming (if you dont mind) but i haven't tried 4 monitors just 2. .

4monitors, what are you talking about....?

 

[Aquinus]

For a normal pc to get under 100W is a bit too much. I am speaking of 100W at the wall with the monitor as the OP said. That is why i suggested a low power PC that 36W is the adaptor maximum power, basically a laptop adaptor and you will never reach more then 25-30 with that hardware.
My best bet would be downclocking your i7 using something like throttlestop to limit max multiplier to 16 when you are not needing the power and put the PC to sleep when you are not there. That would take you to the 80W range i think and you could see how much economy you make. Even 2 old style light bulbs need more power then 100W.

Or he could do what I did and use a negative voltage offset to pull all the basic VID levels down, than apply extra offset voltage for Turbo so it will run undervolted at idle and over volted under load. It gives you power efficiency when you want it and performance when you need it. It's what I did and I shaved 35-40 watts off my 3820's idle consumption, granted I think SB-E has a little more overhead for such things as it runs ~1.3v stock which is enough for 4.2Ghz on its own.

well seeing that you still are considering your build i found some more info on the intel NUC power consumption that i suggested earlier. also i think the celerons are even lower haven't checked yet but i would think they are.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7566/intels-haswell-nuc-d54250wyk-ucff-pc-review/6


27.02 watts with load
6.84 watts idle

you posted about 4 monitors and such, is that going to be the intent with this pc? if so i would recommend the board you are looking at now. the NUC is good for everyday web surfing and low setting gaming (if you dont mind) but i haven't tried 4 monitors just 2. i have a 3rd gen i5 nuc i use at my bros place with one of his spare monitors, mouse and keyboards.

This is the only post I could find in the thread that talks about monitors... Also with that said, just one of my Dell S2340Ms consumes 15-watts. That's 45-watts for all 3 displays. The point being, modern displays don't eat that much power, even if my 28" from 5-6 years ago consumes 100 watts.

 

[Final_Fighter]

4monitors, what are you talking about....?

thats my bad i accidently read 4 moitors when you said 4 tabs. my bad will edit that
just finished registering for 6 classes and 21 units out at the college so must have got ancy.

 

[michael]

Guys, I am really curious to know this thing.....

Can Intel Celeron N2820 NUC Kit DN2820FYKH Mini PC <------ (this max 7.5 watt TDP) play movies, 8Gb/16GB/25GB movie?



Thanks.
Edited: I found some reviews that it plays 1080P movies.

 

[michael]

Guys, Please excuse me for possible lengthening of this topic.. But I have some new interrelated query for you all, as the latest information shows as below,( yes AMD AM1 chip looks good but I see more options) :-


http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81TM-ITX R2.0/?cat=CPU

View attachment 58380
View attachment 58381

Is this xeon E3-1220LV3(C0) available in market, being xeon and just 16W and that too with this motherboard looks great... this might just be useful for me to keep some virtual machine online all the time. Can you all have you comments and suggestion about this please...?

Thanks a lot.

Hi guys is there any alternatives from AMD side to these Intel low watt T series...?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81TM-ITX R2.0/?cat=CPU

Thanks.

 

[Recca29]

Hi guys is there any alternatives from AMD side to these Intel low watt T series...?
http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81TM-ITX R2.0/?cat=CPU

Thanks.

first you will not find the Xeon L series processors that easily, Core T series are also hard to find in india.
Secondly the cost would be high compared to the AMD Setup.

 

[michael]

This what I read about NUC celeron playing 1080p big files:-

The Results:
Plays whatever encoding FIOS is sending the TV signals through flawlessly. No hiccups, no stuttering, no communication issues, no handshake issues, it works.
Was able to use an HP MCE remote without a problem AFTER installing the Consumer IR driver. No programming or software tinkering required, it just works. Logitech remotes should work as well if you have it set up correctly.
Plays 1080p content from a 12Mbps Matroska file without a problem.
Plays 1080p content from a 24Mbps Matroska file but I could not forward/rewind/skip without some sort of pause or delay. I suspect this to be the limits of the Celeron, but who knows. I don’t really care because this isn’t what I bought it for.

What is diffrence between 12 Mbps and 24 Mbps file?
Is it 24 Mbps is movie file sizing over 15GB or so.......?

 

[Mussels]

This what I read about NUC celeron playing 1080p big files:-

The Results:
Plays whatever encoding FIOS is sending the TV signals through flawlessly. No hiccups, no stuttering, no communication issues, no handshake issues, it works.
Was able to use an HP MCE remote without a problem AFTER installing the Consumer IR driver. No programming or software tinkering required, it just works. Logitech remotes should work as well if you have it set up correctly.
Plays 1080p content from a 12Mbps Matroska file without a problem.
Plays 1080p content from a 24Mbps Matroska file but I could not forward/rewind/skip without some sort of pause or delay. I suspect this to be the limits of the Celeron, but who knows. I don’t really care because this isn’t what I bought it for.

