Most energy efficient PC build?

[minervx]

CPU: Ryzen 3 1200

Cooler: BQ Pure Rock Slim

GPU: RX 550

RAM: 8GB 3000 MHz

SSD: 250 GB

PSU: 160w Pico

Case Fan: BQ Silent Wings 2 x2

[Radium_Angel]

Is this a statement, or a question?

[Klemmbrett]

2 minutes ago, minervx said:

PSU: 160w Pico

Because its 160w rated does not mean its energy efficient a premium 700 watt PSU with 85+ Platinum rating will draw less power from the wall than this. Less power consuming would be the right term here.  

[Jurrunio]

For efficiency, Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs are still better than AMD's. Also, PSU efficiency starts to drop after reaching half load. You need a 350W 80+ Gold PSU to be the most efficient

[Klemmbrett]

Just now, Jurrunio said:

For efficiency, Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs are still better than AMD's. Also, PSU efficiency starts to drop after reaching half load. You need a 350W 80+ Gold PSU to be the most efficient

That also i didnt even thought about the rest of the components i just saw PSU  and thought that is least energy efficient possible. 

[Guest]

This build already consumes 100+ watts and the PSU brand looks unreliable, 160W isnt enough wattage for this PC, no effeciency rating on PSU. Consider the term "energy effecient", this doesnt mean that it is energy effecient compared to a 700W PSU with 80+ platinum effeciency, the 160W PSU would simply blow up. 500W PSU with at least 80+ bronze or more effeciency would be better for todays standards.

[samcool55]

5 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

For efficiency, Intel CPUs and Nvidia GPUs are still better than AMD's. Also, PSU efficiency starts to drop after reaching half load. You need a 350W 80+ Gold PSU to be the most efficient

Ryzen is actually quite efficient tho, especially when you consider the compute performance it has.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3002-amd-r3-1200-review-line-between-fine-and-exciting/page-3

 

Also, the RX550 doesn't have a PEG connector so it will only draw 75W max.

 

It actually should be possible, barely and undervolting might be required, but it is possible.

[samcool55]

9 minutes ago, TheBeastPC said:

This build already consumes 100+ watts and the PSU brand looks unreliable, 160W isnt enough wattage for this PC, no effeciency rating on PSU. Consider the term "energy effecient", this doesnt mean that it is energy effecient compared to a 700W PSU with 80+ platinum effeciency, the 160W PSU would simply blow up. 500W PSU with at least 80+ bronze or more effeciency would be better for todays standards.

Pico PSU's are usually really efficient because they only do DC-DC conversion. (90% is quite common)

The 230V AC to whatever-voltage-the-pico-psu-wants DC is done by another external power supply...

 

edit: this is a pico PSU: http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-160-XT

This is the power brick: http://www.mini-box.com/12v-16A-AC-DC-Power-Adapter

 

Just to make it clear...

[Totallycasual]

Wouldn't the most energy efficient PC be the most powerful one because it would barely have to lift a finger to do most tasks?  The GPU and PSU would be in fanless mode most of the time and just have some beastly/big heatsink for the CPU on air.  

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, Newenthusiast said:

Wouldn't the most energy efficient PC be the most powerful one because it would barely have to lift a finger to do most tasks?  The GPU and PSU would be in fanless mode most of the time and just have some beastly/big heatsink for the CPU on air.  

I would think it's still drawing power to function.

Most energy efficient would be an ancient embedded low power CPU, but I"m sure that's not what the OP wants...

[Jurrunio]

24 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Ryzen is actually quite efficient tho, especially when you consider the compute performance it has.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3002-amd-r3-1200-review-line-between-fine-and-exciting/page-3

 

Also, the RX550 doesn't have a PEG connector so it will only draw 75W max.

 

It actually should be possible, barely and undervolting might be required, but it is possible.

Any charts comparing the power draw of Intel's Kaby or Skylake i5 with Ryzen 3?

 

RX 550 is listed as 50W card from AMD, but the GT 1030 is  a 30w card that's faster than the 550.

[Eduard the weeb]

54 minutes ago, minervx said:

CPU: Ryzen 3 1200

Cooler: BQ Pure Rock Slim

GPU: RX 550

RAM: 8GB 3000 MHz

SSD: 250 GB

PSU: 160w Pico

Case Fan: BQ Silent Wings 2 x2

PSU is from none brand company if 80+ rated what ever if not maybe consider a differnet brand of psu like Fractal for a smaller PSU and I would try at least 250 watts just so you have enough power because under volting and having two low of a wattage and it cannot run right.

