how to build a lower power usage PC?
- Thread starter callagga
- Start date
do you know how much power it would take up even at sleep? like would it be down to less than 20W say? (thanks for the tip though, I had been thinking of sleep mode being applicable to laptops - I'll go and check out what the current 4 year old desktop PC we have here is capable of re sleep)
linkin
VIP Member
Most systems (overclocked and stock alike) very rarely draw more than 500 watts under full load (of course there are always exceptions and it varies greatly depending on your hardware)
If you want to save power it's better off turning off the pc when it's not being used. If it's slow to startup and shutdown we can also help with that.
Also note that if a computer has, say, a 1000 watt powersupply, the computer won't be drawing 1000 watts from the wall. It will draw whatever it requires up to a maximum of 1000 watts or whatever wattage the powersupply is.
If you are looking at a new machine, it is easy to build one yourself, and there are energy-efficient processors available from AMD. The next thing to choose low power after a CPU is a graphics card, ideally you want one that doesn't require an extra power connector and draws power from the graphics card slot on the motherboard.
If you want to save power it's better off turning off the pc when it's not being used. If it's slow to startup and shutdown we can also help with that.
Also note that if a computer has, say, a 1000 watt powersupply, the computer won't be drawing 1000 watts from the wall. It will draw whatever it requires up to a maximum of 1000 watts or whatever wattage the powersupply is.
If you are looking at a new machine, it is easy to build one yourself, and there are energy-efficient processors available from AMD. The next thing to choose low power after a CPU is a graphics card, ideally you want one that doesn't require an extra power connector and draws power from the graphics card slot on the motherboard.
Drenlin
Active Member
A 4 year old machine should be able to both sleep and hibernate. "Sleep" is simply a low power state, where it takes everything to minimum power while still keeping enough in the RAM that it won't lose charge. "Hibernate" dumps the RAM and some other info to the hard drive, and shuts the computer off entirely.