# Energy efficient desktop suggestions for VEPRO PC?



## T-LeffoH (Jul 11, 2017)

I'm hoping to find suggestions regarding building out the most energy efficient desktop I can for my Windows Vienna Ensemble Pro setup...

I live & do music scoring work off of solar power in Hawaii but am trying to compile as much information as I can with respect to building out a machine in order to make more informed choices about the additional battery/panel capacity I need to install.

Is there a place that can custom do builds like this considering the spec request? In online searches I've seen a few sites/businesses doing custom PC builds but not finding enough details to suss out if any of them have options with respect to this.

My thanks in advance to any advice/suggestions.


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## AllanH (Jul 12, 2017)

I would suggest something like this: a 7th (or 6th) gen i7 with a powerplan allowing for 5% idle, reasonable sleep settings, no hybrid sleep or hibernation, and wake-on-lan. Other than CPU, the biggest power hogs are graphics and spinning drive; use built-in GFX and get an SSD.

EDIT: I would consider a fan-less setup if the environment allows for it.


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## T-LeffoH (Jul 12, 2017)

That's helpful feedback though I'll have to ponder sleep requirements a bit more as I've been initially less concerned with that area as all power in the home is habitually unplugged when not in use.

Another area I was also going to focus on was power supply efficiency as I'd like to not waste as much as possible in the conversion.

Do you have a sense of what power consumption comparison is like with running samples vs say...a computer game on the same machine (which would presumably have high power consumption)? Is it night and day due to bare bones graphics & the comp just being used to run samples? Or is there still some measurable increased power usage from loading a lot of them?


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## AllanH (Jul 12, 2017)

A few more thoughts then: For gaming both CPU and GPU run at capacity in a well balanced system. For a modern i7 that's about 80W for the CPU and and 150W to 200W for a gaming graphics card. So use onboard graphics, and idle your CPU at 5% and you've gotten much of "easy to get" power efficiency.

SSDs and fan-less would be next on my list. A fan less system is also quieter, which is a benefit.

I would not spend money on a "custom build".


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## Rohann (Jul 12, 2017)

AllanH said:


> I would not spend money on a "custom build".



Do you mean you buy Apple (or stock) systems, or that you'd build one yourself?


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## Johann F. (Jul 12, 2017)

I'd look at a high-efficiency power supply first. Also have a look at MSI ECO series motherboards, they are designed to use less power than a light bulb while retaining performance. 

If you are considering a custom build, I can vouch for VisionDAW, I'm sure they can build you an eco-friendly DAW.


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## AllanH (Jul 12, 2017)

Rohann said:


> Do you mean you buy Apple (or stock) systems, or that you'd build one yourself?



I exclusively use PCs, so let me clarify. I've switched to buying standard Dell/HP/Lenovo high-end towers (e.g. Dell XPS line) as it over time simply is better and cheaper: The entire system is warrantied, you can get parts, e.g. XPSs often have good motherboards that match Intel's reference designs. They are basically "problem free" and come with supported drivers, bios, firmware, and company that "more or less" support their product. I've also bought workstations (XEON) but ultimately concluded that modern i7 performs better for my types of load.

By "custom" I meant that there are businesses that claim to design computers optimized for "DAWs", "trading", "photoshop", "DJ'ing" or whatever someones custom need may be. That is not worth it, imo.

My time has value(!), and if I have to spend a few hours picking parts and building my own, I've paid for another PC.

I'm sure many will disagree with my approach


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## Rohann (Jul 13, 2017)

AllanH said:


> I exclusively use PCs, so let me clarify. I've switched to buying standard Dell/HP/Lenovo high-end towers (e.g. Dell XPS line) as it over time simply is better and cheaper: The entire system is warrantied, you can get parts, e.g. XPSs often have good motherboards that match Intel's reference designs. They are basically "problem free" and come with supported drivers, bios, firmware, and company that "more or less" support their product. I've also bought workstations (XEON) but ultimately concluded that modern i7 performs better for my types of load.
> 
> By "custom" I meant that there are businesses that claim to design computers optimized for "DAWs", "trading", "photoshop", "DJ'ing" or whatever someones custom need may be. That is not worth it, imo.
> 
> ...


I suppose that's a good point. I enjoyed building my own PC, and could customize it how I pleased. That said, I'm not making top dollar in my field, and if I were I'm sure I'd have someone else do it for me. I don't think the custom builders tend to be worth it either IMO; there are certainly tweaks they can think of that I can't, but for a composing computer, I can't think of what they can do that's worth the extra $500.


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## T-LeffoH (Jul 18, 2017)

I think it's poetically humorous that my solar controller crapped out last week as I was soliciting feedback about this so was more tied up with that than getting work done for a day or two before having to travel this week. At least it's not the apocalypse...

I'll probably end up building out my own, I know enough to do it (and be dangerous). It's interesting in general to see how far tech has come with energy consumption side of things.

Thanks for the feedback all-around! Definitely helps to zero in on options.


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