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Intel Core i “Haswell” CPUs May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs

xbitlabs.com

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Re: Intel Core i “Haswell” CPUs May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs

#4

Hmmm. Maybe if they change the socket interface the new mobos can deal with this issue.

They'd have to change the ATX power socket on the motherboard, not the CPU socket; not impossible but it would be a shame after it's stood for this long.

Re: Intel Core i “Haswell” CPUs May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs

#5
Only if you want the C6/C7 states, which are the really low power draw ones. If you're the kind of person who builds your own PC, it's unlikely you really care about saving a few watts while in sleep. At worst, you'll get Ivy Bridge-level power consumption.

Re: Intel Core i “Haswell” CPUs May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs

#6
The difference between a 0.5 amp minimum current on the 12 volt supply and the 0.05 amp minimum current on the CPU might be enough to power a CPU fan (such as the Precision 690 from Dell, which is about 0.45 amp at 12V). I'm not familiar with other hardware requirements or constraints, so it might not work.

Re: Intel Core i “Haswell” CPUs May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs

#7
Perhaps someone will helpfully design a "PSU stability dongle" comprising a 26.1 Ohm resistor (standard 1% resistor value sufficient to ensure >450mA from 12V) and a Molex connector. Make it a passthrough.

Of course, it'll have to be a >5W resistor, but that's what I like to call an opportunity to excel: just more room to add some rakish heat sink fins. You could even spend some of your power wasting budget on LEDs instead, but obviously we'll have to charge more for that model. The margins, you see.

Re: Intel Core i “Haswell” CPUs May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs

#8
post #5

Only if you want the C6/C7 states, which are the really low power draw ones. If you're the kind of person who builds your own PC, it's unlikely you really care about saving a few watts while in sleep. At worst, you'll get Ivy Bridge-level power consumption.

On the contrary in 2013 the kind of person who builds their own PC's is the only one who likely cares about technical specs. If "good enough" is good enough for you there is very little reason to build your own box these days.

Re: Intel Core i “Haswell” CPUs May Require New Power Supply Units for PCs

#9
post #8
post #5

Only if you want the C6/C7 states, which are the really low power draw ones. If you're the kind of person who builds your own PC, it's unlikely you really care about saving a few watts while in sleep. At worst, you'll get Ivy Bridge-level power consumption.

On the contrary in 2013 the kind of person who builds their own PC's is the only one who likely cares about technical specs. If "good enough" is good enough for you there is very little reason to build your own box these days.

For performance applications on the desktop though, power draw at idle doesn't matter too much. It's all about power draw at load. Power from the wall is cheap and easy to forget about. If I'm building a machine that draws 750W at load, drawing at idle is fairly insignificant. It's laptops where power draw at idle really matters, which are rarely home-built.
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