this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
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Lowest TDP "consumer grade" (off the shelf) CPU? (alien.top)
submitted 11 months ago by RazvanRosca@alien.top to c/main@selfhosted.forum
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Hello,

What would be the lowest TDP consumer grade CPU that I could get off the shelf? I've read that recent Intel "i" series are quite efficient, but I'm wondering which3/5/7/9 series (and maybe a model?) is "the best".

I'm looking to self-host only a small amount of containers. 4k video output (or transcoding) would also be a great feat, even if nowadays I'm not using Plex that much.

Thank you

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[–] laxweasel@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

As others have mentioned, TDP is a poor indicator of idle wattage.

In general, two things that are better predictors of idle wattage: newer chips and core count. Makes sense, right? Newer stuff is more efficient which is how they either cut power or jam more cores into a chip.

As many have mentioned the N100, N200, N305 have been popular, and ASRock has some mobos with that combo, but they will be lacking the connectivity you're looking for.

In terms of a CPU I would look at either newer Celeron or i3 variants (there is a reason the lower end enterprise grade servers run off them). Combine this with "industrial" motherboards ("IMB" from ASRock and Gigabyte, also "Jetway" products, etc.) which have plenty of I/O, compact form factor, and very little "wasted" on performance gaming stuff and RGB fluff. Some of those industrial motherboards also have embedded CPU options from either laptop or embedded series which would also idle super low but still be plenty for your needs while retaining Intel Quicksync for transcoding.

i5, i7 and i9 are probably too much for your workload and those extra cores will sit and eat power and do nothing for you. Same with most of the Xeons plus you probably lose QuickSync outside of a select few variants.