Just thinking ahead. Everything seems to be going low power these days.
What are the 65 and 45w Intel CPUs like?
Are they horribly gimped? or do they offer really cool running CPUs for not much less computing power?
If you're interested in experimenting it's often possible to run a CPU at stock and then lower the core voltage a little bit. Then you could use the power options in the operating system to lower the maximum clock speed whenever desired, like when you'll be away from the system or whatever. The option to raise it back up would be handy while doing more work with the machine.
The only advantage of the low power CPU models is that they are already locked down at their level without any configuration, like if you're building a low power system for someone who do not want to ever change a setting.
When doing anything more demanding than web browsing and checking emails a core clock span of between say 2.5 GHz or 3.5 GHz is certainly noticeable. A difference in the number of cores like 2 or 4 less so than a considerable jump in clock speed, for most systems.
An i7 4770K can reach <0.1 volts in idle, so yeah, the only difference between the normal version and the T is that the T is binned for high efficiency and lower clockspeeds and voltages, thus much lower TDP. S is for performance, so they'll be much the same. You really shouldn't worry about this unless you want a passively cooled silent PC and don't want to sacrifice much performance. To be honest, 65-70° is quite a lot under the 105 max TDP of my 4770 when passively cooled with the hyper 212 evo heatsink and 2 120mm fans on very low rpm, so if you have the space, just get a simmilar build. If not, there's plenty of low profile heatsinks that work even better (more copper - thermal mass).
The next generation (maybe the next after the next one) of laptops will be amazing in terms of battery life and integrated graphics power.
Here's the refference:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html
Thanks guys it was a passing thought. I had a i7 920 and replaced with a Xeon X5650 which is much cooler. To be honest my Gelid Tranquillo cools it no problem.
The real space heater is my 7970.
I am interested in upgrading later to a smaller more desktop solution. So Micro ATX and less space. Just checking out some ideas.
I hope this Nvidia announcement is Maxwell part 2 for desktop. Also the R9 280 replacement from AMD sounds cooler.
Anyways thanks for the advice.
I'm all about silent PCs right now, i've padded my case with different types of foam, and my side pannel is now obscured by some akasa paxmate, which makes the fans inaudible at min speed and if it's quiet enough in the room I can only hear the hard disks croaking.
I'm upgrading to a Gigabyte windforce GTX 770 next week, I hope it's as quiet as people say it is.
Your xeon is still a beast even though it's a few generations old. I'd wait for a significant improvement from the generation after broadwell to come if I were you.
Yeah its quite nice. The per core speed isn't amazing, but 12 threads is nice. 38c idle 62c load
I don't know enough about overclocking to crank it up any. On X58 its a lot less plug and play than now a days.
I have a Fractal Design R2 Define. Yes R2 not 3 or 4. It's a nice case, but really unsuited to that 7970. I used Paxmate years ago, on another case, and it just stank up the house ;-)
I need to replace it, but man I have a 1440P monitor and a Skyrim problem.
What fans etc do you use?
I have a mix of fractals, the gelid fan and a bequiet.