Please educate me about energy efficient Motherboards !

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raindrop

Junior Member
Sep 4, 2015
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Hello,
I need a advice about selecting a motherboard for my new build. My first build was a 486 system and my last build was a Core Duo system. I was into PC gaming long time ago but now it is only a small percentage of use. I need a general purpose, high performance PC but now I want an energy efficient PC above all. In one of my rooms I have a Lenovo AIO unit which uses i5 4570S and a Radeon GPU (laptop grade) with 3.5" spinning hard drive and it idles around 27-29 watts. This energy efficient system is become my favorite and I want to replicate something like this in my new build.

So I have narrowed down to i7 6700T as a CPU and now need a motherboard (I would leave GPU out of the equation for the moment for the sake of simplicity). I have seen some high end motherboards idling at 35 watts which is awful in my view. I was actually expecting modern motherboards to idle well below 20 watts. I tried to search but I couldn't find if any manufacturer has a energy efficient motherboard line for socketed CPUs. Intel has SpeedStep feature for conserving power but I could not find a similar feature in a motherboard.

So here we are; I need some basic information to select a energy efficient motherboard. Any pointers, recommendation or general opinions would be welcome.
Thanks.
 
mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
17,767
9,724
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Every AIO PC I've encountered is basically a laptop strapped to the back of a monitor, and because laptops have to be as power efficient as possible, of course it's going to be more power efficient, however it's a trade-off for performance, upgrade potential and serviceability.

IIRC my server (it's a desktop PC spec with a Celeron G1610 processor in) idles at about 25W (NB: excluding monitor). It could have been brought down a bit further if I had gone for a lower spec board (less power phases and features for example), but I was building it to last (the previous server had something like 12 years under its belt in total, P3 generation).

The more you ask a desktop to be power efficient (at least to compete with laptops etc), the more you're asking it to become a laptop. The most power efficient desktops I've heard of are the ones that use power bricks rather than normal PSUs but performance-wise AFAIK they're not built to compete.

Btw, I'm all for power efficiency in desktop PCs. Initially my interest was in order to reduce noise levels from the computer (which I feel I've achieved to my satisfaction with my current build), but I don't know, a high-end desktop idling at 35W and being able to thoroughly spank any laptop in performance terms is a win-win situation. In a "chose any two [out of three options]" situation, a ~8W difference is hardly gargantuan.

But first things first, why are you thinking about a new computer, what requirements do you intend to address?
 
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Flapdrol1337

Golden Member
May 21, 2014
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The "T" variants aren't that much more efficient, as all cpu's do the same thing in idle.

Main reason to get a slower, more expensive "T" version is so you can use a smaller cooler or psu, a notebook adapter and picopsu can save you power, because a normal psu will be operating way below capacity, which isn't efficient.

The powerconsumption of a board is determined by how much "stuff" is on there, and how those things are powered (what type of powerconversion). A couple of years back msi used to do well in this regard, not sure if that's still the case.
 
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raindrop

Junior Member
Sep 4, 2015
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mikeymikec said:
But first things first, why are you thinking about a new computer, what requirements do you intend to address?
Click to expand...

Here are few reasons; The old Motherboard is having issues with recognizing optical drives sometimes. My hard drives are slow and getting old but current MoBo does not support anything beyond SATA1. It does not have USB3, it only has 4 GB RRD3 RAM at this time and it consumes too much power for what it does. My main requirement for the new rig is to have an energy efficient i7 CPU with 35 watt TDP (that's what I want after experiencing a 65 watts 'S' CPU) that I can use for encoding, games and some video editing.


mikeymikec said:
Every AIO PC I've encountered is basically a laptop strapped to the back of a monitor, and because laptops have to be as power efficient as possible, of course it's going to be more power efficient.
Click to expand...

I understand the laptop platform being more power efficient and that's why I have mentioned the specs of my Lenovo AIO in my original post. The i5 4570S with 65 watt TDP is a desktop part along with 3.5" hard drive and Desktop DDR3 RAM and 23" monitor with touch screen.

So I was wondering if there are any motherboard lines out there which can take a Desktop CPU and idles below 20 watts (without CPU)?
Thanks.
 
