Features - QOTW: Do you care for energy efficient PC components?

[FRISH]

I think nvidia wanted to head towards more efficiency since fermi released pretty badly. As for what I prefer, I'd rather not go with something horribly inefficient for the performance, but I don't want to give up performance for the sake of efficiency.

[tickleonthetum]

I prefer the best possible speed from my components, and as long as it doesn't impact on that then I'm happy to buy the most energy efficient version. If it come between a choice of High Speed/High Energy, Low Speed/Low Energy then I will go for the Higher speed every time. Now if say two GPUs are of equal speed, but one has lower power consumption then that is the one I'll go for.

I like my PC running as fast and efficiently as possible, if it heats the room up in winter then that's a bonus!

However, I think that manufacturers are doing a pretty good job of balancing the two in most cases, and in the future will get more speed out of less power.

[Jimbo75]

Power hungry computers are noisy computers generally, so I'm happily midrange with my 2500K and HD 6850. I have a feeling my next desktop PC will be an APU, but that's 3 years away.

[maverik-sg1]

Having run a phase cooled computer 24/4 that pulled over 900w at the plug under load I am more aware than ever of the cost of electricity and the need to optimise it's useage wherever possible.....however, I also like fast PC's.

What I have now is a low power rig for media serving around the house (pulls 18w) and an overclocked sandy bridge gaming PC which pulls less than 300w under full GPU/CPU load.

There has to be a cost justifiable reason to invest in such optimisations though, that is to say, the savings of power used the old way of streaming media, to power used now going from 130w to 18w showed a payback on the investment of the rig of 18months, but with energy price increase that will come a bit sooner now.

I think there's a global recognition to do more with less energy, due to the population boom and limited resource. Humanity of the mature countries continue to take steps to extend the life of fossil fuels (offsetting the emerging countries insatiable needs) whilst trying to establish efficient transferance of renewable energy (wind/solar/wave) to electricity - for the next 20+ years I can only see energy becoming more and more expensive to buy... what we do (or do not do) now will effect our children and our childrens children more than it will us.

For that reason I do think it's right to buy things that are more efficient, but also for manufacturers to ensure that things can do more with less - cpu's are an example of such things that are developed to go faster than previous generations and use less power in doing so.....GPU's are only just starting to be developed in a similar fashion.

[mark22]

Just wait until the fusion reactors are up and running. We'll all be happy (or the world might have turned into a small sun).

[cameronlite]

Just wait until the fusion reactors are up and running. We'll all be happy (or the world might have turned into a small sun).

Fusion reactors aren't dangerous because they require very specific conditions not present outside of the chamber.

As for energy efficiency, I've never really considered it as I've been in uni halls. Now im in my own flat I'm far more concious...

[PsiAmp]

More power draw = more heat to dissipate = more noise.

I'm for balanced systems.

[crossy]

I wouldn't say that I'm actively seeking out the most energy efficient components - but then again stuff that's noted as being energy inefficient I'll give a wide berth to since "energy inefficient" = "more heat" = "more cooling needed" = "more/louder fans", and a quiet PC is something I have been aiming towards.

I'm surprised at the instigator of this QOTW - surely they understand that an energy efficient component - especially RAM, CPU or GFX has more "headroom"? So a judicious tweak here and there and your new component can be pushed that little bit further - when needed/desired.

I've been looking for a replacement for my current CPU and TDP's are something I'm considering - figuring that a sub-100W TDP is probably a good thing, since it'll mean the possibility of higher overclocks when I'm ripping my CD's to my MP3 player. Conversely if I'm just looking at a web page (like this one!) then I'd prefer my cpu to shutdown as much as possible - preferably to Pentium level performance (and single core at that!) - after all it's me who has to pay the power bill!

Kind of worried about the comments that the GF400 series appear to be power-hungry, although on the upside perhaps this'd be a justification to upgrade to a GF600 series?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The most effective way to reduce the power draw of your desktop computer is to switch it off! Usage patterns are just as important as the actual power draw of your system.

[Greecean]

he is absolutely right - let the tree huggers go and ruin something else!

[DETHNDESTRUCTN]

The reality is unless you're an X-TREME type that uses 3D and several displays (in which case you're probably running SLI anyway) there's little need for these gaming cards to go all out and it's more practical to make them more efficient. I certainly expect my next card to use less power than my current one.

I personally use multiple monitors for 5760x1080 gaming, but do not run SLI because of micro-stutter. until AMD and NVidia fix micro-stutter I will never buy two of their cards.

But back to TDP, I don't mind them offering energy saving options but it should not be the main concern in the highest end cards. If you're most worried about energy saving you shouldn't be buying the highest end graphics card available. I like when they include energy saving option for when cards are idle etc but when I'm in a game and my graphics card is hitting a wall, the amount of energy going into my graphics card is something I would gladly increase to make sure I stay at 60 fps.

[scaryjim]

signed up, card carrying tree hugger

My HTPC is carefully tuned, running both underclocked and undervolted, to limit it to ~ 50W at the wall at peak load.

That's to counteract for my gaming rig, which is still running an 8800GTX That used to pull 150W at idle Horses for courses, as they say - use as little power as will give you the performance you require - otherwise you're just throwing money away...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

signed up, card carrying tree hugger

My HTPC is carefully tuned, running both underclocked and undervolted, to limit it to ~ 50W at the wall at peak load.

That's to counteract for my gaming rig, which is still running an 8800GTX That used to pull 150W at idle Horses for courses, as they say - use as little power as will give you the performance you require - otherwise you're just throwing money away...

Don't forget the Q6600 you ditched for a more efficient E5300!

[MSIC]

I'm all for lower power use.

I'd like the world as a whole to be creating and consuming less electricity / power, yes for ecological reasons, but also because the ongoing pursuit of fossil fuels (gas lines across Russia and Middle-East etc) is one of the major drivers behind conflicts. IT is of course a tiny fraction of that, but people need to be chosing low-emission cars, air travel (if ever the option is given) etc, and manufacturers need to be able to not penalise people financially for these choices.
Is this Pie-In-Sky? Possibly. I dont drive the most eco-friendly car possible, but i think if you took a snapshot of the cars in our street every 5 years over the past 30 years to today I have no doubt you'd see a dramatic improvement overall.

[Tropi]

Add me to the cool and quiet votes.
For me, it's almost nothing to do with saving electricity, though that is a valuable bonus.
It's about NOISE and DUST.

All fans create noise and, double whammy, they suck in dust.
Dust build-up causes yet higher temperatures, resulting in reduced performance and, inevitably, premature failure. It's a vicious circle that needs breaking.

[Ikthel]

Personally I threw caution to the wind with my first custom build, running the 8-core FX-8120 (125w TDP). My system, cpu apart, is fairly green though with an antec "earthwatt psu" and a mother board with green settings on by default. TDP is a big factor now when looking at potential buys mainly because i like to keep an eye on my 750watt psu and how it holds up with new parts, but I definitely factor in how much more per month I pay for my system xD