Power consumption: high load vs low load?

danrc · Aug 9, 2014

I am looking for an AM3+ socket compatitible cpu. I am considering somthing like the sempron 145 for its low power consumption. If I buy a better cpu will it use more power even if not used at full load. Does a sempron at 100% load use the same power as the equivalent load in a better cpu?

Any recommendation on a good quad am3+ compatible cpu?

dovah-chan · Aug 9, 2014

If you're looking for low power consumption on the AM3+ platform you're in the wrong part of town. I guess the only CPU I could recommend that's on AM3+ and isn't a power guzzler is a Phenom II X4 965. It doesn't generate much heat or use insane amounts of power but is still a fairly competent and nice budget CPU. Although if I were you I'd head over to the Intel side for efficiency. AMD is working on their power usage but it's one step at a time. Intel is far ahead of them. I lament that as I love AMD.

hunter315 · Aug 9, 2014

The sempron will use less power, but it will also take notably longer to accomplish a fixed length task so it sort of evens out.

What motherboard do you have as that determines which CPUs you can use, motherboards are not compatible with all CPUs that can be put in their socket. What are you trying to do with this system? Given that you are considering the Sempron i'm guessing nothing that is too CPU intensive.

The sempron is a 45W CPU, so if you were to put in one of the 65W CPUs and ran the system at full load all year long you would pay an extra [strike]$44/month[/strike]$2.19@15 cents/kWh. A more realistic usage scenario of 4 hours per day puts you at only an increase of about [strike]$7[/strike]$0.37/month, not too significant.

Edit - Thanks to goedeggray for the math fix, i had multiplied by 20w twice.

Goodeggray · Aug 9, 2014

I think your electricity cost calculation are off. Assuming 24hr a day at max usage 20w x 24hours = .480KWH. At 15 cents a KWH that's 7.2 cents a day. For $2.16 per month difference.

danrc · Aug 9, 2014

I have an Asus M5A97 LE R2.0. I will use it mainly as File server and maybe a web server to serve some pictures to family. I would leave it on 24/7. The more power I can get the best without increasing the electricity bill too much.

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Power consumption: high load vs low load?

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