LOW power consumption gaming rig needed. 4 of them!

[007ELmO]

Hi all,

I plan to build a 4 PC gaming rig based on the midrange build:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2192841

I realized the power consumption for that is going to be VERY high? I never bought a UPS for 4 PCs before.

My circuit breakers also come under concern. I have a 240V 30amp breaker pair I was going to break up into two 120V breakers, use one of them for the UPS - and the other for the rest of the room. Now it seems like I won't be able to find a single UPS that will work on a single 120V breaker to properly supply power to 4 PCs meant strictly for gaming?

So the question is, what can constitute a LOW power requirement gaming rig? The 7970 in that build thread is probably too high in consumption. Typically the higher powered cards are for gaming, so now it's difficult to solve this problem.

For example, recommend I use SSD instead of hard drive (that sort of thing). How can I keep the power consumption of each PC low?

Thanks!
ELmO

 

[Sleepingforest]

Well, you can save on power by getting weaker graphics cards, weaker processors, and/or underclocking them. It'll also save on costs.

It also depends on what kind of gaming you wanted: 1080p Crysis 3 at Ultra with 16x SSAA, or merely Call of Duty: MW2 at 1080p medium are totally different.

 

[007ELmO]

The latter, definitely. This is meant for LAN parties for friends. I am working on a single eyefinity gaming rig for sometime in the future (years), where I would go all out. Because of the power concerns here on top of the financial "investment" (HAH) - it would be wise to go lower.

The question though is how much can I save, and what are any recommended parts (SSD seems to be an easy choice over HD?).

Thanks,
ELmO

 

[Sleepingforest]

Well, if you'll basically be storing just a game or two plus the OS, a 64GB SSD should be plenty, and barely cost more than a 1TB HDD.

Also, I would downsize mfenn's recommended i5-3570K to an i3-3220 (77W TDP vs a 55W TDP) since games, particularly older, popular LAN ones like UT99 or Doom, don't demand that much from modern CPUs. Definitely go for a weaker graphics card like a GTX 660 (for high or so at 60 frames per second/1080p), or even a Radeon 7770 if a "medium" setting is fine. Those would be much bigger power savings than the SSD.

 

[007ELmO]

Thanks for the ideas, I will go SSD. I will definitely be LAN gaming a little newer than UT99. In all honesty if there were 1680x1050 monitors readily available, I would have "cheaped out" and bought those along with cheaper graphics cards - as that would definitely save money and bring the power requirements down I think.

The 7970 sure is a power hog, I have one in my current PC and it's a jet plane for sure. I'm interested in the GTX660. I honestly don't see a ton of FPS games playing other than quake live (HAHA). I wonder how Battlefield 3 would play on them? I can look up stats for that later, this thread is really just for understanding the power differences.

i.e. the highest 120V-15A UPS I found was 1500VA/1125 Watts. I'm not sure if that is sufficient for 4 PCs. I'm not really worried about power loss and damaging the computers as much as a surge burning my house down!

 

[Sleepingforest]

Check out the Anandtech Bench. It's a little outdated since new drivers have come out, but it's a good starting place.

 

[007ELmO]

I'm learning quickly here, it might sound like a bad idea to not have a UPS battery backup on a gaming setup - but I don't plan to be having them on 24/7 (probalby only once a month!).

In that light, what about just using PDU/surge supressor? It seems like I can find many PDUs with surge supression that offer much higher wattage over 120v/15A than I can with UPS over 120v/15A.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I would pretty much agree with forest, i3 and HD 7770 should provide decent performance and use very little power.

 

[007ELmO]

I'm still doing some calculations on amps and watts, though. I don't know if it's really feasible to do 4 PCs on one PDU based on power consumptoin needs. If each PC maxed out at only 350W needed, I could get away with something like a 1500W PDU/PSU. I'm worried I can't build an "OK" gaming rig that runs at 350W peak?

At 1500W, a 15A breaker could still handle it without having to re-run another breaker or upgrade it to a 20A....

 

[Sleepingforest]

Oh, you can definitely get a PC that maxes out below 350W easy. Check out the Anandtech Bench again--they have load power consumption. You can even fit in a GTX 670 under 350W at load. I've put in the Radeon 7770 for comparison--both in quality and power consumption. You'd save roughly 50W per computer by going down to the 7770--so 200W over all the computers together.

I just was browsing your previous posts (to see what builds, if any, you've done before), and I saw your post in Cases and Cooling. I think it's a great idea! Did you ever finish it (and have pictures to show us?)

 

[Zap]

Battery backups are not required.