[CommandMan7]

IMHO, the best way to get a power efficient pc would be to just look at what the bitcoin and erethium miners are using, since they are experts at extracting maximum perf/watt.

 

 

[mariushm]

The picoPSU is not powerful enough to power such a system.

 

Here are its specifications from the manual :

 

 

The picoPSU takes 12v from an outside power supply, and has dc-dc converters which produce 3.3v, 5v , 5vSB and -12v on that board.

Leaving aside the 3.3v and 5v rails , note that the power supply can only do 8A of current at 12v for 24/7 operation. That's less than 100w!

Yeah, it can do 15A (12v x 15a = 180w) but only for very short periods (less than 60s) and you need to force cool the board with a fan to do that... so you can't rely on it. 

 

A Ryzen 1200 will consume less than 50 watts, especially if you play with it in bios and lower the voltages to the lowest point where it's still stable, and maybe even downclock it a bit.

A video card like RX 550 will consume up to 40-45 watts. Then you have the motherboard's power consumption (because you have onboard sound, network chip, chipset, fans attached to the motherboard) and that's maybe another 10w from 12v, and around 10-15w from 5v or 3.3v rails.

 

 

So overall, you can be sure you're looking at a bit more than 100w used from 12v  when you're gaming like a regular person without overclocking or anything.

 

It won't work.

 

Then speaking of efficiency,  the picoPSU is fairly efficient at producing 3.3v and 5v (93% is good but not great, it's possible to reach 97% in such applications)  but you still get the 12v from another power supply, and it wouldn't suprise me to see that the crap laptop adapter style power supply you linked above is maybe only around 70% efficient at 40-50w loads (when you're browsing the net or watching youtube)  and maybe 80-85% efficient at around 100-120w (i'd say 70% or higher of its rated capacity)

 

You'd get around the same efficiency by simply going with a proper ATX power supply.

You can buy 300-350w power supplies that will average around the same efficiency and they'll be guaranteed to power your system perfectly.

 

Here's a link :

37$ : SeaSonic SS-300ET Bronze 300W ATX12V V2.3 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Active PFC Power Supply

Guaranteed to do 288 watts or more on 12v, with around 82-84% efficiency

 

And if you're trying to save money, there's a deal on EVGA BT 400w, 22$ for a bronze efficiency psu, 12$ after another 10$ mail-in rebate card :

 

EVGA BT Series 100-BT-0450-K1 450W ATX12V / EPS12V 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Non-Modular Active PFC Power Supply

 

[mariushm]

If you want a pc for browsing and Youtube and sometimes for gaming, you can get something like this :

 

ASRock QC5000M AMD FT3 Kabini A4-5000 Quad-Core APU SOC

 

The whole thing uses maybe 20-40 watts , the cpu is soldered onto the motherboard, doesn't need fan that would eat another 2-3 watts of power.

Excellent for youtube and movies, can basically decode even 4K in hardware in the integrated graphics, so it doesn't matter that the cpu is maybe a quarter of a third of the power of ryzen 1200

 

Graphics card is good enough to play some older games at 720p and if you want more power you can shove a RX550 or GTX1030 or even GTX1050 in the pci-e slot (which is only x4 maximum)

 

Without separate graphics card, this would be a pc that could be powered by that picoPSU thing, if you don't want a bulky atx power supply to take up space in a small case.

[Enderman]

A low-wattage pentium CPU or something from a non-x64 architecture would be more energy efficient.

BTW small power supply =/= energy efficient.

That's not how efficiency works.

[Mira Yurizaki]

If we're aiming for pure efficiency, unless the computer is being put to work 24/7 sipping power from the PSU is more inefficient than going past 50% load. In the 80PLUS spec for example, most of the tiers don't start until the PSU is at 20% load. Only 80PLUS Titanium starts at 10% and that's typically found on higher end PSUs.

 

But I question why energy efficiency is being considered when a discrete graphics card is thrown in the mix.

[KenjiUmino]

what's the goal here? to build a computer that does not draw much power but is still useable for something.

 

what is that "something" ? internet and spreadsheets? old games on 720p ? serving media files? 

