Low power CPUs

[hafizur]

Can someone tell what cpus use a low amount of power, their socket type and TDP value please, thanks.

Below TDP of 89W ideally using only 50W or less at full load (using cool n' quiet etc, if needed)

Thanks Again.

 

[WR]

Among today's CPUs, all but the top-speed socket AM2 Athlon64s (2.6GHz and above) and all of the 775-based Core 2 and Pentium M lines run at lower than 89W TDP using stock settings. Only the Pentium 4 line still routinely consumes more than that - it's being phased out.

Many 939, AM2, and 775 motherboards support CPU voltage adjustments, and by fine-tuning an undervolt, you can almost always run any of the <89W CPUs at less than 50W load without reducing their stock frequencies. Additionally, remember that an integral part of system power consumption is an efficient PSU.

In general, the Core 2 line runs at the lowest average wattage - that's primarily because it's also the highest performing line and has to spend the least time at load to accomplish a given task.

Core 2 E6300-6700 TDP 65W
Athlon64 x2 4200+ - 5200+ TDP 89W specified but almost all 45-65W actual, depending on your specific sample

 

[muffin]

Great information, jack and wr - I've been looking for a low power draw, as-silent-as-possible machine with enough jam to still do windows apps (yeah, I know Linux is for low power, blah,blah,blah). The processing power scaling of the C2D Mobile is really evident in those graphs - makes it alot easier to guess-timate what it'll be like at slower speeds - say 1 to 1.4GHz like the AMD Geodes and VIA C7...and those max. load power draw numbers look realistic too. Makes me wonder what they would use with some tweakage and good power management at 1 to 1.4 GHz with under <20% loads? It begins to look possible to make one of these fanless - it'd be a big heatsink, but not immense or unobtainable. Thanks.

 

[1Tanker]

Great information, jack and wr - I've been looking for a low power draw, as-silent-as-possible machine with enough jam to still do windows apps (yeah, I know Linux is for low power, blah,blah,blah). The processing power scaling of the C2D Mobile is really evident in those graphs - makes it alot easier to guess-timate what it'll be like at slower speeds - say 1 to 1.4GHz like the AMD Geodes and VIA C7...and those max. load power draw numbers look realistic too. Makes me wonder what they would use with some tweakage and good power management at 1 to 1.4 GHz with under <20% loads? It begins to look possible to make one of these fanless - it'd be a big heatsink, but not immense or unobtainable. Thanks.

Yes, with a good HS you could likely go passive. I was messing around with my P4 2.4A(Prescott) clocked it down to 1.8GHz(18x100) last week, and with an XP-120/sans fan, no intake fans...and only the PSU fan and two rear 80cm(30cfm) fans i ran P95 for ~4 hours. Max temp ~76C. Still, i was suprised that i could run a Prescott(though underclocked) and great HS, passively. Who'da thunk it?

 

[muffin]

What other hardware do you have in your machine, Tanker? I'm thinking of running on-board graphics and only a good sound card to keep power and accessory heat down. I'd like eventually to get a capable, completely fanless audio recording box built in the reasonably near future, using external sata disks to facillitate very high fidelity, long duration recordings in as small a footprint as possible. Does this sound feasible/ practical? I'm going to be off the power grid for long periods of time and would like to capture audio with as few breaks as possible in the recordings and preferably without any background noise of the hardware itself, all with low enough power draw to be solar charged, if at all possible.

 

[crow_smiling]

What other hardware do you have in your machine, Tanker? I'm thinking of running on-board graphics and only a good sound card to keep power and accessory heat down. I'd like eventually to get a capable, completely fanless audio recording box built in the reasonably near future, using external sata disks to facillitate very high fidelity, long duration recordings in as small a footprint as possible. Does this sound feasible/ practical? I'm going to be off the power grid for long periods of time and would like to capture audio with as few breaks as possible in the recordings and preferably without any background noise of the hardware itself, all with low enough power draw to be solar charged, if at all possible.

If you want the lowest power consumption then you should be looking at a laptop. I have a Core do laptop that idles at ~12W.
If you want a desktop system with a small footprint and very low power consumption then I suggest either Via EPIA or an Intel Mobile on Desktop system. With the right components they will both idle at 20W or less using a 2.5” hard drive. I have some experience in this area so if you want some feedback send me a PM.