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piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
60
91
T CPU's just tend to be under-clocked. You might ask your questions to someone that frequents the Home Theater PC Forum. Beyond picking a Motherboard you might also need some suggestions about tweaks in the BIOS to limit or turn off power consuming options.

Motherboards have different options. The more options it has the power has to be supplied to those circuits. If you purchase a Z series motherboard designed for over clocking then it will have a heavy duty Power Phase circuitry to withstand and support overclocking. An H series motherboard or maybe the 85 series motherboard might work better. If you truly know you will never use a video card or maybe the other I/O slots maybe a MITX motherboard will be better.

Also even Fans consume power. Try limiting the case fans to one 120mm fan set to a slower speed to keep it quiet.

You could consider purposely choosing a motherboard with fewer USB ports and fewer SATA ports and maybe skimping on some other features you may not want to use. I have never tested any of these ideas or seen a website that has the power testing.

Just choosing an i5 or an i7 instead of an i3 will increase your power usage to some degree. It depends what kind of a tradeoff you are willing to accept. Turbo may or may not be using extra power, making the CPU hotter and then require more cooling. The power supply may also be adding to your power usage as well as using A centrino Wireless card versus an external USB wireless device and/or a wireless keyboard. Everything uses some power. Even speakers and sound will use some power.

I wager any monitor will also use quite a bit of power. It might use more power then the PC to power a large 30" screen or an HDTV.
 
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piasabird

Lifer
Feb 6, 2002
17,168
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http://assassinhtpcblog.com/faqpics/

If you scroll down you will see a PC running idle at 30 watts. However, to play a blu ray at 1080p it is around 60 watts. With newer PC's you might get the power usage lower. I do not however, see CPU's like an i-7 with lower power ratings. Perhaps a Skylake chipset will work better. Sometimes newer works better. Broadwell might be an option also. A lot of the newer CPU'S can be hard to find and tend to be more expensive.
 
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raindrop

Junior Member
Sep 4, 2015
6
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Thanks everyone for your replies.

Flapdrol1337 said:
A couple of years back msi used to do well in this regard, not sure if that's still the case.
Click to expand...

I searches and MSI is the only company which makes 'ECO' line of motherboards. At present they have Motherboard based on H97 only but it does idles around 17 watts. I guess I have to be patient for them to release something for H170 chipset.

How about mini-ITX motherboards? Does anyone knows if mini-ITX boards have less power consumption than larger form factor boards?
 
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dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
5,626
2
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vailr said:
Have you considered the Intel NUC, as well as Gigabyte's similar form factor devices?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...on=Intel NUC&bop=And&Order=PRICED&PageSize=30
Something like that (paired with a normal 22" monitor) would be low powered enough, that you could run it off rooftop solar power in a log cabin in the middle of a wilderness area somewhere, for example.
Click to expand...

The NUC and Gigabyte Brix are both good small PCs. I have one of each and am pleased with both. Both are low power and quiet and cool.
 
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Flapdrol1337

Golden Member
May 21, 2014
1,677
93
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raindrop said:
I searches and MSI is the only company which makes 'ECO' line of motherboards. At present they have Motherboard based on H97 only but it does idles around 17 watts. I guess I have to be patient for them to release something for H170 chipset.
Click to expand...
Where did you find this 17W, seems a bit high.
 
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raindrop

Junior Member
Sep 4, 2015
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raindrop

Junior Member
Sep 4, 2015
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raindrop said:
So I was wondering if there are any motherboard lines out there which can take a Desktop CPU and idles below 20 watts (without CPU)?
Click to expand...

Flapdrol1337 said:
Probably all of them.
Click to expand...

That's incorrect.

Most of 'budget' & business Motherboards idle around 24-28 watts. However overclocking & gaming motherboards can go as high as 37 watts at idle.

A quad core Intel consumer level CPU idles around 4-6 watts.

So while estimating idle power consumption of a system, a motherboard contributes much more to power draw than a modern CPU.
 
VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,373
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raindrop said:
That's incorrect.

So while estimating idle power consumption of a system, a motherboard contributes much more to power draw than a modern CPU.
Click to expand...

This makes some sense, as the chipset(s) used on the motherboard, are produced with an older silicon process, that takes more power than the newest process used by the CPU.
 
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