[SOLVED] Modify a PC to low power

[geeksy]

Hello,

I am in need of low power hardware for running pfsense / sophos home firewall, intel processor with min 6GB RAM, i5 processor or above and very lower power consumption (15W..??) Looks like I may need to spend at least £150 or more, can't afford atm.

I have a full tower PC that I no longer use, it has an "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz" processor, "ASUSTeK Maximus IV GENE-Z" and 16GB RAM, 1 SSD. I am not 100% sure what PSU it has, but suspect over 400W so not ideal to run 24/7 as a firewall. Existing graphics card packed up, so no graphics card,

Could I modify this machine with a smaller PSU, maybe a completely different case, or would a low power PSU not be compatible with the above processor and MB? I might be talking rubbish, not good at this stuff, any ideas and suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Thanks,

 

[Dylan_35]

The wattage of the power supply says it is is not the amount of power it consumes, it's the amount of power it can supply. An i7-2600 is not going to come even close to using 15w of power. I am not familiar with the requirements for pfsense, but the requirements you listed are not realistic, getting 15w with those specs under 150 euro.

 

[vov4ik_il]

I am running pFsense on this one. Typical power usage is 8~10W.

 

[geeksy]

@Dylan_35 - Understood now. Agree, will be struggling to get what I need with that price range

@vov4ik_il - Cheers, will have a look

 

[geeksy]

Checked with a power consumption monitor, the system consumes between 80 - 100W power. Is it possible to check what components are using high power and maybe remove some? Ideally, I need this PC to be modified to a low power system.

 

[vov4ik_il]

Checked with a power consumption monitor, the system consumes between 80 - 100W power. Is it possible to check what components are using high power and maybe remove some? Ideally, I need this PC to be modified to a low power system.

Your CPU is your main power drain component, rated for 95W TDP and loaded it consumes the most.
To reduce power usage, you can disable every unused motherboard component (audio controllers, unused USB controllers, interfaces that are not in use, etc... but those are breadcrumbs compared to the CPU). You can replace your HDD with a low power SSD and earn ~8W or so.

 

[geeksy]

Thanks for the reply vov4ik_il, it all makes sense now. I do have 3 HDD in addition to the main SSD, so may try removing the HDD and see how much difference it makes. But understood that CPU makes a big difference.

 

[hang-the-9]

Unless you are running a server that is open to the internet the firewall built into your router is just fine for security. Almost no intrusions happen to home systems through a direct firewall attack, it's always through someone clicking on a virus through email or an infected web site. A firewall won't help you in that case.

If you really want to setup this firewall, you can sell your system and get something that would use less power, Celeron CPU or something similar, or a laptop. You can get a used laptop with a low power CPU for like $100 or even less at times.