First a little background (and sorry for the looong post). I'm not the first nor the last to embark on an endeavor such as this, that's clear enough. It all started with wanting to get rid of my power-hungry, oven-warmth, barn-sized, noisy desktop computer. At first I looked at an Ion-based solution. After all I have huge backlog of older games I've managed to neglect, most of which such a computer would run fine while also performing admirably as a HTPC.
After taking a closer look at how much such an Ion system would cost (especially with Blu-ray capabilities - the figure ended up being around 550 euros for a self-assembled system, seeing as the ASRock Ion330-BD is nowhere to be found and does lack some features), and how it would prohibit playing new games should I feel like it, not to mention less than stellar performance in Photoshop etc, I started looking at laptops, which could offer more processing power and of course portability at a better performance/cost ratio. However, to get good enough gaming performance, the price would rise to a minimum of 1000 euros, but more realistically to 1500 euros. Now, it would have many upsides, such as indeed a very low energy footprint and nice portability, but the price is quite steep. But the performance of the 1500 euro laptop would be on par with my current Q6600 + 8800GT rig with just a fraction of the heat, size and power consumption.
But then there was of course the more cost-effective option of a more traditional low energy consumption desktop with discrete graphics. So the logical thing was to look into this option as well. The machine should be able to handle even modern games reasonably, and be good for multitasking, Photoshop, web coding, and HTPC use. And as silent as possible while not bankrupting me.
After some intensive reading, here's what I'm looking at right now:
- CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 2.5GHz with Scythe Ninja II cooler (without the fan if the CPU stays cool enough without it)
- Sapphire HD 4670 (passively cooled)
- Gigabyte G31M-ES2L motherboard, since the features are adequate and the price is low
- 4GB DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel
- 320GB WD Scorpio Blue 2.5" drive with any appropriate adapters (to stay low-power, and the performance should be good enough)
- BD-ROM optical drive
- Fortron FSP220-60LE PSU, pending favorable comments on another thread I made
Case is still a bit undecided. I'm not sure how much airflow I'll end up needing for example - I guess a reasonable amount, given the fanless GPU and possibly fanless CPU. But small microATX cases with good ventilation aren't that common, or that affordable from what I've seen so far (and I'd rather avoid full ATX cases because as stated earlier, I'm sick of the huge cases, even microATX is larger than I'd like, but in a desktop computer can't really go much smaller while being able to fit all the pieces).
The E5200 seems to be the winner in the low power consumption category on any reviews I've found. E7200 is very close, and slightly faster, but costs over twice as much where I live (Finland). Similarly the HD 4670 offers fantastic idle power usage, and quite reasonable maximum power usage, while offering similar graphics performance to the 1500 euro laptop.
The price for the desktop system as listed is roughly 520 euros.
3Dmark 06 scores for the 8800GT and HD4670 are 13800 and 9251 respectively. A drop of 33%. However power consumption drops from (idle/load) 35/110W to 9/65W. Not a bad tradeoff given my goals. No overclocking factored in.
The PassMark scores for the Q6600 and E5200 are 2892 and 1614, respectively - a drop of roughly 44%. Power use drops significantly, although exact numbers are harder to come by for CPUs. No overclocking for either one factored in.
The performance to power consumption ratio in these cases would seem beneficial towards the new components.
However I also noticed the Q8200S, which in one Techgage test used only slightly more power than the E5200 at idle. But some other tests suggests it might not be that power-friendly. Any experiences on this? The extra computing power reserve wouldn't hurt if the impact on system power consumption isn't too huge. The Techgage article suggests 2W/24W difference at idle and load, and with the Q8200S being effectively equal to Q6600 (and the Q9000 the laptop would have) in performance at stock speeds. Price difference is rather hefty between the E5200 and Q8200S however, 55 euros vs. 209 euros. Any experiences on "real world" power consumption of the Q8200S?
In general I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to figure out the exact idle and max load power consumption figures of this entire theoretical setup. My current desktop idles at around 150W, with heavy stress on both CPU and GPU resulting in 250+ W of consumption. It would seem this new system would vary between around 45-150W. Does this seem like a reasonable estimation? It would seem to be only slightly more than the laptop would (if not factoring the laptop's more power-efficient display), with more upgradeability but no mobility.
I've tried to read up on this stuff as much as I could, but now I felt like it's time to ask for some direct input. Is there anything critical that I have overlooked? Improvement suggestions? I'd rather not go too much over this current 520e price figure for the desktop system (with the possible exception of the CPU change), if I do in fact decide to go with it rather than the laptop. The whole idea would be to stay low-cost compared to the laptop, otherwise the laptop would make more sense due to its benefits, despite said price issues.
