I've been meaning to buy a new PC for probably 2 years now and finding this forum has me thinking about which route to take.
Would it be better to overclock my current PC (Celeron 1.2GHz) which idles at about 60W normally, or purchase a new PC and underclock/undervolt it to reduce power consumption? I've read about the amount of waste from manufacturing a PC so I'm not sure if it's worth it. I probably don't need a lot more speed as it's mainly used for web browsing and business applications (running ubuntu) but sometimes it chugs a bit with flash or a lot of webpages open.
As an experiment I've underclocked/undervolted this one down to 800MHz @ 1.05V (the lowest my mobo would go) and the idle power was about 45W but it was also pretty slow. This included changing the PSU for a smaller one (quieter fan which is nice) and swapping the GF4 vid card for an S3 Savage4 which has no fan.
So do I overclock my current PC, use a bit more power but reduce manufacturing waste, or buy new gear and drop the power consumption on that?
Overclock Vs New PC
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NeilBlanchard
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Hello & welcome to SPCR,
Is your current computer nearly fast enough for you? I'm not sure that overclocking is even possible -- have you looked in the BIOS to see if you can try overclocking? What are the temps (and noise levels) like now?
It can't hurt to try overclocking, and if it is not possible on your machine, or if it doesn't give you the performance you would like, then a new low power dual core would likely use less power, and the performance would be worlds better...
Overall, you would use less power to keep your current machine (until it stops). The amount of energy that goes into making the parts for a new one, I think it would take a while to offset; so if using less energy is your goal, then I'd keep the current machine until it breaks.
Is your current computer nearly fast enough for you? I'm not sure that overclocking is even possible -- have you looked in the BIOS to see if you can try overclocking? What are the temps (and noise levels) like now?
It can't hurt to try overclocking, and if it is not possible on your machine, or if it doesn't give you the performance you would like, then a new low power dual core would likely use less power, and the performance would be worlds better...
Overall, you would use less power to keep your current machine (until it stops). The amount of energy that goes into making the parts for a new one, I think it would take a while to offset; so if using less energy is your goal, then I'd keep the current machine until it breaks.
Thanks for the quick reply 
Yeah I have it running @ 1320MHz at the moment (12x110) with the voltage dropped from 1.475V to 1.35V (lm-sensors says 1.42V). It's only been running like this since this morning and I might see if I can get the voltage lower (or FSB higher).
I think it's just becoming less adequate as websites add more poorly coded garbage expecting everyone to have the latest greatest PC.
I'm a (somewhat) reformed computer nerd so I've spent a long time neglecting my computers.
Yeah I have it running @ 1320MHz at the moment (12x110) with the voltage dropped from 1.475V to 1.35V (lm-sensors says 1.42V). It's only been running like this since this morning and I might see if I can get the voltage lower (or FSB higher).
I think it's just becoming less adequate as websites add more poorly coded garbage expecting everyone to have the latest greatest PC.
I'm a (somewhat) reformed computer nerd so I've spent a long time neglecting my computers.