Underclocking/Reducing Power Usage

NShukla · Jul 14, 2013

Hi, I'm in a rather unique situation. I recently built a PC for my sister, whom I offloaded my old i5-750 and Radeon 5770 (I'm upgrading). However, the rest of her budget was so tight that I had to resort to getting a cheaper power supply (Corsair CX430). The case is not gaming grade and is mainly cooled with 2 80mm fans.

I want to reduce the power usage and heat of the computer without spending money, and I dont care about sacrificing performance, as she won't notice or care. Will underclocking accomplish this?

vmem · Jul 15, 2013

NShukla :

yup, just proceed as you normally with overclocking, except backwards. since you're underclocking, stock voltage should be more than sufficient. so simply set clocks to what you want, then slowly step down the voltages until it becomes unstable, and take one step back

nukemaster · Jul 15, 2013

For the record I managed -0.08750 on my i5 750(that results in about 1.04 volts full load, but if not all cores are loaded, turbo still kicks it up higher.). and it had a 5770 in it too

. Best part was that shiny 300 watt power supply

I still use that system(It is an ITX system) to this day as my 24/7 media center(but now it has a GTX 650ti because it has better power savings for watching video and a bit more gaming power if I want to play games on it..).

Some interesting numbers for you.

Idle wattage low to high 30s depending on video card and hard drive setup(I have tried to get it as low as I can.). load under 150(while with some work I get close to 180.) watts in most games(this system was all about low power).

Prime95 + Just Cause2 i5 750 + 5770(H55n usb3 ITX board.).

If you are interested in seeing some real cramming
Image Link
Image Link 2 Swapped to 2.5 inch drives to save power. But in the end setup 1 x 3tb for storage and 1 2.5 inch 1tb for media with a 128gigabyte SSD for Windows and programs.

swifty_morgan · Jul 15, 2013

vmem :

NShukla :

yup, just proceed as you normally with overclocking, except backwards. since you're underclocking, stock voltage should be more than sufficient. so simply set clocks to what you want, then slowly step down the voltages until it becomes unstable, and take one step back

which are the first steps I take when overclocking. see how little voltage it takes for the processor to run normally.

NShukla · Jul 15, 2013

Thanks guys. I'm hoping that it will ease up on the PSU usage too. In my old build with it I had a 660w power supply (that I'm keeping).

nukemaster · Jul 15, 2013

With substantially more power(at least 100 watts) than my I5 750 system. I think you will have no issues.

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Underclocking/Reducing Power Usage

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