So, finally - any insights are more than welcome - though if anyone bothered to read this far, I'll be surprised
After taking a closer look at how much such an Ion system would cost (especially with Blu-ray capabilities - the figure ended up being around 550 euros for a self-assembled system, seeing as the ASRock Ion330-BD is nowhere to be found and does lack some features), and how it would prohibit playing new games should I feel like it, not to mention less than stellar performance in Photoshop etc, I started looking at laptops, which could offer more processing power and of course portability at a better performance/cost ratio. However, to get good enough gaming performance, the price would rise to a minimum of 1000 euros, but more realistically to 1500 euros. Now, it would have many upsides, such as indeed a very low energy footprint and nice portability, but the price is quite steep. But the performance of the 1500 euro laptop would be on par with my current Q6600 + 8800GT rig with just a fraction of the heat, size and power consumption.
But then there was of course the more cost-effective option of a more traditional low energy consumption desktop with discrete graphics. So the logical thing was to look into this option as well. The machine should be able to handle even modern games reasonably, and be good for multitasking, Photoshop, web coding, and HTPC use. And as silent as possible while not bankrupting me.
After some intensive reading, here's what I'm looking at right now:
- CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 @ 2.5GHz with Scythe Ninja II cooler (without the fan if the CPU stays cool enough without it)
- Sapphire HD 4670 (passively cooled)
- Gigabyte G31M-ES2L motherboard, since the features are adequate and the price is low
- 4GB DDR2 800MHz Dual Channel
- 320GB WD Scorpio Blue 2.5" drive with any appropriate adapters (to stay low-power, and the performance should be good enough)
- BD-ROM optical drive
- Fortron FSP220-60LE PSU, pending favorable comments on another thread I made
Case is still a bit undecided. I'm not sure how much airflow I'll end up needing for example - I guess a reasonable amount, given the fanless GPU and possibly fanless CPU. But small microATX cases with good ventilation aren't that common, or that affordable from what I've seen so far (and I'd rather avoid full ATX cases because as stated earlier, I'm sick of the huge cases, even microATX is larger than I'd like, but in a desktop computer can't really go much smaller while being able to fit all the pieces).
The E5200 seems to be the winner in the low power consumption category on any reviews I've found. E7200 is very close, and slightly faster, but costs over twice as much where I live (Finland). Similarly the HD 4670 offers fantastic idle power usage, and quite reasonable maximum power usage, while offering similar graphics performance to the 1500 euro laptop.
The price for the desktop system as listed is roughly 520 euros.
3Dmark 06 scores for the 8800GT and HD4670 are 13800 and 9251 respectively. A drop of 33%. However power consumption drops from (idle/load) 35/110W to 9/65W. Not a bad tradeoff given my goals. No overclocking factored in.
The PassMark scores for the Q6600 and E5200 are 2892 and 1614, respectively - a drop of roughly 44%. Power use drops significantly, although exact numbers are harder to come by for CPUs. No overclocking for either one factored in.
The performance to power consumption ratio in these cases would seem beneficial towards the new components.
However I also noticed the Q8200S, which in one Techgage test used only slightly more power than the E5200 at idle. But some other tests suggests it might not be that power-friendly. Any experiences on this? The extra computing power reserve wouldn't hurt if the impact on system power consumption isn't too huge. The Techgage article suggests 2W/24W difference at idle and load, and with the Q8200S being effectively equal to Q6600 (and the Q9000 the laptop would have) in performance at stock speeds. Price difference is rather hefty between the E5200 and Q8200S however, 55 euros vs. 209 euros. Any experiences on "real world" power consumption of the Q8200S?
In general I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to figure out the exact idle and max load power consumption figures of this entire theoretical setup. My current desktop idles at around 150W, with heavy stress on both CPU and GPU resulting in 250+ W of consumption. It would seem this new system would vary between around 45-150W. Does this seem like a reasonable estimation? It would seem to be only slightly more than the laptop would (if not factoring the laptop's more power-efficient display), with more upgradeability but no mobility.
I've tried to read up on this stuff as much as I could, but now I felt like it's time to ask for some direct input. Is there anything critical that I have overlooked? Improvement suggestions? I'd rather not go too much over this current 520e price figure for the desktop system (with the possible exception of the CPU change), if I do in fact decide to go with it rather than the laptop. The whole idea would be to stay low-cost compared to the laptop, otherwise the laptop would make more sense due to its benefits, despite said price issues.
So, finally - any insights are more than welcome - though if anyone bothered to read this far, I'll be surprised