Does desktop CPU power consumption matter to you?

[Arachnotronic]

Honestly, if my fan isn't noisy, and if I can get a good, stable overclock, power consumption on the desktop doesn't matter *too* much. How about for you guys? Are there any real reasons that you prefer lower power consumption (electric bill, perhaps? Does it even make a real difference when you're running a gaming desktop?)

I always figured that perf/watt was much more of a notebook thing.

 

[lakedude]

YES!

I might be the exception to the rule...

Laptop power consumption is not all that important to me (within reason) because power is available everywhere I'd use a laptop.

Desktop power consumption is important to me because my system runs 24/7 crunching BOINC projects. The heat is an issue in the Summer as well.

I love my i7-3770s and HD-7850 in part because of the low power consumption. Power use in game is something like 165W.

 

[Phynaz]

It's very important to me. I'm cheap, I try to be green, and in the warmer months I don't liked being bathed in the heat island around my PC.

 

[StinkyPinky]

No it's not that important to me. It is important in laptops though.

 

[ShintaiDK]

It matters a lot to me. Both in terms of running cost, noise and indoor climate. Not to mention I am a treehugger trying to be eco.

I also prefer gold/platinum PSUs over bronze/silver.

Total household consumption is a mere 3Kw/H a day. Yet absolutely nothing is missing. Its just more efficient living.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I am more worried about the total power consumption of the household. Things like fridges, vacuum cleaners, etc.. can have a greater impact on your electricity bill.

 

[Homeles]

Right now, not really. I don't pay for electricity. I do my part by yelling at people to be more power-conscious on forums.

Back when I was paying for electricity, I moved my rig onto a 80+ Gold PSU and changed out the incandescent bulbs in my house for CFL bulbs, so I do pay attention to power when I need to. My desktop is currently toast right now, so I'm running a 17w Ivy Bridge ultrabook. That's a great way to cut power usage down, lol.

 

[MaxPayne63]

No, not at all. But the thing is the quality components tend to be power efficient, and I care about quality.

 

[Magic Carpet]

@homeless

Just curios, how much did you pay for that ultrabook. In my experience, moving to the more power efficient designs can take years to recoup the investments. Same with the bulbs, I change mine every year. So much for saving money/energy.

 

[Markfw]

Well, it does matter to me, but with all my folding rigs, my bill is $300 a month. I figure since its for science thats OK, hoping to cure caner and the like in the next 20 years.

 

[amenx]

Nope. About 90% of the time its idling, so...

 

[Homeles]

@homeless

Just curios, how much did you pay for that ultrabook. In my experience, moving to the more power efficient designs can take years to recoup the investments. Same with the bulbs, I change mine every year. So much for saving money/energy.

Well, I didn't do it for power. I needed a laptop for school, and the SSD on my desktop conveniently died and I cba to send it in. It was around $700-$750, though.

Also, my HD 6950 died on my desktop as well... moved to a 6450 to hold me over until I sent the card in for RMA. Still haven't sent that in either... but I guess my laziness results in power savings.

 

[escrow4]

Power consumption in Australia is nearly three times US prices, so a big yes. Chucked my desktop for a mac mini, rebuilt my gaming system around an i7 3770 (non-K) and 680, as a 7970 needs more juice and AMD's CPU's for power consumption are horrible.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Honestly, if my fan isn't noisy, and if I can get a good, stable overclock, power consumption on the desktop doesn't matter *too* much. How about for you guys? Are there any real reasons that you prefer lower power consumption (electric bill, perhaps? Does it even make a real difference when you're running a gaming desktop?)

I always figured that perf/watt was much more of a notebook thing.

Yes, it does, but more in a performance per watt metric rather than total power consumption. Even disregarding the cost savings, it just feels right to use less power. For instance I am running a quad core instead of a dual core, and dont mind the extra power use because it is a much better processor for gaming.

 

[Galatian]

@homeless

Just curios, how much did you pay for that ultrabook. In my experience, moving to the more power efficient designs can take years to recoup the investments. Same with the bulbs, I change mine every year. So much for saving money/energy.

You have to change your CFLs every year? You're doing something wrong...Usually they come with like a 10 year warranty because they actually live that long. CFLs are one of the easiest ways to safe money.

OT: I actually do care about the energy consumption but that's because electricity is very expensive here in Germany and with our "greener energy campaign" from our goverment cost for the end user will be/are exploding. I'm already paying 100€ per month for a 2 person household in Berlin. Granted that's for green energy and we have a electrical warm water boiler.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I pay my own electricity, and I am become more sensitive to the costs. I switched from running a quad-core C2Q as my main rig to a SB dual-core.

 

[Idontcare]

It's very important to me. I'm cheap, I try to be green, and in the warmer months I don't liked being bathed in the heat island around my PC.