What is diffrence between 12 Mbps and 24 Mbps file?
Is it 24 Mbps is movie file sizing over 15GB or so.......?

the file size has nothing to do with how hard the file is to play. bitrate and encoding is all that matters.

if you start dealing with 10 bit H264 and positional subtitles (read: most modern anime encodes) those low end chips will choke.


it seems like you're hunting for a magical thing that doesnt exist - if you want super low wattage, get a laptop or a surface pro tablet. my $600 (at the time) three year old quad core AMD APU laptop manages 1080p video playback fine over HDMI, and uses less than 30W including its own screen.
If you want a desktop that uses less wattage, get whatever CPU you want and undervolt and underclock it, until you get the power consumption you're happy with. 90W of power from a modern PC playing a video is basically nothing, theres simply no way the amount you're spending on all this hardware will cost you less than the electricity bills themselves.

 

[xvi]

What is diffrence between 12 Mbps and 24 Mbps file?
Is it 24 Mbps is movie file sizing over 15GB or so.......?

They're referring to the bitrate of the stream which is an indirect measure of quality. The higher the bitrate, the more information needs to be processed every second.

What the review is saying is that the NUC had no issues handling that much information per second, which isn't surprising since it's probably all hardware decode.

 

[GhostRyder]

Guys, Please excuse me for possible lengthening of this topic.. But I have some new interrelated query for you all, as the latest information shows as below,( yes AMD AM1 chip looks good but I see more options) :-


http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/H81TM-ITX R2.0/?cat=CPU

View attachment 58380
View attachment 58381

Is this xeon E3-1220LV3(C0) available in market, being xeon and just 16W and that too with this motherboard looks great... this might just be useful for me to keep some virtual machine online all the time. Can you all have you comments and suggestion about this please...?

Thanks a lot.

Well the problem with that chip is that there is no Integrated solution for graphics meaning you would need a separate GPU which would bump up the voltage necessary by a decent margin. Unless I am looking at the wrong system idea the board says requires a CPU with Intel HD graphics to support the on board video plugs.

Even saying that I would still say the AM1 would be a better choice than that if your looking for as low wattage as possible.

Guys, I am really curious to know this thing.....

Can Intel Celeron N2820 NUC Kit DN2820FYKH Mini PC <------ (this max 7.5 watt TDP) play movies, 8Gb/16GB/25GB movie?



Thanks.
Edited: I found some reviews that it plays 1080P movies.

Its also pretty good for low power options and a decent chip. I have no experience with that particular Celeron but based on the Chrome book Celeron my friend bought its decent enough for the basics and capable of 1080p playback. The NUC kit in particular is a very cool little box that would be sufficient but it does suffer in areas that require a bit more graphical output in the end. It will do just fine as you have seen in 1080p situations for the most part but it might be better to explore the other options.

Either kit should suffice to your needs, but if I was picking I would grab an AM1 Athlon 5350 over it for the extra GPU power because when you are using a machine for media purposes the GPU is normally the front runner and at this area all the processor choices will suffice!

 

[xvi]

My work computer is a Gateway SX2110G, which can be had refurbished for $170 here in the states. It's not excessively fantastic on the CPU side of things, but it's rated at 18 watt TDP. The GPU is good enough to get around in Google Earth with 3D buildings enabled without too much hassle. I can definitely feel the CPU struggling behind for most everything, but I ask an awful lot of it.

At any given time, I pretty much always have Chrome open with 20-40 tabs, trouble ticket software, a few putty sessions, a handful of command prompt windows, TeamViewer, VMware vSphere, various utilities (a few optical disc testers yesterday)... all that and it still manages the occasional VirtualBox VM from time to time. Yes, it struggles, but it's useable. I think the question is where is OP's tradeoff between power and, well, power?

 

[michael]

I have read all these latest 3 replies. All have some good point to consider. And it's really interesting to know that everybody........... no matter what country they are from, no matter how rich they are... all wish/want to minimize electricity bill.
Whenever I buy any gadget I always think that It should serve at least one unique purpose.

I think Intel Celeron Nuc serve the best option for having machine ON almost all day to just go , sit and surf.
Just check this review for celeron it does not even exceed 12watt.

About AMD AM1:- Well this machine set looks great HTPC as being AMD will add some more detail to your smart tv viewing if you are using Tv as monitor,in this case even celeron NUC will be better option if you want to surf you TV via it rather than using those "still not upto the mark" smart tv futures.

NUC with i5 also looks best option if you want to save space and money.

However I am still to find lowest watts eating Monitor for such cases.......?

Thanks.

 

[xvi]

However I am still to find lowest watts eating Monitor for such cases.......?

Pretty much anything that's LED backlit. If it's cheaper and/or more available, you could probably use a small TV instead (again, one that's LED backlit).

I can't say I'm familiar with India, but do you guys have something similar to our Energy Guide stickers (like the one below)?

 

[michael]

Pretty much anything that's LED backlit. If it's cheaper and/or more available, you could probably use a small TV instead (again, one that's LED backlit).

I can't say I'm familiar with India, but do you guys have something similar to our Energy Guide stickers (like the one below)?

We have something like this.. 5 star means more power saving.....

But we dont get this on Monitors, instead we get tag as "energy saving."....

 

[michael]

Actually I wanted a square monitor with built in speaker...

