Undervolt the CPU - my i5 750 runs at just over 1V, idle power is less than 2W over standard variable voltages. Dammit, I could've told you it was the voltage regulation before all that hassle if I had spotted this thread earlier. >< It's been happening a fair bit with P55 mobos from what I've seen ...

An interesting tidbit I stumbled across in my daily readings: Performance improvements for random reads ranged from 56% to 246% while improvements for random writes ranged from 34% to 88% for a defined set of industry benchmarks. Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/storage/bad-bad-bad-vibrations/896 T...

Hi all, I currently have a Novatel Merlin XU870 3G 7.2Mbps Expresscard34 modem on the 3 network (in Australia) doing my mobile data duties. The modem draws about 6W in use, which doesn't sound too bad until you consider that my laptop (a Thinkpad x200) draws just 10W in my usual usage! Switching on ...

I think we may be talking past each other. I believe both toomuchdogfur and I suspect that the problem is most likely in the mother board. Or maybe its just me :) But in all events, you just don't know until you do some testing. Heh yeah, its the mobo at suspect for me, though having said that I ve...

Hm, I've got this problem too, and so have a few people round here: http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=490773 I've got it in my two-day old system too, its rather irritating! Anyway try disabling EIST and C1E in the mobo BIOS, or try defining a fixed vCore voltage in BIOS for the C...

Yeah, pretty certain its from the PSU - I tested the system with the Corsair and Seasonic out of the case, and its clear that the squealing is louder out of the PSU's fan exhaust than the system itself. Either way, it seems the mobo is at fault!

Does Windows 7 support having hard drives spin down when not being accessed? Yep, I can attest to this as I have a few HDDs under 7 that spin down after a while of inactivity - you can save a few watts doing this too! The settings are under Hardware and Sound > Power Options > Change plan settings ...

A rather irritating problem - I've recently upgraded my PC: NEW PARTS: - Core i5 750 - MSI P55-GD55 Mobo - 4GB DDR3 Kingston 1333MHz RAM - Fractal Design R2 Titanium Grey + OLD PARTS: - 500GB WD 7200rpm (System) - 1TB WD Green 5400rpm (Storage) - Asus 16x DVD Burner - Albatron Nvidia 7600GS - Antec ...

They're using different set-ups on those reviews. On the i3 530 review, they were using Gigabyte H57 + Radeon HD5870. On the other one (Rest of Clarkdales), they were using Asus H57 + GeForce GTX 280. Just goes to show how much motherboard selection matters. It also shows that NVIDIA's power consum...

Not quite exact: the -661 idles at a mere 2.5w lower than the -750 That's a good find, thanks! Guess they did fix that one up. Then again, a few more clicks and I found this: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2972/the-rest-of-clarkdale-intel-s-pentium-g6950-core-i5-650-660-670-reviewed/8 ...so now its ...

Thanks guys, I think the 750 is to go! Why I asked in the first place though is because of the rather significant differences in power draw between the two i5s over different reviews. I mean, even if someone had a faulty testing technique it could give wrong results - but to the point where one CPU ...

I appreciate the suggestions ces; however I do have other reasons to upgrade the system as well, which is why I kept the original question specific! In brief, this is actually replacing two systems - a low-power mini-ITX system and the big rig mentioned above. If I can achieve optimal efficiency wit...

I won't be using the integrated graphics - instead I'm aiming to get something like the ATi 5670, which is low-mid range but quite low idle consumption. Should give it decent gaming capabilities! If you meant video conversion, I sometimes have to work with the AVCHD footage from my camcorder which t...

Fair enough, but I'm looking to replace it pretty soon as my current system's components still have fairly good resale value. And a year is quite a long wait.

Greetings to all! I've been lurking around the site and forums here for a long time since I'm content on finding out things myself, but I've finally found something that has truly stumped me! I'm looking into a new system to replace my big Core 2 Quad Q9400 build with similar or better performance, ...

I agree!

(as someone who desperately wants to ask a complicated question )

As a long time lurker, just wanted to sign up to add my thanks!

There are far too many sites focused on the big rigs with the big benchmarks. Yours serves what I reckon a more important role - making it bearable to actually sit near the big rig in daily life!