 

[1Tanker]

What other hardware do you have in your machine, Tanker? I'm thinking of running on-board graphics and only a good sound card to keep power and accessory heat down. I'd like eventually to get a capable, completely fanless audio recording box built in the reasonably near future, using external sata disks to facillitate very high fidelity, long duration recordings in as small a footprint as possible. Does this sound feasible/ practical? I'm going to be off the power grid for long periods of time and would like to capture audio with as few breaks as possible in the recordings and preferably without any background noise of the hardware itself, all with low enough power draw to be solar charged, if at all possible.

eVGA 6800GS @429/1150 (fully unlocked),2x512MB OCZ Platinum Rev2, 250GB Hitachi, 80GB WD, cheap 16bit Creative SB,NIC,DVD-RW,CD-RW, Antec TP 480w PSU, In an Antec Plusview 1000AMG(full tower, but doesn't flow well).

 

[I]

Most CPUs can run at 50W max or less, merely by underclocking them. The question you should be asking is what can give you the most performance near a specific wattage at specific tasks (you fill in the specifics).

50W seems rather arbitrary though, that's not cool enough running for any reasonable passive solution (unless so well ducted as to be a non-passive at that point) so another issue is what else you need out of the platform, as some are smaller, or less costly, or more common, or support newer feature sets, or, ***

 

[hafizur]

How much processing power would you need to run say:

Watching/recording TV/satellite programmes, movies, listening to music, browsing i-net, runnig GPS software, playing new games (at low resolutions on small monitors) + few other basic things; word processing etc.

Which very low power CPU would you recommend to do all the above?
edit. something which isn't unbelievably expensive

Thanks for help!

 

[hafizur]

running off a 12vdc battery rated at 55amps/hr so a high power pc will drain it quickly, within 3hrs if rated at 300watts. so need low power pcs components

 

[I]

How much processing power would you need to run say:

Watching/recording TV/satellite programmes,

Get a hardware MPEG encoder capture card, and CPU utilization is minimal- but it will eat another dozen watts or so.

movies - depends on resolution and encoding (codec), on a small screen if you don't play high-res and downsample to get the low resolution, it's not very demanding though a current gen ATI or nVidia video card will help with the decoding more than former generations would.

music, browsing i-net, runnig GPS software, word processing, other basic things - insignificant, any CPU made in last 7 years or so will do it, except maybe the Via C3/C7 lines are marginal if multitasking

playing new games (at low resolutions on small monitors) - the most significant load, Core Duo or Athlon64, low end part undervolted if possible (and motherboard allows it). Modern video card in modern process size such as X1300 or 7600, also underclocked if allowable (you'd have to test it).

You wouldn't have 300W used in these scenarios but should look into a car power solution not an invertor that switches to 110/220 AC then back again to DC, that'll be significantly more efficient.

I'm wondering if there are any mini or micro ATX Pentium Mobile sets still in the market, if they've depreciated enough being aging tech that might be reasonable though their integrated video will be poor, assume you'd have to add a video card for gaming.

 

[hafizur]

Thanks for that 'I'

Just wondering if anyones tried a VIA C3 or C7 in a multi tasking environment, im using a DC PSU; very efficient in comparison to AC PSU equivalent.

Having little luck finding many micro ATX mobile on desktop motherboards (at reasonable prices) even the old pentium m ones seem to be too expensive considering the release of C2D.

May have to wait till january for the sale period to contiue this project maybe the old technology will depreciate significantly; and the concept of mobile on desktop will take off, who knows though.

 

[jaguarskx]

Here are some information that you may find interesting regarding CPU power consumption:

AMD’s Response to Intel Conroe: Energy Efficient Athlon 64 X2 CPU (page 6) - Power draw while idle.

AMD’s Response to Intel Conroe: Energy Efficient Athlon 64 X2 CPU (page 7) - Power draw under load.

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In case you are interested in GPU power consumption:

Faster, Quieter, Lower: Power Consumption and Noise Level of Contemporary Graphics Cards

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To further reduce power consumption you can alway opt for a notebook hard drive (2.5") instead of the standard 3.5" desktop hard drive. But they cost more money.

 

[hafizur]

whats the difference between the merom and yonah cores on core duo cpus