How to Reduce Power Consumption ?

Selina92

Reputable
Jan 10, 2016
12
0
4,510
I have my pc on 24x7 almost, and a lot of power bills coming evry months.
So I was thinking which component to replace without sacrificing performance ?
Below are my specs :

  • CPU - AMD FX 8350
    Motherboard - Asus Sabertooth 990 R2
    GPU - AMD Raedon R9 270x @2 GB DDR5
    Cooler - Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
    SSD - Silicon Power S70 120GB SATA III
    RAM - Corsair Vengeance 16 GB (4+4+8GB) DDR3 1600 MHz & 1333 Mhz
    Monitor - BenQ EW2440
    PSU - Corsair VS550
    Cabinet - Coolermaster Mid Twoer
    Keyboard - Microsoft Wireless 800
    Mouse - Razer Deathadder 2013

I use my system for heavy multitasking ( running 10+ os all at a time), video rendering & occasional gaming.
 
Solution
Sorry man but if you wanted to save power you should have purchased an Intel machine. That 8350 uses bucket loads of power and not to mention the AMD GPU. There isn't a way to reduce power without sacrificing performance. If this were possible then the electrical engineers at AMD would have already done it.

So if you wanted to reduce your power consumption without sacrificing performance and actually gaining it, this is what you'd need:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus H170-PLUS D3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX...
If you want to reduce power consumption you have to go for intel cpu and nvidia gpu, unfortunately amd cpus and gpus are extremely power hungry, only thing you can do to have a minor power consumption reduction is to underclock the gpu and cpu but then again way too minor.
 
Sorry man but if you wanted to save power you should have purchased an Intel machine. That 8350 uses bucket loads of power and not to mention the AMD GPU. There isn't a way to reduce power without sacrificing performance. If this were possible then the electrical engineers at AMD would have already done it.

So if you wanted to reduce your power consumption without sacrificing performance and actually gaining it, this is what you'd need:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus H170-PLUS D3 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($92.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 960 2GB SuperSC ACX 2.0+ Video Card ($194.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $617.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-02-01 03:08 EST-0500
 
Solution
if you live in the us contact your local power company and look at grant money from us government for solar and wind for your home. you may be able to get money back from your local power company that does net metering. with your power company have them do a free energy audit. then use there grants and rebates to reduse the whole power for your home. if your heating system is a few years old there grant money to put in a 80 or more gas or heat pumps. also with ac heat pumps there grants and funds to replace the old 8 seer units with newer 15 seer units. also replace old lights with led. hot water tank there funds to put in hot water on demande systems and or to wrap the old tanks.
also funds to replace old washer/dryers/fridges. also if your home is a few years old have the power compnay change the meter to make sure it working right. also if your in a condo or rent. turn off all your breakers make sure your home is dark then check to see if the meter still moving. if it is then someone may have tapped into you.
 
The build of MasterDell is decent but if you are planning to cut the bills then my guess would be that you can't afford a new PC. Also if you plan on getting one, you should go for the Intel Xeon E3-1230 or the 1231 or something along those lines, cheaper than i7, basically an i7 without the turbo boost and without the integrated GPU, so lower power consumption.
 

The TDP on a i7-6700 is 15W lower. Having an iGPU or not having an iGPU it doesn't matter as they aren't being used. A CPU can't draw power for something that isn't being used.

Yes TDPs are not the actual power consumption of a CPU but they are a very good way to determine power consumption. Let's not forget the smaller node the 6700 has over the 1231.
 

That is very very wrong...

His computer is running 24x7 under what is sounding to be a moderate load. Which means lets say he is pulling say 350W from the wall. So if you have a power cost of .12 cents per kWh. That machine is .35kW to run. Multiplied by the hours which is 24 per day.. Multiply this by .12 and we get $1.01 per day. That is about $368 on an average year.

Now if we were to calculate the pull with the system I built we would hopefully get a 120W reduction in power consumption. This would give us a system which costs $240 per year. That's a $130/year investment.
 

azca

Distinguished
Mar 16, 2006
841
0
19,160
his computer at idle is using 100W tops; unless he is a robot that plays 24/7 without sleep 30 days a in a row




 



He said he occasionally games so I don't know where you got play from.. He also said his system is for heavy multitasking where he runs 10+ OS at a time. I would assume that is happening 24/7.. Even if his computer is running 24 hours per day at idle that's $105 per year ;)
 

Selina92

Reputable
Jan 10, 2016
12
0
4,510
Hi, thanks for all your inputs, My pc is in constant multitasking, hardly in sleep mode or idle mode, and many times works as a server where other guests connect to different os using teamviewer.

MasterDell thanks for the ideas, I like them but can I just change the cpu, not MD + GPU ? cause my Mobo is really great costed me around $350, it has military grade components etc,
 

It's up to you but what is costing you a lot of money to run the computer is your CPU. What a good idea would be is to get a reader that tells you how much power is being pulled from the wall because of your computer.

Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455080060&sr=8-1&keywords=power+monitor


It will tell you how much power you are using from your computer.. Allowing you to verify that that's what is costing you a lot on your electrical bill.
 

Selina92

Reputable
Jan 10, 2016
12
0
4,510


Yes I am also looking to replace cpu, what I am asking is can I replace CPU only without replacing mobo and GC ? cause all are AMD Based.
 
You will need to replace the motherboard. Your graphics card can be used again but it also consumes a lot of power. If your graphics card isn't always being used then you won't notice a difference in your power bill if you were to replace it.