#1 power consumption in a gaming rig is the graphics card. However, it is also the #1 provider of framerates. What you need to do is to determine an acceptable level of performance for the games you envision playing.

Total system power consumption among graphics cards

GTX 660 Ti is at 312W and should give top notch BF3 performance at your resolution. Four such systems + monitors will eat up one 15A circuit.

You can also consider lower powered and performance cards. Last year I lived with a Radeon 6670 for a half year. Yes, I had to turn down graphics in a few games, but once immersed in the game (all multiplayer) the lowered graphics did not reduce my enjoyment of the game.

How about GeForce GTX 660? It only requires one 6-pin PCIe power plug and use around 290W under load. Then you can get a PSU like the Seasonic 360W 80Plus Gold for super high efficiency.

 

[007ELmO]

Hi,

I have the middle atlantic 21U rack purchased and 2U cooler guys intake fan. This post is basically helping me decide what PDU I need.

I am fine with tying up a single 15A circuit if I can ensure all the PCs can run on that circuit at gaming load, without tripping.

Second concern, what rackmount PDU (with surge) would work for this scenario?

I purchased a Cyberpower UPS (1500VA/900W), and I will use that for one of my theater rooms, now I realize I don't really need UPS for this LAN gaming scenario. I have 4 middle atlantic racks I'm building (another story), but I'm glad I didn't just buy a ton of UPS thinking they'd work for every scenario.

I'm fine with dropping my graphics card requirements down.

Last night I was considering just dropping this idea and going with only 2 PCs, but that isn't really awesome LAN play now is it? I saw a guy's house that works for Google that has 8-12 player, looked awesome, and that's a party!

I will look at anandtech bench again today. Both of you recommmend the GT660 so I'm fine in working with that.

ELmO

 

[007ELmO]

OK since a 1500W heater is still under the 85% threshold of a 15A circuit, I think I *CAN* get away with putting 4 PCs on one 15A circuit. This will be a fun "build", whenever I get to it.

It's interesting to note the 660 and 670 are KIND of close in power consumption, but in performance it's not very close:
660 = 287W under load
670 = 317W under load

Do we know the PC characteristics that go along with that under load comparison value? i.e. which processor they used, etc.

It seems like I'm also safe to put all 4 monitors on the circuit (at 15W each).

This might sound like blasphemy, but for this particular build, what do you think of using a 1680x1050 monitor like this?
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V223WL-AJ...eywords=V223WL

1) Easier to get higher frame rates with a better power consumption/"weaker" GPU now
2) Cheaper in price
3) That monitor may run higher wattage than LEDs, but I saw it was 15Wish at peak
4) I may need to build some framing to try and hide the bulkiness of it.

Zap - I just looked at that Gold Plus seasonic 80 360W PSU. A review said it's 90% efficiency, meaning at most it will pull 400W from the wall. Given 4 PCs, that would be 1600W and would probably trip the breaker (over 85% threshold).

Considering my PC wouldn't ever ask to draw 360W, and at most ask for 300W, I should be OK. At 90% efficiency, each PC would draw 333W at load. Does this make sense?

Thanks,
ELmO

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Also, I would downsize mfenn's recommended i5-3570K to an i3-3220 (77W TDP vs a 55W TDP) since games, particularly older, popular LAN ones like UT99 or Doom, don't demand that much from modern CPUs. Definitely go for a weaker graphics card like a GTX 660 (for high or so at 60 frames per second/1080p), or even a Radeon 7770 if a "medium" setting is fine. Those would be much bigger power savings than the SSD.

You -could- get a 3570T (or 3770T for that matter, don't bother with the T i3's as they do not support turboboost). It will provide a quadcore at 45W TDP. It can turbo to 3.3GHz so single threaded performance should be the same as that 3220. Its only available in tray, so it can be hard to find and will require an after market cooler.

 

[Zap]

Do we know the PC characteristics that go along with that under load comparison value? i.e. which processor they used, etc.

They explain in their reviews

CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X @ 4.3GHz
Motherboard: EVGA X79 SLI
Power Supply: Antec True Power Quattro 1200
Hard Disk: Samsung 470 (256GB)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-1867 4 x 4GB (8-10-9-26)

Except for the SSD, their components are quite power hungry. Using a stock clocked Ivy Bridge quad on H77/Z77 chipset and a lower wattage and more efficient PSU would do wonders for power consumption.

This might sound like blasphemy, but for this particular build, what do you think of using a 1680x1050 monitor like this?

:thumbsup: Multiplayer LAN gaming is not about the eye candy (aside from those Redbull girls that used to hit LANs). It is about the camaraderie and fun.