 

[Frick]

Just get a LED monitor and you're fine. Speakers in monitors ALWAYS sucks. Seriously, they are always terrible. Don't go that road.

Unless things have changed but I am assuming they have not.

 

[xvi]

Actually I wanted a square monitor with built in speaker...

Just get a LED monitor and you're fine. Speakers in monitors ALWAYS sucks. Seriously, they are always terrible. Don't go that road.

Unless things have changed but I am assuming they have not.

TVs are monitors with good speakers.

Michael, I assume that by square, you mean 4:3? That might be hard to find, especially LED ones with speakers.

It's starting to sound more and more that you'd be happiest just getting a laptop.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

Jesus, you people want a lot out of your web browser boxes.

Try a Raspberry Pi. It's less than $50 in the US, it can run a decent browser (assuming flash isn't your thing), and it plays video reasonably well: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/25-fun-things-to-do-with-a-raspberry-pi/

If you can find any computer that runs on less power, and does all of that, I'd suggest you buy it up.


Edit:

Best of all, you can keep that 3770. You'll need it for anything more substantial, but if it's on 15% of the time you're looking at a 90%+ decrease in overall power consumption.

If all you're looking for is a web browser an i5 is too much, and an i3 could rather easily be beaten in power efficiency. There's no reason to have a 500 horse power engine in a geo metro shell.

 

[michael]

Jesus, you people want a lot out of your web browser boxes.

Try a Raspberry Pi. It's less than $50 in the US, it can run a decent browser (assuming flash isn't your thing), and it plays video reasonably well: http://www.cnet.com/how-to/25-fun-things-to-do-with-a-raspberry-pi/

Please excuse me for asking into some other stuff. But wow.. this link has shown me something that I was never aware of, What is this...? looks cheap here in my county too. Only Rs. 3000

http://www.ebay.in/sch/i.html?_trks...berry+Pi&_nkw=Raspberry+Pi&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Below link shows all package:-

http://www.ebay.in/itm/Raspberry-Pi...?pt=IN_Desktop_PCs&hash=item3a95a5ed01&_uhb=1

What is this , I WOULD DEFINITELY BUY THIS besides my probable NUC or AMD AM1.

Is anybody using this...? What all it can do...?

Thanks.

 

[GhostRyder]

Please excuse me for asking into some other stuff. But wow.. this link has shown me something that I was never aware of, What is this...? looks cheap here in my county too. Only Rs. 3000

http://www.ebay.in/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR10.TRC0.A0.H0.XRaspberry Pi&_nkw=Raspberry Pi&_sacat=0&_from=R40

Below link shows all package:-

http://www.ebay.in/itm/Raspberry-Pi...?pt=IN_Desktop_PCs&hash=item3a95a5ed01&_uhb=1

What is this , I WOULD DEFINITELY BUY THIS besides my probable NUC or AMD AM1.

Is anybody using this...? What all it can do...?

Thanks.

It's a raspberry Pi, it's a tiny developer board with very basic components for a cheap price. Takes an SD card for its primary drive and runs like a very bare minimum system. It was designed originally to be used for basic developing in the fields of CS.

I can tell you from experience that with a 64gb SD card and a copy of Linux I was able to watch some videos while programming on my 1080p monitor without any real problems. Might be something you would like to look into as it's dirt cheap and uses nothing power wise.

Just remember it's way lower than anything suggested thus far.

I have model B for reference.

 

[xvi]

I also have a Ras Pi Model B and it's pretty darn good considering it's specs, but usage has to be pretty light. Hardware decode should take care of a lot of video needs, but I agree with lilhasselhoffer, it probably won't handle much in the way of flash. Also, you will not be able to install Windows to it.

I think there are other ARM-based sticks that are about the same price range that have a little more horsepower than the Pi, an example being the MK802, MK803, or GK802.

Actually, what does everyone think about a Chromebook?

 

[Toothless]

Actually, what does everyone think about a Chromebook?

No.

It's an oversized, limited netbook. All web surfing but no proper storage.

 

[michael]

I also have a Ras Pi Model B and it's pretty darn good considering it's specs, but usage has to be pretty light. Hardware decode should take care of a lot of video needs, but I agree with lilhasselhoffer, it probably won't handle much in the way of flash. Also, you will not be able to install Windows to it.

I think there are other ARM-based sticks that are about the same price range that have a little more horsepower than the Pi, an example being the MK802, MK803, or GK802.

Actually, what does everyone think about a Chromebook?

Chromebook is really not good. no storage.. I may buy it only if am rich.

yes. these GK options looks good too, only to access fast web browser on Smart TV , if it allows... I mean how fast is web browsing using these android sticks on Smart TV...?

 

[Mussels]

Chromebook is really not good. no storage.. I may buy it only if am rich.

yes. these GK options looks good too, only to access fast web browser on Smart TV , if it allows... I mean how fast is web browsing using these android sticks on Smart TV...?

slower than a PC. they're normally equal to a low end android tablet.

 

[michael]

slower than a PC. they're normally equal to a low end android tablet.

Thanks. I may not look towards this area now, unless someone gifts me one.