High power, low power PC

Reaper

I am looking to buy a new desktop PC. I want plenty of oomph for playing games etc but I also want it to use as little power as possible when it is idling because much of the time it is just used for writing letters and other undemanding work.

I was thinking of an E8600 Intel Duo processor and GTX260 graphics card - are they good choices for what I am after?

Also if it has some ludicrous 800w power supply I assume it only draws what it needs and it won't use any more power than a 500w supply when it is idling. Is that right?

DatabaseError

probably won't even use 500w when working, but always better to have a bit more power available, than run a supply at its limit.
the cpu should throttle back/use less power when idling, as to the gpu i don't know, but i would have thought it would draw more power when needed (my gpu runs 100% ALL the time)
the e8400 aint a bad processor, check here for passmark ratings

fwor

Reaper wrote: »

Also if it has some ludicrous 800w power supply I assume it only draws what it needs and it won't use any more power than a 500w supply when it is idling. Is that right?

Not quite. As a general rule you should expect an 800W power supply to be less efficient at low power output than a 500W one.

I've never seen any tests results that put a figure on the difference, but I would hazard a guess that it's probably only a few per cent, all other things being equal.

Mobeer

fwor wrote: »

Not quite. As a general rule you should expect an 800W power supply to be less efficient at low power output than a 500W one.

I've never seen any tests results that put a figure on the difference, but I would hazard a guess that it's probably only a few per cent, all other things being equal.

AnandTech have reviewed various PSUs at varying loads. They found small differences in power consumption, but much greater differences in noise:
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3413

banger9365

thats why new board have EPU (Energy Processing Unit)
(asus)EPU utilizes innovative technology to digitally monitor and finetune the CPU power supply with improved VR responses in heavy or light loadings. Working together with AI Gear 3, it automatically provides power for higher performance or improves efficiency by 50% when the PC is running low intensity applications - helping you attain the best possible power efficiency and energy savings of up to 80.23% to help save the environment.

and your new setup should only need a 600/700 watt psu and a good branded one not cheapo(winpower type)

[Deleted User]

I'd go for an ATI Radeon HD 4870 with GDDR5 for about the same price as the Nvidia 260, you'll get better performance from it.

Avoid cheap PSU's, the least you should spend on one is £60, and even then I'd be looking to spend around £80-90 on a good, solid, reliable one.

Reaper

Thanks for all the answers. I had not heard of the EPU on the motherboard - it sounds like just the sort of thing I'm after. However I don't think anybody does the combination of that and the other bits I want so I might have to think about either compromising or building it myself - which I have done in the past but was hoping to avoid this time.

I'm sure there must be a market for powerful PCs which use minimal power when idling, but none of the PC sellers I have found cater for it. Maybe I should set up business!

[Deleted User]

Reaper wrote: »

I'm sure there must be a market for powerful PCs which use minimal power when idling, but none of the PC sellers I have found cater for it. Maybe I should set up business!

There's probably a very good reason why the big players haven't latched onto it; demand. An average PC on minimal use probably uses ± about the same electricity as a TV set. I don't see power consumption high on the list of requirements when people are buying TVs

savemoney

I have a Asus low energy board (P5Q pro)as mentioned above my Quad cpu runs at 9w on low power, its set for automatically set for increasing power to cpu when applications require it. It also lows power memory, hdd, fan, chipset but not the graphics despite having a Nvidia GTX260 it only seems to work with Asus cards

I also have a 600w psu that also is 85% efficient.

Sam_G_3

You could always get a high spec laptop as laptops obviously use less power than desktops, but if you want to play games often then yes a desktop would make more sense.

If you leave the PC idle a lot of time you could set Windows to 'hibernate' after x minutes of inactivity (or just turn it off when you're not using it?).

Poppycat

You usually get more for your buck with a desktop when it comes to high spec computers. I dont think laptop whilst can play top games can do it for prolonged hours as heat will be a major factor, plus can you easily update a desktop unless its a really old one