i7-3770s vs i7-3770

[ncage]

I'm currently building my new right. I won't be overclocking. I'm having a hard time choosing between the i7-3770 & the i7-3770s. I'm trying to build something as energy efficient as i can. I'm not a gamer and will be using the intel integrated graphics even. Both of these processors turbo boost speeds are the same. Do you guys think i should go with the I7-3770 because i shouldn't rely on turbo boost speeds and the slightly lower TDP won't actually make that much of a difference in terms of energy conservation or do you think i will see a least a decsion difference in energy conservation and the i won't see that much of a performance difference between the two processors?

 

[greenhawk]

IIRc the stock speed of the "S", even with the same name is lower than the standard cpu. 3.1Ghz vs 3.4Ghz for the standard. Not a huge difference, but in a side by side comparison will be measurable I suspect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)#Desktop_processors

That being said, the same turbo does not help when the chip is trying to keep it's power / heat down so will reach full turbo for a shorter period of time.

though if you went even lower to the "T" series, the speeds get slower again. (if you can find it)

but from all indications, at idle, the power difference is nearly zero, it is only when the CPU is being used does a difference in peak power become noticable.

 

[ShintaiDK]

As he said, they will all idle at the same power usage basicly. Its only the load power at 100% that changes.

So in short, you wont save power going with the T or S mode. They are simply made for cases/setups that cant handle more than 45 or 65W heat or powerload.

 

[rem451]

hi i m having the same question cause i m building a silent pc and i m not going to oc and i ll use the integrated vga too, the thing is that Intel says that this cpu (i7-3770s) is ideal for small form factor systems, or computers where power usage and noise output need to be minimal. what do you think now, for this usage is it better to go to s model or just the i7-3770?
thanks

 

[ElFenix]

hi i m having the same question cause i m building a silent pc and i m not going to oc and i ll use the integrated vga too, the thing is that Intel says that this cpu (i7-3770s) is ideal for small form factor systems, or computers where power usage and noise output need to be minimal. what do you think now, for this usage is it better to go to s model or just the i7-3770?
thanks

s and t models are for systems with extremely restricted cooling capabilities. for noise output even the previous gen sandy could be adequately cooled by a large tower heat sink with a big, slow, quiet fan. and, ultimately, because the s and t models are so much slower than the regular ones, total power usage can be higher with the s and t models (hurry up and wait).

silentpcreview.com did a good investigation of the s and t sandy bridge processors.