Energy efficient development PC, with dual monitors

WD41

New member
I want to buy a PC for software development. I might want to put expansion cards in it, so a laptop would not be suitable. I don't need a powerful CPU, but I do want 16GB of RAM.

The main requirements I'm not sure about are:
- Low energy consumption, because it will be on permanently, doing various background tasks.
- The ability to drive 2 monitors at the same time, each preferably with at least 1440p resolution, ideally 4K resolution. Refresh rate is not important. I want to avoid a discrete graphics card, because of the power consumption impact.

Any comments on whether the configuration below is likely to be OK? Any ideas for improvements?

Case
STYLISH PIANO BLACK ENIGMA MICRO-ATX CASE + 2 FRONT USB

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Processor i3-7300 (4.00GHz) 4MB Cache

Motherboard
ASUS® H110M-R: Micro-ATX, DDR4, LG1151, USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs

Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2133MHz (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)

1st Hard Disk
500GB WD Blue™ 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 545MB/sR | 525MB/sW)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
12x BLU-RAY ROM DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW

Power Supply
CORSAIR 350W VS SERIES™ VS-350 POWER SUPPLY

Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Processor Cooling
INTEL STANDARD CPU COOLER

Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)

USB Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
 

Oussebon

Multiverse Poster
For 4k you'd want a display port output, which you're probably only going to get on a more upmarket mobo or on a GPU. HDMI or DVI would be limited to ~30hz which, while I've not seen that in the flesh) I've heard it described as rendering even the desktop basically unusable. DVI and HDMI should be fine for 60hz 1440p however.

If you are considering putting expansion cards in there you may want to consider the B250H mobo as it's ATX form factor giving you more expansion slots, plus M.2 SSD slots.

You might also want a better case that has scope for more fans to be added, if you start putting expansion cards that interfere with airflow in the case.

You ears might also prefer the Titan CPU cooler to the stock Intel one.

As for the CPU, an Intel i5 6400/7400 is only £20 more, would probably use less power, and would offer better performance for multitasking / multithreaded work:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...kylake-i5-6500-i5-6400-i3-6100-review-12.html
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11083/the-intel-core-i3-7350k-60w-review/12
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1888?vs=1833

Alternatively one of the Pentiums would give you much of the same performance as an i3 but cost £70+ less (since unlike their predecessors the Kaby Lake Pentiums have hyperthreading). I think the only substantive difference is AVX2.
 
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