LOL, so well put!

It matters a lot to me. Both in terms of running cost, noise and indoor climate. Not to mention I am a treehugger trying to be eco.

I also prefer gold/platinum PSUs over bronze/silver.

Total household consumption is a mere 3Kw/H a day. Yet absolutely nothing is missing. Its just more efficient living.

Same here. I drive my Prius, I pay a premium for 100% wind-powered electricity for the home, etc.

But no way can I figure out how to get to your kind of power consumption

I figure at least since my electrons are coming from 100% renewable then at least I'm doing less harm with my pig'ish power consumption as a household. (my Feb power bill was $500 )

You have to change your CFLs every year? You're doing something wrong...Usually they come with like a 10 year warranty because they actually live that long. CFLs are one of the easiest ways to safe money.

I use CFL's and LEDs everywhere and the problem with CFL's is of course the "cold start" dimming. Plus some just die early anyways, in less than a year. My wife doesn't care for lights that take 3 minutes to "warm up" so I tend to replace the ones she makes me keenly aware that she has noticed as being "too dark".

As to the OP - yes I do care because it is money and every dollar I give to the power company is one less dollar for me to save for kid's college funds or my own retirement. I'm not fanatical about it, but I am not a glutton either.

 

[saratoga172]

Don't care right now. I've done some non-scientific tests on monthly electricity costs. Usually I leave my desktop on 24/7. A couple months I turned it off every night and it was off most of the day while at work as well. My bill was something like $5 cheaper one month and $10 the next. These were with similar heat usage in the winter, which is not much as I keep it cooler. Not enough difference to matter to me. My bill is only about $60/month.

 

[Gikaseixas]

Some say they care and yet run their rigs overclocked to the roof. I really don't care, I oc my cards and CPUs. The delta is not that big for me.

 

[Centauri]

Definitely matters to me, it's why I built a system around an APU and then spent a week trying to further undervolt it stably.

 

[desura]

Yes, but for other reasons. Basically, I view high temp overclocked beasts that require liquid cooling to be unreliable. Lower power requirements in my mind is more reliability, lower temps, lower fan noise.

Like, it makes me slightly nervous whenever I hear my computer fans go into overdrive.

Anyhoo, it was enough to make me prefer an ivy bridge to sandy bridge, with the die shrink.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Not a lot. My "big computer" uses quite a bit of power at idle, but I rarely leave it on. When I moved out of the place I was living with "free" electricity, I split my desktop into a file server and a gaming machine.

The file server uses 40 watts at idle, so I leave it running 24/7 for other members of my house hold to access. Gaming machine uses about 150-180 at idle, with 2 7970s, 3570k, and all many fans and water pumps. Gaming takes it up to 700 watts and furmark takes it up to 1000 watts.

 

[colonelciller]

only concern is heat and the fan noise required to dissapate it.

the sad truth about worrying about saving the world is that for every gram of CO2 emmissions you try to reduce there is a megacorporation trying to increase CO2 emissions in the name of cost savings, a marketing department trying to obfuscate the nature of the emissions, a thinktank selling anti-science and a government backing them all up...hook, line and sinker. Until we fix that hot mess (and it is not looking good friends) the little we can possibly do to cut back on power consumption will merely amount to a feel-good gesture

...that is notthecase however for tangible benefits like less noise, a cooler PC corner in the summer, etc

 

[Phynaz]

(my Feb power bill was $500 )

Gack!

 

[Obie327]

Power consumption is very important to me, And I pay the electric bill. Setting up and reighing in power consumption and making a balanced gaming rig makes sense for me these days. Back in the day(2004/2007) when I would have friends over for lan parties My systems were hot noisy watt monsters. Example: fx60/Opteron185/2 4000+'s/p4 478 and other Amd based 939 systems. 8800 ultra,8800 gts, 7800,7900 etc. Oh!? and all displayed on big fat crt's. I used to have between 7 or 8 gaming systems running for us to play on. Way to much power and heat! Summer would be really really bad with the wall ac running full blast and 8 of us in my small condo. Average system wattage for my fx60/8800 ultra was like over 400 watts and full blast over 500 watts. I was reading about an earlier forum about average system watts and realize how power hungry my old systems really were. Average about hundred watts with led monitor and gtx 660 and I5 3570k. Full gaming might be 50 to 80 watts more? I still have my lan parties now...Just a little down scaled and 5 or 6 rigs usually at most. Summer time electric used to be 225-275 a month..Now even with recent power/ComEd price hikes is usually around 100 dollars a month. I'm very happy with the changes made with all my devices/bulbs/rigs. I Started planning all these changes slowly over the years thinking about the savings more than when I would just buy the most powerful rig. I have to be realistic and conscience these days on my performance needs. I rather have a few coins in my pocket than being empty all the time. lol