 

[hconverse02]

Theres a difference between low power draw and high efficiency.  You cannot run any system at 160w (with ryzen and a rx 550 in it) and just because a power supply can supply 500w doesn't mean it will.  A power supply will change in power delivery to what the system NEEDS

[DefinitelyTech]

I had fun with this one. Good idea here. I came up with a 60fps 1080p gaming rig with WiFi capabilities, good price per performance as well as trying to be energy efficient as well as space efficient as possible. Chose Blue over Green because "Efficiency is barely noticeable between the two."

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/C28WFd

 

CPU: Ryzen 3 1200 - $110 USD - 65 TDP

MOBO: ASRock AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac - $110USD

RAM: 2x4GB DDR4-2400 Crucial Ballistic Sport LT - $75 USD

SSD: WD Blue 250GB - $90 USD

GPU: Zotac GTX 1050 ti Mini - $150 - 75W TDP

CASE: Silverstone SG05BB-Lite - $40

PSU: Corsair SF450W 80+Gold - $80

Total: $655

 

 

This is what I was able to come up with. 185W TDP total.

Ryzen 1200 has same TDP as Ryzen 1400 but has better performance/price

GTX 1050 ti only pulls 75W same as 1050 and rx 550

300W good PSU brand with 80+ Gold rating. Also low price point.

 

[seon123]

4 minutes ago, Marenoc said:

I had fun with this one. Good idea here. I came up with a 60fps 1080p gaming rig with WiFi capabilities, good price per performance as well as trying to be energy efficient as well as space efficient as possible. Chose Blue over Green because "Efficiency is barely noticeable between the two."

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/C28WFd

 

CPU: Ryzen 3 1200 - $110 USD - 65 TDP

MOBO: ASRock AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac - $110USD

RAM: 2x4GB DDR4-2400 Crucial Ballistic Sport LT - $75 USD

SSD: WD Blue 250GB - $90 USD

GPU: Zotac GTX 1050 ti Mini - $150 - 75W TDP

CASE: Silverstone SG05BB-Lite - $40

PSU: Corsair SF450W 80+Gold - $80

Total: $655

 

 

This is what I was able to come up with. 185W TDP total.

Ryzen 1200 has same TDP as Ryzen 1400 but has better performance/price

GTX 1050 ti only pulls 75W same as 1050 and rx 550

300W good PSU brand with 80+ Gold rating. Also low price point.

 

Motherboard VRM isn't very efficient, I don't think the WD Blue has particularly low power draw, Gold rating isn't the most efficient, any fans reduce efficiency. 

[DefinitelyTech]

5 minutes ago, seon123 said:

Motherboard VRM isn't very efficient, I don't think the WD Blue has particularly low power draw, Gold rating isn't the most efficient, any fans reduce efficiency. 

I pulled that quote about Blue from WD website so that is why I decided on it. How do you find the VRAM effieciency?

I see your point on the PSU but was trying to also squeeze into ITX form.

[samcool55]

2 hours ago, Jurrunio said:

Any charts comparing the power draw of Intel's Kaby or Skylake i5 with Ryzen 3?

 

RX 550 is listed as 50W card from AMD, but the GT 1030 is  a 30w card that's faster than the 550.

Sadly, no charts of power draw of i5's... GN only started doing them relatively recently and only have the really low-end (the one you saw) and HEDT results.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/hwreviews/3066-intel-i9-7980xe-7960x-thermals-power-review

AMD does win in that category tho, i can only make the educated guess that Ryzen 3 is more power efficient than an i5 from this but without a valid source it's still nothing more than a guess...

 

I'm not familiar with the low-end gpu market, I only wanted to make the point that the RX550 should fit in the build fine without any power related issues. If the numbers back up your claim then the GT1030 is indeed a much better option

[minervx]

7 hours ago, Newenthusiast said:

Wouldn't the most energy efficient PC be the most powerful one because it would barely have to lift a finger to do most tasks?  The GPU and PSU would be in fanless mode most of the time and just have some beastly/big heatsink for the CPU on air.  

it would depend.  maybe a supercomputer can do more instructions per watt overall, but if its overkill, its a waste of energy

7 hours ago, Klemmbrett said:

Because its 160w rated does not mean its energy efficient a premium 700 watt PSU with 85+ Platinum rating will draw less power from the wall than this. Less power consuming would be the right term here.  

well noted