I'm a long time overclocker who has settled down over the years and does less gaming these days. I've been enlightened to the many environmental issues around these days and am looking to reduce power consumption of my current system, and also look into a possible new system since mine is aging. I'm currently running:
Athlon xp 2500 barton core
1 gig ram
Radeon X800 GTO
Gigabyte GA-700 Pro 2
21" CRT
Seagate Cheetah ST336607LW 37gb scsi hd
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250gb sata hd
Enermax EG365P-VE power supply
Old CoolerGuy's case with too many fans
The computer is in a cabinet and runs fairly warm (136F/58C idle), but its lived like this for years now and ran even hotter when it was overclocked. I recently un-overclocked it and the video card along with dropping fan speeds via a System Maxx fan controller. This has brought power consumption of the computer (not including monitor, etc) down from about 161W to 150W at idle and from 194W to 175W with prime95 running. If you have any suggestions for lowering the consumption of the current system I'm all ears.
This system has kept me going for many years. However, the X800 GTO is getting a bit slow so I'm thinking about upgrading. I was talking to another computer guy I know today and we picked out a system. I've long lost touch with the current hardware, and he doesn't pay too much attention to power consumption so I'm sure its a rough list. I still do game, so I want a descent system. Of course I want it to be quiet as well.
Antec Solo case
4 gig ram
AMD Athlon X2 4850e
Gigabyte GA-MA78G-DS3H
Radeon HD 4850
reuse pretty much everything else
possibly pickup an LCD (I'm testing an Eizo EV2411W-H right now, and its AMAZING)
possibly new 80 plus power supply
Any suggestions are welcome!
Hello, new guy here
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Hi,
How about getting a couple of quiet fans to remplace your old ones ? Undervolt them and you'll have a nice and quiet airflow going through the Solo. You'll need 3 fans at most if your HDs run hot (one for intake next to the HDs, one for the back exhaust and one for the GPU if needed).
Get an Accelero S1 cooler on your GPU and you'll get rid of another source of noise.
As for the CPU cooler, I don't know how quiet the stock one is... If it's noisy, check the SPCR recommended quiet heatsinks list and you'll be fine.
How about getting a couple of quiet fans to remplace your old ones ? Undervolt them and you'll have a nice and quiet airflow going through the Solo. You'll need 3 fans at most if your HDs run hot (one for intake next to the HDs, one for the back exhaust and one for the GPU if needed).
Get an Accelero S1 cooler on your GPU and you'll get rid of another source of noise.
As for the CPU cooler, I don't know how quiet the stock one is... If it's noisy, check the SPCR recommended quiet heatsinks list and you'll be fine.
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NeilBlanchard
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Hi, AMD or Intel are both equally valid CPU choices at the moment in my opinion. AMD better for integrated gfx and Intel better for OC, the new Geforce 9300/9400 motherboards help the Intel integrated graphics side but at the moment look to be rather expensive.
I picked out at Newegg:
Antec Solo + Seasonic S12II 330
Intel P43 mobo (Asus P5QL pro) + E7200 Intel CPU (2.53GHz, 3MB cache, 45nm)
4GB (2x2GB) Kingston DDR2800 kit + Radeon HD4670 (Powercolor)
For cooling I choose Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU cooler and hope the cooler on the Powercolor card can be quiet enough while cooling enough. (ATITool and possibly CCC should be able to adjust fan speed / profile)
The CPU cooler is way overkill but can easily OC the CPU quietly if want to. (FSB 266 -> 333 for easy 3.16GHz of this cool running 45nm CPU)
I’ve picked very much budget options but keeping everything to a level where no serious compromise are made. Would be very very much faster than your current setup. As well as more power efficient and quieter.
Came to $465, what sort of budget do you have in mind?
E8400/E8500 CPU adds $40/70 and HD4850 adds $70
I built a similar system a while ago, [Solo + S12II-330, E8400 CPU, Freezer 7 Pro, HD3450 (passive), WD6400AAKS and 3pin case fan.] It was pretty darn quiet with just Speedfan to bring down the CPU and case fan speeds so no "hard" modding to do. Used 80w idle and 100w load from the wall, that's ~65w / ~80w DC from the PSU. The HD4670 card is a relatively low power usage card while still providing about HD3850 level of performance. XBit have it as 9w idle to 50w max while the HD4850 is 40w to 110w! I think the HD4670 is a "sweet spot" as it's reasonably fast while being very power efficient. If you feel the need for greater performance the HD4830 might hit the spot with out the high power usage of the HD4850 / HD4870. Cooling these high end cards can be done easily and quietly with Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 rev2 if needed.
I was looking one time and the GTX260 seamed more performance/watt efficient but also a lot more expensive than HD4870 equivalent, price maybe more favourable in US than UK though.
Regards, Seb
I picked out at Newegg:
Antec Solo + Seasonic S12II 330
Intel P43 mobo (Asus P5QL pro) + E7200 Intel CPU (2.53GHz, 3MB cache, 45nm)
4GB (2x2GB) Kingston DDR2800 kit + Radeon HD4670 (Powercolor)
For cooling I choose Xigmatek HDT-S1283 CPU cooler and hope the cooler on the Powercolor card can be quiet enough while cooling enough. (ATITool and possibly CCC should be able to adjust fan speed / profile)
The CPU cooler is way overkill but can easily OC the CPU quietly if want to. (FSB 266 -> 333 for easy 3.16GHz of this cool running 45nm CPU)
I’ve picked very much budget options but keeping everything to a level where no serious compromise are made. Would be very very much faster than your current setup. As well as more power efficient and quieter.
Came to $465, what sort of budget do you have in mind?
E8400/E8500 CPU adds $40/70 and HD4850 adds $70
I built a similar system a while ago, [Solo + S12II-330, E8400 CPU, Freezer 7 Pro, HD3450 (passive), WD6400AAKS and 3pin case fan.] It was pretty darn quiet with just Speedfan to bring down the CPU and case fan speeds so no "hard" modding to do. Used 80w idle and 100w load from the wall, that's ~65w / ~80w DC from the PSU. The HD4670 card is a relatively low power usage card while still providing about HD3850 level of performance. XBit have it as 9w idle to 50w max while the HD4850 is 40w to 110w! I think the HD4670 is a "sweet spot" as it's reasonably fast while being very power efficient. If you feel the need for greater performance the HD4830 might hit the spot with out the high power usage of the HD4850 / HD4870. Cooling these high end cards can be done easily and quietly with Arctic Cooling Accelero S1 rev2 if needed.
I was looking one time and the GTX260 seamed more performance/watt efficient but also a lot more expensive than HD4870 equivalent, price maybe more favourable in US than UK though.
Regards, Seb