How would you go about configuring a low power-consumption gaming PC?

Drunken_Sailor

Commendable
Nov 18, 2016
2
0
1,510
I'm going start off by saying I'm brand new to this forum so if this is in the wrong section I apologise. On to the topic:

This isn't for me, but for a friend who lives in a dorm with a power box that is expensive to run. So basically he wants a system with medium gaming power that has the lowest wattage possible. He mostly plays things like CS:GO and Overwatch, and he'd like to be playing some AAA games like BF1 and Dishonored 2 even if at the lowest settings possible at 1080p. He's asked me for help because I'm decently computer-savvy and he's got a budget of $700. Only I have no idea where to start when trying to configure for efficient power consumption.

Thoughts, comments and suggestions are all greatly appreciated. Cheers.
 

Drunken_Sailor

Commendable
Nov 18, 2016
2
0
1,510


After sitting down and doing some rough napkin maths, he'd like to keep it at 400w under load, of course anything lower would be great. And what do you mean by being too big?

I've also been doing some poking around hardware shops and does anyone know what Intel T series are like for gaming? Considering they are power efficiency optimised I think one of them would be a decent starting point.
 
that can be done easily, lets do this.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-6500 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($190.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Asus H110M-E/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($37.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($49.99 @ Newegg Marketplace)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($70.88 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 6GB 6GB WINDFORCE OC 6G Video Card ($244.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 1100 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: XFX TS 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply ($68.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $688.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-18 21:23 EST-0500
 
Solution
400w under load is a high power usage. We're talking 1080 and 6700k and still not hit 400w under load off the wall with a gold psu. If it's a 400w psu, then that's still a mid range pc and a low power cpu is not even needed. The $700 budget is what would limit you and you don't even need to worry about power. The obvious combinations would be intel and nvidia since they are better performance vs power.