
Processor power-saving features were enabled on both stock configurations, including last quarter’s overclocked setup. But because the Pentium processor I'm using this time around is already such a low-power component, I didn't try to tune with EIST (Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology) enabled.

It's no surprise that a two-core Haswell-based CPU uses less power than AMD's 100 W Athlon X4. However, I didn't think that this quarter's overclocked configuration would need less power than last quarter's stock setup. Consumption while gaming is also down. Although you won't find this information in the chart, our new overclock peaks at just 197 W during a 10-minute Far Cry 3 sequence. That's 14 W less than last quarter's stock settings.
Other observations to note are the idle impact of disabling EIST, plus how little extra power is consumed under full system load (compared to the GPU-only measurement). 3DMark relies less on the host processor than our games, but still taxes one core (or in this case, half the Pentium’s available resources).

The peak CPU load temperature used for this calculation is the Pentium’s hotter-running core while stability testing in Prime95. Pushed to 1.238 V, a reasonable 72 degrees Celsius was lower than I imagined for the stock cooler. Even better, neither core climbed above 57 Celsius while playing Far Cry 3. Airflow from our enclosure’s three fans must have successfully helped the boxed heat sink do its job.
Last quarter, I had to use the motherboard’s CPU socket temperature readings for the Athlon X4 750K. However, my main focus while overclocking was directed towards Thermal Margins as reported by AMD OverDrive, which under load still indicated we had a reasonable cushion of 25 degrees Celsius.
As long as there is sufficient case airflow, our 10-minute burn test sitting outside Far Cry 3’s Amanki Outpost quickly heats the GPU up as much as an hour of normal gameplay. Although last quarter I ramped up cooling with a custom fan profile while overclocking, this Radeon R9 270 runs plenty cool at Sapphire's automatic fan settings, peaking at 44% duty cycle.
With our temperatures in check on both systems, the current PC's most pleasing feature is its low noise. Although Intel’s bundled thermal solution is the quieter of the two coolers, the largest noise-maker could have been mitigated last quarter by simply replacing or disconnecting the annoying side-panel fan. I only plugged that one in while overclocking to help keep my Athlon CPU cool.
- Overclocking Haswell On The Cheap
- CPU And Cooler
- Motherboard And Memory
- Graphics Card And Hard Drive
- Case, Power Supply And Optical Drive
- Assembling Our Gaming Box
- The Trials (And Tribulations) Of Overclocking
- How We Tested Our Q3 2014 Budget Gaming PC Build
- Results: Synthetics
- Results: Audio And Video
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: Compression
- Results: Arma 3 And Battlefield 4
- Results: Far Cry 3 And Grid 2
- Power Consumption And Temperatures
- Performance Summary
- Did We Build a Better Machine?
Its rated to serve up to 30 Amps but can do far more. Tests on this little gem shows it can output 22amps on each rail and maxes out around 38~39 Amps on both. Im paraphrasing a popular power supply testing site. Max wattage is about 553ish which is a good deal more than rated. This power supply can't be certified due to it lacks a circuit required but exceeds 80 percent efficiency.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pentium-g3258-overclocking-performance,3849-5.html
When toms reviewed this CPU it was shown to have poor latency
For a 500$ build i would probably do a 6300+265 build. 600$ i would probably jump the build up to a I5+265 or 8320+270X.
Pentium G3258 - $69.97
NZXT Kraken X31 - $73.98
Asus MAXIMUS VII HERO - $203.99
G.Skill Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 - $184.99
Crucial M550 1TB 2.5" SSD - $447.98
Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX - $349.99
NZXT Phantom 530 (White) - $121.98
EVGA 650W ATX12V - $64.99 (not sure about its power good signal value?)
Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer - $16.99
Asus VG248QE Monitor - $264.99
D-Link DWA-171 802.11a/b/g/n/ac USB 2.0 - $29.27
Logitech MK550 w/Laser Mouse - $49.99
Corsair Vengeance 2100 - $79.99
Logitech Z506 155W 5.1ch - $69.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Professional (32/64-bit) - $170.99
Total: $2200
What you guys think? Usage? Racing Games at homes, audio/video encoding etc. I don't need K CPUs because I'm not in a hurry in this case.
Power source: 100% green aka Solar energy.
i use i3-4130 btw.
Its rated to serve up to 30 Amps but can do far more. Tests on this little gem shows it can output 22amps on each rail and maxes out around 38~39 Amps on both. This power supply can't be certified due to it lacks a circuit required but exceeds 80 percent efficiency.
To be more specific, the VP450 lacks PFC circuitry and as you said, this is required for 80+ certification. If the VP450 had it, it might manage 80+ Bronze.
I bought one last month to replace an old PSU (Antec SmartPower SL350) that got damaged by a power surge. At a glance, it looks like a nice little unit... and it is tier-2b too, which means close to as-good-as-it-gets.
you could possibly get mobo for half of your estimated price and put this money towards better CPU(that's necessary for video/audio encoding).
Also Crucial M550 1TB 2.5" SSD - $447.98 is overkill, you'll be better off with 256GB SSD & 3 TB regular HDD = more capacity and your saved money could be spent on better PSU(Seasonic, Corsair, whatever).
You may want to put Antec at the first place in that list. Look them up as they are oldest and second to none in power supply companys. Seasonic was once their main manufacturer and many of their units are designed off Antecs leading power supply designs. Look up on newegg for example the highest rated power supply and you will see the Antec earthwatt 380. At the 650 Watt they again are the highest rated with Seasonic in about a second place. Their 750 hcg is about a tight with Corsairs much higher priced HX 750i.
Trust me that PSU is the best part of that build. While it doesn't have a second PCI-e power plug you could use a molex to PCI-e connecter and run a R9 285. Again this power supply is highly under rated in both watts and Amps output.
This is what Corsair is doing now, with their CX (and I believe GS) lines; CWT builds them with Samxon capacitors that can't take heat. If you're interested, you can read more about these over on the badcaps.org forum.
P.S. I have a Phenom II x4 in one of CPUs and have built with more AMD CPUs then intel but that doesn't mean I spew this AMD "future proof" jargon line