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[alkarnur]

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[DigitalGoat]

8 minutes ago, alkarnur said:

I was looking at the Alder Lake wikipedia article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder_Lake#Desktop_processors_(Alder_Lake-S)

and I noticed they have OEM-specific SKUs that have much lower base power / base TDP. For example, the 12700T vs 12700, the 12900T vs 12900, etc.

 

Sadly, those SKUs can't be bought separately for DIY builds.

 

I am interested in a power efficient desktop that uses as little power as possible when idle, or when in light use.

 

Question 1:

Is there a way to lower the base clock, voltage or other parameters of, say, the regular 12700 to have it much the power consumption of the 12700T at idle or during light use?

 

Question 2:

Also, is it possible to buy a prebuilt desktop with a 12700T in it, take out the internals out of the case, put them in a bigger case, and add a 30 series video card?

 

Note: the prebuilt systems with the T-series CPUs appear to be all compact builds that have no room for adding a graphics card in the case they come in.

 

Thanks in advance for your help

Setting the power options in Windows to power saving or balanced with a CPU power range of 5% - 100% will achieve that.

My desktop, a 12700K, uses between 9 and 11 watts on the CPU package at idle, not sure how much less you would expect but I am sure you could tweak it further if you wanted, maybe under volt it.

[person123456789]

18 minutes ago, alkarnur said:

I was looking at the Alder Lake wikipedia article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder_Lake#Desktop_processors_(Alder_Lake-S)

and I noticed they have OEM-specific SKUs that have much lower base power / base TDP. For example, the 12700T vs 12700, the 12900T vs 12900, etc.

 

Sadly, those SKUs can't be bought separately for DIY builds.

 

I am interested in a power efficient desktop that uses as little power as possible when idle, or when in light use.

 

Question 1:

Is there a way to lower the base clock, voltage or other parameters of, say, the regular 12700 to have it much the power consumption of the 12700T at idle or during light use?

 

Question 2:

Also, is it possible to buy a prebuilt desktop with a 12700T in it, take out the internals out of the case, put them in a bigger case, and add a 30 series video card?

 

Note: the prebuilt systems with the T-series CPUs appear to be all compact builds that have no room for adding a graphics card in the case they come in.

 

Thanks in advance for your help

You can undervolt.

[tikker]

Neither TDP nor base power refer to idle power consumption. For example, Intel's listed TDP of my 7700k is 91 W, but now with a few browser windows open and watching YouTube it consumes 26 W.

 

TDP or Base Power is when under a certain load:

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134591/intel-core-i712700-processor-25m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz.html

Quote

Processor Base Power

The time-averaged power dissipation that the processor is validated to not exceed during manufacturing while executing an Intel-specified high complexity workload at Base Frequency and at the junction temperature as specified in the Datasheet for the SKU segment and configuration.

 

You can expect much lower power consumption when truly idle on.

22 minutes ago, alkarnur said:

Question 1:

Is there a way to lower the base clock, voltage or other parameters of, say, the regular 12700 to have it much the power consumption of the 12700T at idle or during light use?

You could try power targets in Windows and/or undervolt if the BIOS allows you. Looking at Ark you see that the T model basically runs at (much) lower clocks, which is likely the main way it arrives at that lower power draw.

22 minutes ago, alkarnur said:

Question 2:

Also, is it possible to buy a prebuilt desktop with a 12700T in it, take out the internals out of the case, put them in a bigger case, and add a 30 series video card?

 

Note: the prebuilt systems with the T-series CPUs appear to be all compact builds that have no room for adding a graphics card in the case they come in.

Compact machines like that call for low(er) power chips due to less capability of drawing away the heat, so it's no coicidence that that is where you'll find them.

[alkarnur]

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[DigitalGoat]

5 hours ago, alkarnur said:

I set my power option to Power Saving (5%-100%). According to Open Hardware Monitor, the CPU package is currently consuming 8-10 watts.

 

Does this affect the performance of my system at the maximum / when I'm pushing it like when I'm playing a game?

When you need the performance it will be there, use HWInfo64 to monitor CPU and GPU voltages, clock speed and temps, when you run a game the CPU & GPU will get what they need to perform.