"Maximum power efficiency" gaming rig

[Mecami]

Hey guys I'm collecting some build ideas, maybe you can help me out.

I want it to be able to play current gen games and games like WoW at medium-high settings, with the highest power efficiency possible.

Any ideas?

 

Edit: I don't really care about the price at the moment, just collecting some ideas.

Edit2: Running at 1080p btw!

 

Thanks in advance!

[Enderman]

intel CPU and a 750ti

[NoctHorn]

First of all, do you have a budget?  If your main focus is on power efficiency, it will have an intel CPU, Nvidia GPU with a high efficiency PSU.

 

My best guess would be an i3 with a 750ti and an 80+ platinum PSU.

[rmac52]

Well you definitely want a maxwell gpu.  

An Intel i5 is probably the best cpu option.

[dalekphalm]

Hey guys I'm collecting some build ideas, maybe you can help me out.

I want it to be able to play current gen games and games like WoW at medium-high settings, with the highest power efficiency possible.

Any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance!

Hi! Well first off, if you're looking for high efficiency, the first step is a good PSU. I would recommend an 80+ Gold (or higher) if you can fit it into your budget. Though 80+ Silver is also good.

 

For the GPU I recommend something like an R9 270x or a GTX 760. Either one of these will run fairly easy on the power consumption (As long as you aren't overclocking either), but both will give you pretty solid performance, easily matching Medium to High settings at 1080p.

 

For the CPU, I think a Haswell based CPU is probably best. Getting a non-K Haswell i5 would be a good idea. OR You could spend the extra money for the i5 K edition and undervolt it.

[Mecami]

First of all, do you have a budget?  If your main focus is on power efficiency, it will have an intel CPU, Nvidia GPU with a high efficiency PSU.

 

My best guess would be an i3 with a 750ti and an 80+ platinum PSU.

Yeah forgot to mention that.

No money limit right now, just collecting ideas.

[dalekphalm]

intel CPU and a 750ti

 

First of all, do you have a budget?  If your main focus is on power efficiency, it will have an intel CPU, Nvidia GPU with a high efficiency PSU.

 

My best guess would be an i3 with a 750ti and an 80+ platinum PSU.

 

Indeed these are both good recommendations, but I'm a little concerned about their performance for his stated goal (medium-high settings). Assuming he is running a 1080p monitor, an i3 with a 750 Ti might be just a little too under powered.

[NoctHorn]

Yeah forgot to mention that.

No money limit right now, just collecting ideas.

Here is a build I put together solely based on achieving very low power consumption and good efficiency:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($127.49 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($74.23 @ OutletPC) 

Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($56.99 @ Micro Center) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Mwave) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 400W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($119.98 @ Mwave) 

Total: $633.66

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-22 18:40 EDT-0400

 

The estimated power consumption is 184 WATTS

 

I do suppose that it is not particularly balanced, so tell me if you would like the budget higher, or performance higher.

[Jayhawk]

For a great, low power, low heat system, use an i5 4690 and a GTX 970. If you can to wait, a GTX 960 would most likely be perfect. A system with these, since they're the main power users, should run under 400 watts easy provided that you don't go overboard. The system, other than power efficient, would also be rather future proof.

[dalekphalm]

 

Here is a build I put together solely based on achieving very low power consumption and good efficiency:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i3-4130T 2.9GHz Dual-Core Processor  ($127.49 @ Amazon) 

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-B85M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($74.23 @ OutletPC) 

Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($69.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($56.99 @ Micro Center) 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Superclocked Video Card  ($139.99 @ Amazon) 

Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Mwave) 

Power Supply: SeaSonic X Series 400W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($119.98 @ Mwave) 

Total: $633.66

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-22 18:40 EDT-0400

 

The estimated power consumption is 184 WATTS

 

I do suppose that it is not particularly balanced, so tell me if you would like the budget higher, or performance higher.

 

Excellent build. Yeah, not exactly balanced, but the OP didn't give us much to go on. Swapping out the HDD for an SSD would be a great addition if the budget was higher. Additionally, I'm not quite sure it would reach the OP's (very vague) requirement of "current gen games on medium-high settings". There was no mention of target FPS or resolution.