Energy efficient MB and CPU combo in Idle

[evlo]

I'm looking for some CPU that is energy efficient in idle and same for Motherboard, where information about power consumption are really sparse.

I would like to be about 10W.

So can you recommend some motherboards and cpus that are tested to be efficient?

I hove done some research and i can't find info if the T cpus idle power consumption is lower then non T cpus.

 

 

This is for my new home server that should be able to do VT-d so i'm thinking about i5-4460.

Then i found MSI B85M ECO that should have low power consumption, but no real test again. This is only benchmark of motherboard power consumption i found http://us.hardware.info/reviews/4444/49/33-haswell-motherboard-group-test-26x-z87-4x-h87-and-3x-b85-energy-consumption-idle-avge-over-5-minutes .

 

Also i'm considering lower the hdds count (still suck some power in spindown state and also i could ditch sas2008 controller - that is another 7w in idle) so i'm looking for 2 motherboard recommendations in fact:

1. haswell motherboard that has really low power consumption in idle

2. haswell motherboard that has really low power consumption in idle and does have at least 6 sata ports

 

I found some builds here, but each has different requirements and few post info about real idle power consumption (or i did not look hard enough).

 

10w target consumption i mentioned is without hdds, only with system ssd/usb drive.

[uldise]

I'm looking for some CPU that is energy efficient in idle and same for Motherboard, where information about power consumption are really sparse.

I would like to be about 10W.

So can you recommend some motherboards and cpus that are tested to be efficient?

I hove done some research and i can't find info if the T cpus idle power consumption is lower then non T cpus.

 

 

This is for my new home server that should be able to do VT-d so i'm thinking about i5-4460.

Then i found MSI B85M ECO that should have low power consumption, but no real test again. This is only benchmark of motherboard power consumption i found http://us.hardware.info/reviews/4444/49/33-haswell-motherboard-group-test-26x-z87-4x-h87-and-3x-b85-energy-consumption-idle-avge-over-5-minutes .

 

Also i'm considering lower the hdds count (still suck some power in spindown state and also i could ditch sas2008 controller - that is another 7w in idle) so i'm looking for 2 motherboard recommendations in fact:

1. haswell motherboard that has really low power consumption in idle

2. haswell motherboard that has really low power consumption in idle and does have at least 6 sata ports

 

I found some builds here, but each has different requirements and few post info about real idle power consumption (or i did not look hard enough).

 

10w target consumption i mentioned is without hdds, only with system ssd/usb drive.

 

not sure for power at idle, but may be this combo: X10SDV-8C-TLN4F (http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/xeon/d/x10sdv-8c-tln4f.cfm)

or cheaper one X10SDV-F (http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/xeon/d/x10sdv-f.cfm)

 

guys on other threads are very happy with this

[garycase]

10w is likely an unrealistically low idle power ... especially if you're going to run a Core i5 or better CPU.

 

The Haswell CPU's are ALL very power-efficient when idling, but a basic motherboard to support them is going to put the power draw significantly above your 10w goal.

 

For example, I built my wife a system with an AsRock Z98M-ITX board that has 5 SATA ports.  With a Core i7-4790, 16GB of RAM, a 500GB SSD, and a 4TB WD Red it idles at 30 watts.  But when it's in S3 (most of the time) it only draws about 3 watts.    FWIW I built a nearly identical setup for a friend using an i3 and the power consumption at idle was identical ... so which CPU you get really doesn't matter.  I've found the same thing is true with T and S versions of the CPU's => their main feature is limiting the max power they will draw, but they all idle in the same range.

 

 

[HellDiverUK]

 

Then i found MSI B85M ECO that should have low power consumption, but no real test again.

 

I have that board.  With an i3-4350, 2 DDR3L DIMMs, 1 Intel SSD, and a 300W 80Plus Bronze PSU the best I saw idling was 16W.

 

Best I've had recently is a Supermicro J1900 miniITX board (X10SBA) which idled in UnRAID at 14W, that's with 2x DDR3L-1600 SODIMMs and a 256GB mSATA Samsung SSD. The Marvell controller and 2 i210 NICs were active.  That was running off a FSP 150W 1U PSU.  I honestly don't think you'll better that, and it's plenty fast as long as you don't need anything CPU intensive like Plex transcoding.  It's far and away fast enough for UnRAID itself, plus a load of Dockers.  Only Plex transcoding is the issue, and even that is workable depending on content and client.

 

You may want to read: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=39507.0

[garycase]

Those are very good numbers => the low voltage RAM modules plus the Eco motherboard clearly make a nice difference.    Still won't get to 10w, but certainly close.

 

Does this board work well in S3?  (I'd assume so, but some don't)

... and if so, have you measured the power when it's sleeping?

 

 

[evlo]

Plex transconding is exactly why i wanted i3 , but then i tought i could play with vt-d, and that is why i5.

 

So any motherboard recomendations or is it more about chipset that MB is using (H81 vs 87)?

[HellDiverUK]

Those are very good numbers => the low voltage RAM modules plus the Eco motherboard clearly make a nice difference.    Still won't get to 10w, but certainly close.

 

Does this board work well in S3?  (I'd assume so, but some don't)

... and if so, have you measured the power when it's sleeping?

 

Only in Windows, and it floats around 0.8-1.0W.  I've never used sleep in UnRAID.