Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

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kiblams
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Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by kiblams » Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:59 pm

I have moved my old gaming build into an older smaller case along with the 220mm fan to keep it all cool, it isn't pretty but the silence is golden the it has great energy efficiency in games.

CPU - Intel Pentium G850 2.9Ghz
RAM - 2 x Kingston DDR3 2GB 1333MHz
Motherboard - MSI H61M-P25 Socket 1155
Storage - 64GB Kingston V200 SSD (OS)
Storage - 250GB Western Digital 2.5inch HDD (Games + Media)
Graphics Card - ATi HD5770 1GB (Sapphire)
Power Supply - XFX PRO 450W
Case - Modded Asus case with 220mm side fan
Removable Media - Samsung USB DVD-R/W+

Pictures
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Power Usage
I have undervolted the ATi 5770 to 1.000v (and took 50mhz off the clock to make it stable) which cut around 20w off the consumption in games taking it down to 110w (average across all the games I have tested it with). I must say that I enjoy playing games like BF3 and Crysis on High settings while consuming less than 120w.

Here is the consumption without the GPU undervolt in different scenarios:
Idle - 42w
CPU Load - 72w (Prime95)
GPU Load - 167w (Furmark)
Peak Usage - 185w (Prime95 and Furmark stress tests)

So there you have it, any questions, suggestions or criticisms are very welcome.

kuzzia
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Re: Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by kuzzia » Tue Feb 14, 2012 1:37 pm

I have numerous questions.

- what would you say is the most noisiest component?
- how noisy is the PSU? the GPU?
- what CPU cooler do you use?
- why is the fan on the left side of the CPU heatsink?
- where is the hard disk placed?

kiblams
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Re: Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by kiblams » Tue Feb 14, 2012 1:55 pm

Thanks for the questions, here are my answers:

- what would you say is the most noisiest component?
Easily the PSU. I have in the past controlled PSU fans with a mod, but have not yet gotten round to doing that with this one.

- how noisy is the PSU? the GPU?
The PSU is quiet, and the GPU is currently silent at idle and very quiet under load. I run the GPU at 0% until it reaches 60c and 20% after that, there must be a fail safe as it cannot completely stop, it just spins very slowly.

- what CPU cooler do you use?
Xigmatek Loki with Xigmatek 90mm fan which is running 35% (not sure of the RPM as the mobo cant detect below 800rpm.

- why is the fan on the left side of the CPU heatsink?
I have it set sucking the air through the heatsink, I have found it to be just as effective that way, and putting it to the left of the heatsink allows better airflow for the 220mm fan to the motherboard.

- where is the hard disk placed?
The ssd and 2.5" HDD are suspended in the optical drive bay at the top, this build uses an external USB DVD drive.

The 220mm case fan is also running at 35% off the same 3-pin as the CPU fan (splitter is used) and all fans except for the PSU are controlled by Speedfan.

CA_Steve
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Re: Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:02 pm

> I have undervolted the ATi 5770 to 1.000v (and took 50mhz off the clock to make it stable) which cut around 20w off the consumption in games taking it down to 110w<

Nice. I might try that as well. What utility did you use?

kiblams
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Re: Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by kiblams » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:08 pm

CA_Steve wrote:Nice. I might try that as well. What utility did you use?
ATI Tray tools, takes a little persevearence (sp?) but can result in great temp drops and power savings.

P.S. Where do I stand with plugging my own website on here? I have written a guide on how to do it. But if it is breaking rules I will try to describe as best on here.

CA_Steve
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Re: Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by CA_Steve » Tue Feb 14, 2012 3:13 pm

kiblams wrote:ATI Tray tools, takes a little persevearence (sp?) but can result in great temp drops and power savings.
Heck - you gave me a head start since we both have the 5770.
kiblams wrote:P.S. Where do I stand with plugging my own website on here? I have written a guide on how to do it. But if it is breaking rules I will try to describe as best on here.
Send a pm to Mike and ask. That said, I post links to other sites all the time to help people with their builds.

MikeC
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Re: Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by MikeC » Tue Feb 14, 2012 4:36 pm

kiblams wrote:
CA_Steve wrote:Nice. I might try that as well. What utility did you use?
ATI Tray tools, takes a little persevearence (sp?) but can result in great temp drops and power savings.

P.S. Where do I stand with plugging my own website on here? I have written a guide on how to do it. But if it is breaking rules I will try to describe as best on here.
As long as it is not a commercial site, you can post the link in a new thread w/ the appropriate title in the appropriate section.

kiblams
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Re: Quiet and Energy Efficient Gaming PC

Post by kiblams » Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:40 am

Cheers Mike, It's certainly not a commercial site.

I have posted the guide in the graphics card section of the forum, here's the thread.

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