Lowpower working machine

Hardware Build a PC
1

Hi guys,

after creating a Machine with wich i could heat my room i need a PC witch ultra low power consumption wich will run solar powered or with energy from the power point (is this really the right word?).

I want to use it as a working machine and maybe to watch films.

Maybe i want to attach 3 Screens in future.

My current setup ist:

Meinboard: ASRock Q1900M (90-MXGTH0-A0UAYZ)

CPU: Intel Celeron QuadCore @ 2 Ghz (includet in Motherboard)

RAM: G.Skill Value DIMM Kit 4GB, DDR3-1600, CL9-9-9-24 (F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ)

GPU: First just the Onboard, later maybe Sapphire Radeon R7 240, 2GB DDR3 128bit, 2x HDMI, lite retail, low profile (11216-07-20G)

Case: 3001B - Executor from LC-Power

SSD: ADATA Premier Pro SP900 128GB, SATA 6Gb/s (ASP900S3-128GM-C)

HDD: Some crap i find in my room.

PSU: Mini-Box picoPSU-120-WI-25

Power:

Mainboard + CPU: 10 W TDP

GPU: 50 W

SSD: 5 W

HDD: maybe 5 W

Sum: 60W with GPU 20W without.

 

My questions: Is this setup suitable for working? Especially the SSD and RAM (Will it even fit and work?)

Is my powercalculation correctly?

Is the PSU strong enough to power the machine at full load?

 

Thank you in advance.

Felix

2

One thing to note is that TDP is *NOT* a measure of power consumption - it's the measure of heat output under worst case scenario load. Furthermore, Intel and AMD calculate TDP differently. The Celeron J1900 and AMD Athlon 3850 will consume about the same amount of power (~30w) while playing 1080p60 video, despite AMD's chip having a 15W higher TDP. With that said, The J1900 will consume about 35w of power under full load (CPU+iGPU). The SSD will likley consume 2w or less, with mechanical drives consuming upwards of 5W, easily, depending on RPM, caches, etc. The R7 240 looks like it will consume at least 60w of power, closer to 65w.

You're looking at about 95w power draw just for the CPU and dedicated GPU alone. Given that the PSU can only supply 80w continuously, I'd say no.

If you want the most performance under 80w, strictly for working and media playback, I'd go with an Intel Core i3 system, no GPU. If you want to game, I'd go with an AMD A10 7800 APU. With the 7800 in 45W TDP mode, both the Core i3 4330 and 7800 will pull between 70-75W.

P.S. - I got the power consumption numbers from various reviews from TomsHardware, XBitLabs, PCPerspective and CustomPCReview.

 

3

AM1 system. cheep, fast, Very low power.

i have this system and i can play some games on the igpu. like nidhogg, crawl, robocraft, ect

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/kHW4jX

 

 that motherboard is so low power that it can take a regular dc jack as the psu... its awsome and completely removes the need foe that makeshift psu. this is the best solution. i know that you might think that amd is not power efficient but this little AM1 system i built was the best money ive sent in a while. you will not regret it. and yes this is coming from a intel fanboy 

 also if you want to game throw a 750 ti in there. it onl pulls 60watts MAX, which can be powered by a molox wallwart 

4

Ok, so with the dedicated GPU i cant use it with solarpower, as i expected. So forget the solarpower. First things first (I may add the photovoltaik if i got too much money and after i measured the exact power consumption).

And thank you jerm, i didnt notice that the Pico can only supply 80W continuously...

I want a very cheap lowpower system, and i think this this motherboard is the best option between prize, powerconsumption and calculatingpower, so thanks for the other options, but i dont need a i3 or an AMD because i got a powerfull pc to game and do the more complex tasks.

All it have to be able to is: Surfing, play music and maybe films, programming (nothing big, just java with eclipse) and officetasks.

The biggest Problem now is the Power Supply. I have no idea what i should use... Can you give me a recommendation for PSU's in the Powerrange about 100W (The System with GPU because i may add it sometimes but first it will run with the onboard GPU)?

My wants are: cheap, silent, pretty good - high efficency. (with decreasing importance)

thank you very much guys

5

look at my post....

 

6

Thank you Grassyloki,

i looked at it, but its more expensive like my option. If my option will consume too much power, i will check out yours and use the celeronboard as a motherboard ^.^.

As PSU i will go for a PicoPSU with 150W (165W peak) and a AC-DC Power Adapter with 120W.

Thanks for your input Grassloki.. I promise, i will check out your option too if i got money again ^^