My next upgrade - impossible task ?

[SentinelAeon]

As some of you know, i am still running i5 2500K with R9 390 in 2020. I plan to use it 1-2 more years before upgrading. So why make the topic now if i will only be upgrading in 2022 ? Well, because i always buy tech that is few years old, for very cheap price .. so tech that is out right now is what i will be buying.

First of all, how i use my computer. It is turned on 24/7, i do most my business through it. I play video games for about 30-60 minutes per day, i do some X265 video encoding in handbrake when im running low on space. My next upgrade i would like to see some improvement in X265 video encoding but remain close to where i am in power consumption. My lowest idle power consumption for full pc, read through killawatt is 48W in idle when stock, 60W idle when overclocked, average power consumption throughout the day is somewhere between 100-120W, depending on what i do each day. I run an SSD and 2x 2.5" HDD for data. I want a really fast SSD since my currrent 840 evo is hitting 100% when i start photoshop for instance.

I really wanted to go ryzen way for their great multicore price and performance. But they seem to be kind of bad when idle. New intels seem to kind of try to catch up with ryzen in number of cores and threads but i guess have lower idle power consumption. I am not sure which way to go. Considering that pricess will drop in 1-2 years, my probable way would be something from Ryzen 3xxx or something from intel 9xxx or 10xxx.

My price range will be about 100€/$ for motherboard + pc, 50€/$ for SSD, i might keep my old power suply, ram i might simply trade my ddr3 for ddr4 ... and the case, prolly about 20€. GPU i might keep R9 390 since i always play games a couple of years old, right now i play dragon age 3. Give me your ideas

 

[EarthDog]

2022? Yeah, even though you're using today's hardware in a year and change, this thread feels incredibly premature. Pricing and availability will be wildly different (no idea what mobos will be priced at used, for example) in a year (and who knows what the used market will bring) so any suggestions now would be different well over a year from now.

That said, please create a signature that lists your hardware specifications so we know what you are working with to start. I see a 2500K and a GPU.

 

[SentinelAeon]

Ok, is my signature visible now ?

Anyway, i know prices might change, but i will also be on the lookout for gear all this time and being patient in this regard, i always manage to score something super nice for super cheap price. I am guessing my price range will cover a 6 core 12 tread, that means 3100 and 3300 and its competitors from intel. Ryzens are super nice but those idle power consumption draw kind of bothers me. It's just the fact that, right now, my computer uses about 7€ (8$) of electricity per month and thats only 30-60 mins of gaming per day. It might not sound much and it's not, but considering my whole computer is probably worth like 100€ ... then you see my dilema. It's not that i dont have the money for it, its just things bother me if they aren't optimaly set. 30W idle draw would make me sleep a lot better than the current 50-60W do.

 

[EarthDog]

How much does electricity cost /kwh where you're at?

 

[SentinelAeon]

It's about 0.096 per kWh. As it is its making me grow gray hair and lose normal ones, because for the last 10 days i have an average usage of 600W .. that means i am using 600W at all times on average. I am running around my apartment measuring things with killawatt trying to figure out how the hell i am using so much electricity. Granted i did some benchmarking and installing windows on some computers, and some work in workshop ... but no way in hell can i imagine 600W on average.

Anyway, what i noticed was .. in all benchmarks or reviews on pages i see quite high idle draw of processors. For instance, my system if i put everything on default, it will draw 48W in idle, and that is with my not to good power suplys losses, thats without turning off any disks or anything and with my gpu which is, well, not exactly the best students in a idle power saving class. And well, for this same i5 2500k processor i saw many reviews that said 100W or even higher idle power consumption. This kind of gives me hope. Many sites will say Ryzen 3300 or 3600 will draw about 60W in idle for the whole computer. So maybe in reality this will actualy mean 40W.

Anyway i wish there was some kind of sleep mode that wasn't actualy sleep. See, i always need my computer. For instance, i will go to workshop, work for 30 minutes, then i will need a schematic from main pc and i will come look for it. If i put computer to sleep, first of all ... after a while, some critical programs suddenly appear closed or at least i dont see icon on bottom right. And second ... if i did put pc to sleep after 30 minutes ... i would prolly turn it off and on like 20 times a day. This cant be good for pc. Also .. i have some other devices that sometimes need to access my pc and i really would hate to wait for pc to turn on, like my media pc wants to access my main pc ... its just not an option. I wish there was some kind of way in which everything would still work, but like, go into a super slow mode, like ... go into 1% of the usual speed. But when u move the mouse, bam, suddenly everything starts to move fast. This would really make my life easier. I do watch tv on pc most of the time, its in a tab in chrome, sometimes i look at video while working, sometimes i just listen. I am guessing for this purpose ryzen will be much more cost effective, using less power to view the same video. So on average, even if idle usage will be the same, i will prolly use less electricity with a newer pc.