Tom's Energy Efficiency Guide
On a User Level
Finally, the user can do a lot as well. This starts with switching individual devices on only when you need them, and ends with your behavior in your working or gaming environment. A PC that isn’t doing anything should be hibernating or switched off, and external components can also be switched off if they are not needed. You should also have a look around you.
What’s the light situation in your environment? Do you really need lots of lamps on, or can you switch some of them off? Of course it’s not beneficial to sit in the dark as you will stress your eyes quite a bit, but it is often possible to switch some bulbs off and save some power as you work. The same applies to air conditioning or heating: does the current configuration make sense? Becoming more aware of energy drains is a very easy and effective way to reduce overall energy cost that doesn’t have much to do with your PC directly.
Component Choices
AMD System
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM with AMD780G Chipset
The 780G chipset by AMD provides excellent energy efficiency, as it comes with an integrated DirectX 10 graphics engine.
Since chipset performance is really secondary on AMD’s Socket AM2+ platform due to AMD’s processor-integrated memory controller, the chipset choice can be made based on features. The 780G chipset by AMD offers sufficient graphics performance for Windows applications and video playback, and it comes with a nice feature set, such as support for two monitor outputs (one analog D-SUB, and one digital DVI connector for TFT displays).
This motherboard supports dual D-SUB and DVI display outputs.
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AMD Phenom X4 9100e
The AMD Phenom arrived late, but it’s now bug free and it’s even available in a low-power version called Phenom X4 9100e.
AMD’s Phenom X4 processor isn’t the fastest quad core, as it does not reach the clock speeds of Intel’s Core 2 Quad offerings. However, the model 9100e is one of the most energy-efficient quad core choices. It is rated at a maximum power requirement of 65 W, which is about as much as Intel specified for its dual core processors. Unlike the other 9000 series quad cores, the energy efficient model runs at only 1.8 GHz, which still provides more than enough performance for intensive workloads, as long as these are thread-optimized. At the default voltage of 1.1 V, it consumes only 19 W when idle, which is considerably less than the idle requirements of all other quad core processors on the market. And the maximum power consumption stays within the 65 W power envelope defined by AMD. The Phenom X4 9100e requires a BIOS update, and will then work on all Socket AM2+ motherboards with Phenom support.