Sub 200 watt gaming PC.

[SurgeHawk]

I have recently learned that my gaming rig uses a LOT of power. I learned a lot about power usage while I was mining for bitcoins and I am very aware of what a watt is. When you have a mining rig that pulls 1900 watts, and almost burns your house down, you learn very fast.

 

My real question is, is it possible to build a decent gaming PC (BF3/4 1080p 60fps) that will not exceed 200 watts of power. I know that you would need to only use PCi power, if using a video card. 

 

That then comes to my problem, I have not been able to find many video cards that are capable of doing that without needing to being in a crossfire/SLI. I have even thought about the AMD Kaveri APUs and how you can crossfire them with a PCI videocard. I know that PCi uses 60 watts, and a A10-7850K has a TDP of 95 watts. That is very close to the 200 watt limit excluding any dvd/blu-ray drives, HDD/SSD (SSD being the better option), and also memory.

 

The only other concern here is space, I have build a HTPC that only uses 19 watts. It has a Bay Trail J1900 CPU, 32gig SSD, 8 gigs of 1333 memory, and a Blu-ray burner that almost never gets uses, when the drive is on, the power consumption goes up. I use the PC for every day use now, and also to seed my torrents, with the use of an external HDD. 

 

Back to the matter at hand. Has anyone done it? Can it be done? 

 

My vision if to build a gaming PC that is small, compact, and uses way less power then any other gaming PC I have used before. My current rig uses ~450 watts idle and I never looked at what is uses in game. I have a AMD 8350, and Radion R9 280X.

[Suffokation]

No.

Maybe 300.

[SurgeHawk]

No.

Maybe 300.

 

Would it be possible if you could expand on this? Just saying no, and saying 300 is a more reasonable goal doesn't tell me why. 

 

Keep in mind, I am not including any monitors, or any peripherals with the 200 watt goal. Strictly the PC itself. 

[Suffokation]

Well, maybe with an APU system it could be do-able. 

Or a 750Ti maybe. Having said that, I struggle to see why only 200 Watt? If it's a power bill issue you fear then you don't need to, because the margin of difference in terms of a power bill between a 200 Watt and even a 400 Watt is truly nothing to fear of. You'd save MORE money just staying with your actual rig then blowing $300 of some hardware.

 

But, if it's something you truly wish I can put together a list for you.

[EcoBoost]

Would it be possible if you could expand on this? Just saying no, and saying 300 is a more reasonable goal doesn't tell me why. 

 

Keep in mind, I am not including any monitors, or any peripherals with the 200 watt goal. Strictly the PC itself. 

An i3 uses 55W, plus a 750 Ti which uses 60W, and you're only at 115W...

[SurgeHawk]

Well, maybe with an APU system it could be do-able. 

Or a 750Ti maybe. Having said that, I struggle to see why only 200 Watt? If it's a power bill issue you fear then you don't need to, because the margin of difference in terms of a power bill between a 200 Watt and even a 400 Watt is truly nothing to fear of. You'd save MORE money just staying with your actual rig then blowing $300 of some hardware.

 

But, if it's something you truly wish I can put together a list for you.

 

The power bill is nothing much of a concern for me honestly. It's more of a proof on concept in my head kind of thing.

 

An i3 uses 55W, plus a 750 Ti which uses 60W, and you're only 

 

But would a single 750 Ti be good enough to play graphically intense games?

[Suffokation]

It will, but not at 60FPS 1080P on high and sometimes medium.

I think you could fit then 760. Maybe.

[EcoBoost]

It will, but not at 60FPS 1080P on high and sometimes medium.

I think you could fit then 760. Maybe.

760 is a very large power consumption jump, from 60W to 170W.

[Suffokation]

You'd be much better off with a 300 Watt tbh.