Considering my PC wouldn't ever ask to draw 360W, and at most ask for 300W, I should be OK. At 90% efficiency, each PC would draw 333W at load. Does this make sense?

The wattage listings are for power draw AT THE WALL using a 1200W 80% efficient PSU. Using a lower wattage 90% efficient PSU would reduce the numbers.

Note that the Seasonic G 360W PSU has only a single 6-pin PCIe power plug. That's why I suggested the GTX 660 graphics card. Yes, it can probably run a GTX 670 just fine using a peripheral/Molex™ to PCIe adapter, but you won't catch any company "officially" supporting such low wattage PSUs in such a configuration. You can get 450W 80Plus Gold PSUs that have two PCIe plugs.

 

[007ELmO]

Excellent communication all. This helps me immensely in determining I can in fact execute this setup.

 

[Sleepingforest]

You should get a slight larger PSU than the load you need--PSU's are most efficient at 60-80% of their rated max ability. It'll help keep load from the wall down. Look for 400-500W units.

 

[ElFenix]

You -could- get a 3570T (or 3770T for that matter, don't bother with the T i3's as they do not support turboboost). It will provide a quadcore at 45W TDP. It can turbo to 3.3GHz so single threaded performance should be the same as that 3220. Its only available in tray, so it can be hard to find and will require an after market cooler.

i would not bother with a T series CPU. actual power consumption difference isn't near the difference in TDP. if a few watts power consumption is the difference between tripping the circuit breaker or not, it may be time to look at a bigger circuit.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/intel-2100t-2400s

 

[Insert_Nickname]

i would not bother with a T series CPU. actual power consumption difference isn't near the difference in TDP. if a few watts power consumption is the difference between hitting the circuit breaker or not, it may be time to look at a bigger circuit.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/intel-2100t-2400s

I think you're missing the point. The T-series is guaranteed not to pull more then 35/45W at full load. A standard 3570K can pull 77W. This is very useful if need to limit power draw. T-series also have a lower vCore then the regulars (somewhere around 0.1V lower)...

Anyway, it was only a suggestion...

 

[ElFenix]

I think you're missing the point. The T-series is guaranteed not to pull more then 35/45W at full load. A standard 3570K can pull 77W. This is very useful if need to limit power draw. T-series also have a lower vCore then the regulars (somewhere around 0.1V lower)...

Anyway, it was only a suggestion...

while true i don't know if a standard 3570k can pull 77W either. it can't pull as many watts as a 3770k and those are also 77W TDP.

OP should undervolt and get most of the benefit of a T series processor for free :hmm:

 

[Sleepingforest]

...or he could just get a normal i3-3220 and not play his games at high settings. That costs even less than the i5-3570K upfront.

 

[mfenn]

while true i don't know if a standard 3570k can pull 77W either. it can't pull as many watts as a 3770k and those are also 77W TDP.

It can't unless you're using the IGP. The theoretical max for CPU only is 69W. That's only achievable when running something that runs in a ridiculously tight loop like SPECint or dhrystone. An actual game workload is never going to get close to the TDP.

 

[Zap]

I think you're missing the point. The T-series is guaranteed not to pull more then 35/45W at full load. A standard 3570K can pull 77W. This is very useful if need to limit power draw. T-series also have a lower vCore then the regulars (somewhere around 0.1V lower)...

They are also lower MHz.

See this thread.

For my i7-3770k, a 77W TDP SKU, at 3.9GHz LinX loaded the chip uses 66W.

Intel's TDP is a number for a "family" of processors. Each individual CPU will draw less.

 

[007ELmO]

Alright, I appreciate the discussion on CPUs and nitpicking wattage. I will come back to this thread at that time when I'm ready to purchase hardware.

This may be a noob question. Can someone please recommend a 2U rackmount PDU/surge protector (not UPS) for me from Amazon? I typically like cyberpower, but I just see joule ratings on those (and not watts). I assume this just means it can supply as much power as whatever amperage rating it's rated for (in my case, 15A).

The electrician hasn't gotten back to me yet on wha tI can do with the 240V double pole 30A circuit breaker in there, I'm assuming I can go down to two 120V 15A. I just want to be sure I keep everything under 1500W at max load between the 4 PCs and monitors.

Thanks!
ELmO

 

[Insert_Nickname]

OP should undervolt and get most of the benefit of a T series processor for free :hmm:

Theoretically you'd get an even better result undervolting a T-series, as they have already been picked for their ability to run at very low voltage... :hmm:

But I digress...

As a side note I have a Sandy Bridge core running completely stable full load (Prime95) at 0.836V. But YMMV...