capable and energy efficient office machine

q974739

q974739

q974739

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4 Feb 2009
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Hi Guys. I'm Requesting a spec for an office machine that...

-Is energy efficient (Justification for new machine is that we're going to save energy over an old Xeon 5355, 50 watts or so when idle(!), + graphics card)
-Not madly expensive (see Justification!)
-Decent(ish) graphics (replacing ati firegl 7600)
-Doesn't have to be more powerful than the Xeon 5355 it's replacing

Thoughts people?
 
ExRayTed said:
What is the pc used for as 'office machines' don't usually come with workstation GPUs?
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Usage load is quite variable - from light office to medium (possibly even heavy) weight photoshop usage. The GPU was originally chosen on the grounds that "they do graphic work", but it's only 2D stuff. So I was thinking of replacing it with something as powerful. Which today means "entry level".

Where I'm really stuck is the CPU though. No idea where to start - both intel and AMD seem to want to make the choice as confusing as possible.
 
Replacing a machine solely to improve energy efficiency seems a bit odd - it'll never be able to repay you in electricity savings.
 
Cyanide said:
Replacing a machine solely to improve energy efficiency seems a bit odd - it'll never be able to repay you in electricity savings.
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You'd be surprised. Imagine that you can make a 100 watt saving. 100 watt * 24 hours * 365 days = 876000 watt hour, or 876 KWh. At about 10p per unit, that's 87 pounds a year. Over three years, if I can spend less than ~£250, it's a saving.

More to the point, it's easier than getting them to turn the dratted machine off!
 
JasonM said:
Skylake 6 gen i7 and use on-board GPU. Fast and very power efficient
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Cheapest is ~£260+motherboard. While it would be an awesome upgrade, would be about £300 all in, requiring an energy saving of ~115 watts to make a saving.

Hmmm, that could actually work... but does seem like overkill. Surely there must be a cheaper option!
 
your original pc
cpu 80 watts
gpu 3 watts

so you're looking at an i5 using onboard gpu to stay the same
or an i3 to save some leccy
i3 system 300 notes (leccy 15p KW/h) equivalent to 2000 kw/h
assuming i3 saves 50W/h then 1KW/h = 20 h
so break even = 20 x 2000 = 40000 hrs = 4.5 yrs (continuous use) or 5 days out of 7 continuous use = 6.3 yrs

Assuming you use it for a mere 12hrs a day = 12.6 years till break even.
 
lude1962 said:
your original pc
cpu 80 watts
gpu 3 watts

so you're looking at an i5 using onboard gpu to stay the same
or an i3 to save some leccy
i3 system 300 notes (leccy 15p KW/h) equivalent to 2000 kw/h
assuming i3 saves 50W/h then 1KW/h = 20 h
so break even = 20 x 2000 = 40000 hrs = 4.5 yrs (continuous use) or 5 days out of 7 continuous use = 6.3 yrs

Assuming you use it for a mere 12hrs a day = 12.6 years till break even.
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1) Case, SSD, PSU etc can be reused, reducing costs. CPU, GPU and MB are the only things that *must* be replaced

2) The current system puts out an incredible amount of heat. The ATI firegl 7600 idles at over 50 watts on it's own. I'm getting a whole system power use reading at the weekend, but I'm expecting a number > 200 watts. My personal PC idles at 90, and that's running significantly newer (and more powerful) hardware.

3) I've already lost that battle - it's never turned off. All calculations should assume 365/7/24 running. Even Christmas.

My main problem is that there's so many chip options. AMD don't publish an easy comparison to help you pick the right level. Intel are downright confusing!
 
As Jason already stated, the main improvements in modern pc's has been PSU's and also speed stepping of some time when idle.

Other than that , not much else is new!

Problem is to get a high efficient PSU involved a premium price... not sure how you are ever going to be able to produce enough evidence that it's really worth it.
 
' My personal PC idles at 90, and that's running significantly newer (and more powerful) hardware.' - whats the spec, hw OS power saving options?

Basic problem is you're trying to use 'idle' power consumption to compare. 2 people could have identical hw, person A's idle could be 40w and persons B's 60, all depends upon system setup (OS, processes, hw setup etc).

PSU efficiency, one may be 80% and one 90%, but it all depends upon efficiency v load performance curve.
80% may actually be more efficient at low wattage than the 90 % unit.
 
q974739 said:
It's... no idea - good point. It's an ancient "came in the original Dell PSU". Could probably do better with almost any modern PSU.
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Is it a Dell machine at the moment? If it is then I'd double check all the measurements - they have a habit of being non-standard so it's possible the case and PSU won't be compatible with new parts.
 
Last edited:
Easy option is to have a windows scheduled power off an hour after the office closes. No hassle to set up and will eclipse any saving you would make doing what you are saying. Or just get a handle on your staff, its not their money they are wasting.
 
VKleita said:
As Jason already stated, the main improvements in modern pc's has been PSU's and also speed stepping of some time when idle.

Other than that , not much else is new!
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The CPU is a 65nm chip - bringing that down to 22nm should be a decent improvement, if nothing else. Wasn't this the tail end of everyone ramping up clock speeds at the cost of power?

lude1962 said:
Realistically if the gpu is as power hungry as the OP claims
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At idle, the graphics card pumps out a constant steam of hot air that's amazingly impressive. I really do think the card is that excessive. But I'll know tomorrow, when I measure power use.

KelDG said:
Easy option is to have a windows scheduled power off an hour after the office closes.
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Can't - it's a home office, and they are *obsessed* with 24/7 access. This is a battle I've tried to fight already - and lost.

lude1962 said:
' My personal PC idles at 90, and that's running significantly newer (and more powerful) hardware.' - whats the spec, hw OS power saving options?.
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Phenom 965, ATI 7850, Windows 7, full power savings options idles at 90. Vs Xeon 5355, FireGL 7600, Windows 7 - but no power savings options seem to work on the graphics card. Nothing changes the heat output.

But will have numbers tomorrow!
 
Idle power is 260 watts. It's used 1.1 units of power in the last 4 hours 20 minutes.

So total system cost could be up to 400 and we still save money in 3 years?
 
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