Will underclocking my CPU reduce idle power consumption?

[MayorPotatoSalad]

When I built my new machine I turned my old 4790k based rig into a NAS.

Because of the arrangement in my current apartment I have no had to pay for power up until now, but as I am moving soon I am concerned about what a 4790k running 24/7 will do to my power bill haha

 

I understand that when the CPU is running at idle it is going to be running very slowly and drawing little power anyway, but are there any key settings I could change to actually make a difference to my idle power consumption?

 

I am even playing with the idea of swapping out the CPU to something much slower like a compatible i3, but I can't seem to find much information about whether idle power consumption differs at all between a high end and a low end chip of the same generation.

 

Thanks.

 

[glenalz81]

I had a look there, 4790k at idle was 42w, i then checked for the i3 4150, it was 63w.

 

Not sure what to make of that..lol

[MayorPotatoSalad]

1 minute ago, glenalz81 said:

I had a look there, 4790k at idle was 42w, i then checked for the i3 4150, it was 63w.

 

Not sure what to make of that..lol

Exactly my dilemma lol 

 

[UrbanFreestyle]

I would have a look at something like this to see actual power use:

http://www.p3international.com/products/p4400.html

 

[mariushm]

Most processors will idle at around the same wattage, 5-10w, because they'll lower the cpu frequency.

If using Windows, look into Power Options where you can configure the lowest percentage for frequency, reduce pci express clocks while idle (ex switch pci-e 3.0 to pci-e 2.0 mode or pci-e 1.1)

You could probably get better power consumption by lowering the default frequency a bit, which in turn will allow you to lower the voltage a bit without getting into cpu stability issues.

Also, what power supply are you using?

At 50-100w, with a bronze efficiency psu, you'd be looking at 75-80% efficiency so if the computer components consume 50w the pc may actually consume 60w from mains, or 115-120w if the system averages 100w.

It can add up ... 10w a hour, 240w a day, 7440w or 7.5kWh a month ... that's around 1$ a month.

[mineforce]

i mean, you COULD just turn it off when your not using it but if thats not an option for some reason then no, i wouldnt be worried about power consumption.