Intel Promises Sub-10 Watt PC Operation with Ready Mode

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Intel wants your PC to consume less power than most of your appliances.

Intel today revealed details on Ready Mode Technology, which is "a capability that takes advantage of new power saving states in Intel's 4th Gen Core desktop processor combined with software and board-level optimizations which enable OEM desktop computers that are instantly ready and always connected while sipping power."

Intel found that the majority of desktop users turn off or hibernate their machines when not in use. This sort of behavior is green, which is great, and absolutely makes sense for laptops since often they're battery powered, but Intel imagines that desktops could be even more useful with its always-on power supply and Internet connection.

To facilitate this, Intel has enabled a lower power C7 state on Haswell as well as the chipset. Intel issued new motherboard design guides for lower power consumption. With the hardware tweaks and special software (supplied either from Intel or motherboard OEMs), Intel claims that PCs with Ready Mode Technology can stay active while under 10 W.

AIO PC on at idle

AIO PC in Ready Mode

 

The advantages of having an always-on PC are probably clear to most of you, but Intel gave examples such as having a constantly-connected IP phone, or an always-available media streaming or file serving solution.

Story updated with photos.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
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12 Comments Comment from the forums
  • iceman26
    does this technology apply to downloading as well? because i want to have a desktop that is capable of downloading for days while consuming 10watts of power (electricity costs are expensive here in my country)
    Reply
  • iceman26
    does this technology apply to downloading as well? because i want to have a desktop that is capable of downloading for days while consuming 10watts of power (electricity costs are expensive here in my country)
    Reply
  • Shankovich
    Ok seriously Tom's, get rid of these comment bots. Every. Single. Article.
    Reply
  • iceman26
    this is my first to comment here at tomshardware, so pardon me for double posting, i guess it has something to do with their system
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    just don't hit refresh after submitting a comment. Hitting refresh simply re-submits the comment and you end up with a double post.As far as a low power downloader... Just slap together a cheap Atom based server. Throw a few HDDs on there and a copy of linux and just leave it on and downloading all day and night. Atom takes very little power, and is sitll more than powerful enough to download an internet stream and serve up content to the network.
    Reply
  • RazberyBandit
    So do the currently available Haswell-certified power supplies support this low-power state, or will PSU manufacturers need to release new models capable of it?
    Reply
  • tabascosauz
    WOOHOO! Get ready boys and girls for a 8-core Haswell-E CPU that will set you back a mere $1500! Oh, and the X99 motherboard you asked for will cost $400 for the basic, basic model! Oh and don't forget the DDR4! That's going to cost you $500 for a set of 2x4GB! Have fun!I mean, as nice as it all is, why don't we wait until the prices come out? I have a feeling Intel is going to slap more than just a $50 price premium on this 4790K just for -K and Broadwell compatibility. Seriously, if i7 hits $400 I might as well just bail on the whole Core boat and go with stupidly slow FX-8350 or jump on the Xeon E3 boat that offers identical performance to the Core i5s and i7s for sometimes more than $60 less. I guess I'll be waiting on the E3-1230 V3's successor, whatever it might be called.It's nice to see Intel show us LGA customers a little love with the unlocked Pentium (hooray for the Pentium 3s and 4s!) and socketed HD 5200. As long as Iris Pro LGA doesn't come with a ridiculous price tag and massive hit to L3, I'm happy.
    Reply
  • Jaroslav Jandek
    12921488 said:
    does this technology apply to downloading as well? because i want to have a desktop that is capable of downloading for days while consuming 10watts of power (electricity costs are expensive here in my country)
    Yes. You just have to enable Away Mode to go to the C7 power state.

    12922467 said:
    So do the currently available Haswell-certified power supplies support this low-power state, or will PSU manufacturers need to release new models capable of it?
    PSU does not matter. You just need a motherboard, CPU and OS that supports the C7 power state.
    Reply
  • Wisecracker
    IP phones (using MagicJack as an example) no longer need a computer and can simply be plugged into an Ethernet or USB port at the back of your router. My understanding is they also have a power-line Ethernet adapter.

    AND, have we as a society developed such a high level of ADD that we are incapable of waiting 5 seconds for a computer to wake from a 4w sleep state ??
    Reply
  • knowom
    just don't hit refresh after submitting a comment. Hitting refresh simply re-submits the comment and you end up with a double post.As far as a low power downloader... Just slap together a cheap Atom based server. Throw a few HDDs on there and a copy of linux and just leave it on and downloading all day and night. Atom takes very little power, and is sitll more than powerful enough to download an internet stream and serve up content to the network.
    A E7200 or E8400 works as a nice Atom substitute.This article covered that fairly decently though they didn't optimize it's efficiency completely they could have gone further with undervolting and underclocking. They could have underclocked it to the same clock speed of the Atom and undervolted it as low as possible or to the same voltage as the Atom. Also a E8200 would have been better in theory due to the 6MB cache.http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-atom-efficiency,2069.htmlHere's a example of how low you can undervolt/underclock a E7200 my Gigabyte motherboard monitoring tool says it consumes between 3 to 4Watts though I don't believe that is factoring in the board chipset which is also undervolted.
    Reply