Changing computer components, options?

[Hicks12]

Well ive been looking at ways to reduce power usage from my pc and the higher power usage was believed to be caused by my motherboard (p5n-d) so since i will be changing my gpu (9800gtx) to something like the 4770 then i thought id sort out the rest of the system.

Anyone know how much an asus p5n-d is worth? Any alternative low power motherboards that i can get for ~£50(or less!). Is it a good option to move to amd? Like buying a similar priced mobo and selling my e8400 and getting a tri core? Or would there be little/no benefit? If its a good option then if suggestions could be given id appreciate it .

Thanks.

[JordanWillis]

If you are looking at reducing the power from a pc then it's probably not going to be a good idea going to a tri core. The E8400 at stock clocks is already an effeicent chip and creates little heat. Another way you could look at reducing power consumption is the graphics cards, the 9800GTX is a pretty hungry card so if your not a heavy gamer think about getting something smaller and 55nm instead of 65nm.

[Hicks12]

Yeh thats the plan already. Looking at ebay my mobo doesnt seem to fetch much but that could be due to the listings being just faulty ones lol.

[jim]

Getting a low power + efficient PSU would surely be the first thing to look at? Obviously swapping out the 9800GTX will be good as well, and enable you to look at an even smaller PSU. 700W is massive overkill.

[zephod]

PSUs are less efficient at low load. iirc then the best performance usually comes at between 50%-70% load. I would recommend buying a lower power high efficiency psu.

If you do sell the p5n-d my guess is £40~£50 on ebay. There aren't many SLi capable motherboards for that price so it might keep the cost up.

The E8400 is a very efficient chip so unless you are looking for more cores I wouldn't move away from that. If you want to do an overhall and fancy AMD and low power, the XXXXe X2s are pretty fun to play with, but I don't think it will save you many watts over the E8400 and wont perform nearly as well.

Just out of interest, why do you think your mobo is the issue here?

[Hicks12]

Dont really care about sli, would like crossfire though as ati/amd are really good now(2x4770 is possible!). PSU should be fine as its certified 80% efficient and that means at like 20/30/50/80 (something like that) it will be atleast 80% efficient.

About the mobo power, someone linked me to a review a bit ago and it was compared to another board and showed the power difference of like 40W. Currently including display my system runs at 220w idle (display uses 40w, not much), so a 40w reduction would be a big difference afaik.

Anyone know good gpu stress testing program? Can find out load wattage then.