Finding the right balance

[Ryan James]

Budget (including currency): $400 AUD (tower only)

Country: Australia

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Steam games / emulators

Other details 

 

As most of us are aware, electricity prices in recent months have skyrocketed and unfortunately here in Australia we are no exception to this with the average monthly electricity bill (in my city) being around $300 AUD / $210 USD.

Because of this ever increasing expense I am looking to find that balance between power efficiency and usability. For me the 'usability' is primarily running gamecube emulators and the occasional game such as Fallout 4 / Tunic / Stray. 

A compact (SFF style) build would be ideal however, I am open to suggestions. I don't necessarily need the latest generation hardware. Heck, if an older ddr3 build with a sata ssd can meet the requirements I'm all for using second hand parts - save the world, one used/repurposed computer at a time.

 

@LinusTech - this would make a good YouTube video - builds that help address the ever increase of daily life, especially electricity costs. And yes I understand used or refurbished hardware doesn't bring in the $ but hey, how many of your viewers are still getting by on an old system - we all have to start somewhere 

[mariushm]

Newer hardware is more efficient and has much more power management options. 

The lower the manufacturing process the lower the power consumption (ex Ryzen going from 14/12 nm to 7nm results in much less power consumed)

 

 Also, DDR4 may be more expensive and could be a bit more power hungry than DDR3,  but it could mean the data transfer is done in half the time, and for that other half time, the CPU could turn off some cores and save more power overall. 

 

Older hardware also tends to have less efficient power supplies, especially at low power. For example, a bronze efficiency psu may be only 80% efficient at 100 watts, while a gold or better psu may be 92-95% efficient at 100w ... that's 100 x 100/80 = 125w vs 106w drawn from the mains - significant reductions. 

 

Other big savings can be done if you use 12vO compatible motherboard and PSU, or a psu that supports being powered from a laptop adapter style power supply which only needs to supply one voltage to the motherboard. 

 

 

 

[venomtail]

What @mariushmsaid. Real world efficiency is extremely hard to calculate, even more so for the WHOLE computer and its use. You would have to start at comparing how much power they use VS how long they use it for. After seeing which parts combination is the best for one exclusive task then look at which efficiency PSU's are saving the planet the best, then compare their efficiency at saving energy VS how much resources they each took to make and then compare which production line to create your PSU was more efficient, compare their mode of transports gas emissions which stores keep stock around the least so they don't end up in a landfill because no one bought the hardware after 10 years and the rabbit hole goes deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and...

3 hours ago, Ryan James said:

requirements I'm all for using second hand parts - save the world, one used/repurposed computer at a time

This sentence has conflicting goals. Not buying new parts for the sake of saving the world won't make a difference because the part's already made, production fumes are already in the atmosphere so to say. Consumer computer parts aren't made to order upon request, they're made in bulk ahead of time.

 

In your case, for an objective way of calculating what is the most efficient PC for your wallet and the greeness of the Earth, I'd say do research on how hot something runs/how much power it consumes VS how long it takes to do something.

For games maybe see what combo of CPU and GPU consumes the least power to achieve targeted locked 60fps/144fps games. Debate if it's worth playing at all low/off for a lesser combo that achieve FPS target while consuming less than a more powerful combo playing at all ultra getting target FPS while consuming more power.

 

If CPU 1 takes 1 minute to do a task but consumed 125W to do it + made loads of fans go brrrrrr to keep it cool VS CPU 2 that did the same task in 1.5 minutes, consuming 65W and barely making the fans speed up, CPU 2 would be the best choice because by my ape brain no degree calculations, CPU 2 consumed 20% less energy to complete the same task. If CPU 2 took 3 minutes to do the same task, now your 125W CPU 1 has become more efficient because in total it consumed less power.

(To reproduce take power and multiply by time to get kilowatt-hours. Take the two kilowatt-hours and compare how much of an increase one is over the other.)

(To improve the results you should compare the intake of power of PSU, compare it to it's peak efficiency to also see if bigger PSU running at 50% use with better efficiency uses less power smaller PSU running at 90%use with less efficiency)