silent every day use computer

Asulc · Post by **Asulc** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 8:22 pm

Would this build work? I would like it to be very quiet, on 24/7, and be powered by either the 150 watt psu included or a 150 watt pico psu if the included psu is too loud.

(i5-750) change to i3-530
DFI P55 mITX
XFX 5450
Scorpio Blue 160gb
(Crucial 128gb ssd) change to Corsair Nova 64gb
antec isk 310-150

maybe change the DFI mobo and XFX graphics to the Zotac H55 mITX board? how would that affect the performance and power draw?

If there are other lower power alternatives, let me know. This will be used for heavy internet browsing, pandora open with upwards of 20 tabs in firefox, hulu videos, flash games online.

thejamppa · Post by **thejamppa** » Thu Mar 04, 2010 9:30 pm

That looks very good. Balanced and powerful. More than enough for. One otherway is to go AMD way

CPU: Athlon II X2 250 65W TDP CPU or if you want bit cooler Athlon II X2 245e. You'll loose some in CPU power and CPU power draw when compearing to Intel Core i3's but you gain in motherboard section a lot.

Motherboard: ASUS M4A785T-M/CSM AM3 AMD 785G HDMI or Other AMD 785G board with integrated HD 4200 graphics. This way you can ditch the separate VGA card and drop watts from idle and load stage. HD 4200 is more than enough of your current needs.

As you do quite Internet intensive tasks, having a 4 GB memory is not overkill.

AMD's one good things is its more consistent with its stock coolers which usually also quiter and have better sound characters unlike Intel's.

Asulc · Post by **Asulc** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:48 am

What would be the most powerful computer I could make using a pico psu of 150 watts?

Core components:

Code: Select all

CPU               i5-750
Mobo              DFI P55 mITX
CPU Cooler        Prolimatech Megahalems
Case              Silverstone SG05
Memory            G.Skill 4gb Ripjaw
PSU               Pico PSU 150watt with power brick
OS/Primary        Drive Crucial 128gb SSD
Data/Secondary    Drive Western Digital Scorpio 640gb
Fan               Nexus 120mm

Fan and CPU would be undervolted as much as possible, leaving the CPU at stock speed, possibly disabling TurboBoost if that is possible?

So what would the most powerful graphics card be that could work with this?

Asulc · Post by **Asulc** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 8:08 am

Anyone?

wouterr5 · Post by **wouterr5** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 1:20 pm

Hmm, the only mention of power consumption with this board that i can find is in a review from the Inquirer (i cant post links yet

)

The CPU ran all the benchmarks stable at 1.2V, and we probably could push the voltage a little lower too. Not to mention that, even with the added ATI card power consumption, we still managed an average 110W to 120W power consumption as measured at the plug for the total system when running the Sandra 2009 CPU and memory benchmarks. Both are at a level normally seen in very high-end desktops, like a 20 GBps memory bandwidth result. Not bad.

That's a 3.2 Ghz quadcore... PLUS approximately 27 watts for an ATI Radeon 5870 in idle.

I think that 150 watt would be enough, but im not sure

Asulc · Post by **Asulc** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:08 pm

Core components:

Code: Select all

CPU               i5-750
Mobo              DFI P55 mITX
CPU Cooler        Prolimatech Megahalems
Case              Silverstone SG05
Memory            G.Skill 4gb Ripjaw
PSU               Pico PSU 150watt with power brick
OS/Primary        Drive Crucial 128gb SSD
Data/Secondary    Drive Western Digital Scorpio 640gb
Fan               Nexus 120mm

Fan and CPU would be undervolted as much as possible, leaving the CPU at stock speed, disabling TurboBoost as well?
So what would the most powerful graphics card be that could work with this?

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:56 pm

From anandtech's benchmark, maybe something lower than the HD 5870.

Idle Power Consumption (Win7/Radeon HD 5870) 69.5 Watts
Load Power Consumption x264 HD3.03 1st pass (Win7/Radeon HD 5870) 140.1 Watts

The load benchmark is CPU only. The numbers will probably be higher if the GPU was stressed as well, going over the 150W mark.

Going by this chart, I think the HD 5450 is your best bet. Assuming the GPU is idle from anand's values above, we can estimate the load power consumption minus graphics card of anand's system as 120W. Unfortunately 30W for the graphics card doesn't leave you much of a choice.

Typical power consumption values are as follows:
GPU - Idle / Load (3DMark)
HD 5450 - 8 / 11
HD 5570 - 9 / 37
HD 5670 - 13 / 52
HD 5750 - 13 / 54
HD 5770 - 18 / 78

By the way, do you really need discrete graphics, and a fairly powerful one at that? Because I don't think it would really benefit you when it comes to Flash games.

Asulc · Post by **Asulc** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:16 pm

The idea of having a discrete graphics card is because if I want to have the more powerful i5-750, a discrete graphics card is needed.

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:46 pm

Asulc wrote:The idea of having a discrete graphics card is because if I want to have the more powerful i5-750, a discrete graphics card is needed.

So it really shouldn't matter if you get a Radeon HD 5450 or a Radeon HD 5870, right?

thejamppa's suggestion of Athlon Regor+785G is pretty good, except obviously, the CPU's going to be slower than the i3-530, let alone the i5-750. However, the 785G graphics would beat Intel's GMA HD on the i3-530. As for the form factor, Sapphire will be releasing a 785G Mini-ITX board.

In any case, an i5-750+HD5450 combo would beat either of the above integrated GPU solutions.

By the way, why not go with the Intel DH57JG motherboard? I believe it should also be able to support the i5-750 and at least you'd have the option of going Clarkdale should you desire.

ilovejedd · Post by **ilovejedd** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:00 pm

Scratch that. I just checked Intel's product pages and while the H57 chipset supports all LGA-1156 processors, this particular motherboard doesn't seem like it will play nice with high TDP processors. The only compatible processors on Intel's product page are the Clarkdales.

Low Roller · Post by **Low Roller** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 7:46 pm

thejamppa wrote: Motherboard: ASUS M4A785T-M/CSM AM3 AMD 785G HDMI or Other AMD 785G board with integrated HD 4200 graphics. This way you can ditch the separate VGA card and drop watts from idle and load stage. HD 4200 is more than enough of your current needs.

That's an excellent motherboard and quite versatile. I used that board for a gaming rig I put together for a buddy. Stuffed it in a mini p180 w/ a Phenom II and 5850. It runs like a champ!