Processor power consumption?

[jerry12953]

I'm still researching my next PC and am wondering about the power consumption of various components.

Is it a general rule that the faster the processor, the more energy it uses?

As my computer seems to be on almost continuously these days, and as we're supposed to be saving energy, not using more of it, can anyone suggest a sensible balance between speed and power consumption?

 

[neil_g]

Is it a general rule that the faster the processor, the more energy it uses?

not necessarily.. the latest i7 intel extreme editions use a "whopping" 12w at idle. anyway the intels with speedstep are designed to reduce consumption during idle periods.

to be honest, processors are the least of your worries. youll use more power the more drives, better graphics card etc etc you have installed.

computers use a lot less power than you think at idle, its only really if youre hammering the arse off it 24/7 that youll see large power consumption.

 

[jerry12953]

not necessarily.. the latest i7 intel extreme editions use a "whopping" 12w at idle. anyway the intels with speedstep are designed to reduce consumption during idle periods.

to be honest, processors are the least of your worries. youll use more power the more drives, better graphics card etc etc you have installed.

computers use a lot less power than you think at idle, its only really if youre hammering the arse off it 24/7 that youll see large power consumption.

Coming from a laptop, though, I would notice a difference, I think....

Is it the case then that the better, bigger, faster components in general (eg graphics card, hard drive and processor) all use more power than smaller, slower ones? I'll be trying to find an acceptable performance/power consumption balance

 

[chrisgeary]

I think computers use *more* power than you think. I measured a P4 2.8Ghz Dell Dimension 8300 with dual hard drives spun up but otherwise at idle once and found it was using 120w of power.

I think its fair that beefier graphics cards (and especially those that requires two separate power supply feeds) are going to not only use more power, but probably require a PSU upgrade.

The exception to this is hard drives whose size bares no relation to power consumed. In fact, if anything, they are getting more efficient these days.

Laptops are quite efficient (and slower) and thus draw less power.

 

[jimbo_wa]

Intel Core2Duo processors (I currently use a E8400) are all rated at 65w and will idle around 15-20w, there are also some 65w Core2Quad processors with an 's' designation (Q9550s).

My rig is a Mini-ITX Intel DG45FC (onboard G45 graphics) with the aforementioned E8400, 4GB memory and an Intel G2 80GB SSD powered by a 150w PicoPSU-150-XT. Power draw is approx 35w at idle and jumps to 75w at full load.

AMD do power efficient processors too with an 'e' designation.

The power supply is the one component that will ensure your system runs efficiently - you need to look for an 80+ designation as it means the power conversion process has been rigorously tested

Unless you are a professional and doing batch processing of huge files in Photoshop etc. the cost of i7 and newer processors are IMO prohibitive.