So original box was a socket 1156 i3 that sucked 50 watts with everything spun down.  New box is a amd A6-6400K with a FM2+ board, and unfortunately it sucks 60 watts at idle.  Is there any sub $120 cpu/mobo combo with at least 4 onboard sata ports that would idle at like 30 watts?  I run plex server, but the only device it needs to transcode to is a chrome cast once in a blue moon.  Currently it cost me $50 a year to let the box idle, it might be worth it if i could get it to idle at half the power.

...this will idle around 19W: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138393&cm_re=1037u-_-13-138-393-_-Product

Check the passmarks if transcoding will fit your needs.

 

Edit:

compared to a J1900 board with four cores, like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157494&cm_re=j1900-_-13-157-494-_-Product

the 1037U delivers a better per core performance, which is a safer bet for plex, IMHO.

 

compare: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Celeron-J1900-vs-Intel-Celeron-1037U

.....and here's your 1156-i3: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-540-vs-Intel-Celeron-1037U

Hmm it seems a j1900 will idle at half the power of the celeron 1037U(yet it needs 4 cores to be a little faster than the 1037u).  On the other hand the j1900 boards with 4 sata ports, require $$$ sodim ddr3.  When the hell did ddr3 start costing $10 a gig?

System in my sig runs about 35 watts according to KillAWatt.  I'll check tonight and confirm.

 

10 watts saved in 24/7 usage results in about $11 savings per year at 12.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.  You didn't list your PSU, which depending on efficiancy may be accounting for about 6 of those watts.

 

 

 

...there are other J1900 with support for regular DDR3 DIMMs....maybe I just picked the wrong one.

Don't confuse TDP with idle power draw...IMHO all these will idle at the same rate and it will depend on the cipset also.

10 watts saved in 24/7 usage results in about $11 savings per year at 12.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.  You didn't list your PSU, which depending on efficiancy may be accounting for about 6 of those watts.

 

It'll depoend on where you live...over here, energy is around 30cents (USD) per kwh

...there are other J1900 with support for regular DDR3 DIMMs....maybe I just picked the wrong one.

Don't confuse TDP with idle power draw...IMHO all these will idle at the same rate and it will depend on the cipset also.

 

No there are J1900 that support full size dimms, but i havent found one without only 2 sata ports.

 

http://www.servethehome.com/low-power-processor-comparison-april-2014-roundup/

This chart shows the j1900 idling at almost the same power as and atom.

 

http://www.servethehome.com/intel-atom-c2550-power-consumption-comparison/

This shows an 8 watt power saving with the new 1.35v ram, but you need 32 gig:)

 

 

Hell with it:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157513&Tpk=N82E16813157513

 

$34 shipped after rebate, its uses full size dims, only as 2 sata ports, but has 3 pci-e ports.

..all ports are x1 electrically, only...don't know if this is the right move...add-on cards will draw quite some power as well.

..all ports are x1 electrically, only...don't know if this is the right move...add-on cards will draw quite some power as well.

 

Ture but im not talking about a 15 watt sas controller.

 

http://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_show_products.php?item=118

 

This is a chip about the size of a letter on your keyboard, if it even saw a half watt it would fry.

 

Plus the mobos that have more than 2 sata ports, just have the extra controller on board, unless intel has some freaky northbridge that supports really odd sata configurations (1xsata3 and 3x sata2, really?)

well, yes...the controller chip, especially one like this, alone will not draw that much...but a PCIe card has drivers, resistors and whatnot.

A controller-chip directly mounted and integarded on the mobo definetely has less.

 

At least on slot is x16 wide, so a HBA would fit...the M1015/9211-8i will draw around 7W and will work with x1 electrically...performanc eof running 24 disks behind this confugration will be not hat godd though

Following up on my post of last weeek.  The system in my sig idles at 38 - 40 watts, runs at around 55 watts when all drives are spun up, and peaks at about 80 watts at bootup.  All this from watching the output screen of a kill-a-watt device.  PSU is a PC Power & Cooling Silencer MK III 500 Watt unit, which is probably operating at around 80% efficiency with this load.  So everything downstream of the PSU idles at about 32 watts.