I started the following build mostly with the idea of building a low powered but not as slow as atom, but also trying to do a fairly quiet build (not aiming at complete silence though), here is the build.

CPU: Intel Sandy Bridge Core I3-2100T Processor
Mobo: Intel H61 Mini ITX BOXDH61DLB3
Memo: Kingston Technology HyperX LoVo 4 GB Kit 1333 1.25V
HDD: Hitachi Travelstar 2.5-Inch 750 GB 5400RPM SATA II 8 MB Cache Internal Hard Drive 0J11563
CPU Cooler: Thermalright HR-02 + Thermalright TR TY-140 140mm x 160mm PWM Fan
PSU: Premium picoPSU-150-XT/12.5A 150W AC-DC
Case: LIAN LI PC-Q08B Black Mini-ITX
CASE FAN (top back) Scythe Kama Flex 120mm x 25mm PWM Fan w/ S-Fluid Dynamic Bearings (SA1225FDB12H-P)
CASE FAN (front bottom) Scythe KAMA-FLEX 135mm x 25mm Fan - 800 RPM w/ S-FDB Bearing (140mm Mount) (SA1325FDB12L)

Swaped the case fans and mounted them with rubber grommets/screws,



The first issue i had, was with the HR02 mounting bracket, not with the speaker but with the 4pin PWM connector, if you mount the heatsink you wont be able to insert the 4pin, so i had to insert it first then install the bracket, a little of a pain having to move with the fan, but it worked fine at the end.



Here is the HR02 mounted to the mobo,



Here is already mounted to the case,



Intial tests after finishing the assembly, idle and load (prime95),



And their respective consumptions,



Semi finished setup, trying to do some cable management, but its very limited what a small case like Q08 allows,



Some pics of the case closed (the PSU cover is still on route),



Now here is the real consumption (nothing connected except the power brick and the ethernet cable), which is how its going to be end up.



The only audible fan is the front Scythe Kama, but very low wosh, personally i can't hear the other two, both are being lower their rpm by the PWM 4pins on the the mobo (around 700 for the TY140 and 300RPM for the 120mm Kama). The Hitachi 5K750 isn't as quiet as the two 5k500B that i have, mostly is a high pitch on heavy load, idle i hear a little but not that much, either way i wanted to see if it was as good as the 5k500, but its not. What i did like a lot is the picoPSU, seems very stable voltages, even under load, i was a little worried i couldn't hit the 15W that missingremote got, but kinda reach it with extra fans, either way im pretty happy with the build, its going to be on 24/7.

impressive power consumption. My i3-2100 build does 55W idle, although thats not the low power CPU, and it serves as an all round htpc.

Nice build. Way too many fans though.

Ross1, there's no significant difference in idle power draw between the 2100T or the 2100 (or any Sandy Bridge CPU for that matter). 55W sounds a bit high but if the number is correct the difference is due to something else than the CPU (PSU not that efficient at low loads, different motherboard, discreet graphics etc).

great power consumption numbers, especially idle.

do you think a lian li PC-Q11 would be more suitable? it's basically the same as the Q08, but not as long or thick. from the pics, it doesn't look like you need the case's length or thickness because there's still a lot of extra space. and with a shorter length from the front, it'll allow the front intake fan to be closer to the CPU cooler so you can probably even get rid of the CPU fan and top exhaust fan.

Thanks for the comments,

On the too many fans, you might be right, initially i wanted to try the HR02 passive, so the initial plan was to have an intake and outtake fan only, but also heard good things about the TY140, so i wanted to try both ways, once i started building and working with the small case, it was hard to get your hands and install stuff, specially like the case pins (hdd, reset, power, etc), so i didn't do try the passive, the 2 fans are maintain extremely low RPMs by the mobo, 700RPM on the TY 140 and 300RPM on the Kama, both are inaudible to me under those condition, so at the end i didn't care to do the passive, but im sure with the 135mm kama you could run the heatsink passive.

On the Q11, i think its viable, and good choice, but as i said i wanted an intake and outtake fan, probably there is no need, but that was my plan. But i do think it will have very similar results without the outtake, probably a better choice for someone using less hdd as it uses the bottom for mounting, i was only using 1 so the optical tray is enough for me.

A couple of thing that i do need help, or some guidance are,

1) PWM fans
I though it would change with temps, in my testing it never did with prime95, both PWM stayed with the same rpm, maybe 40C is to low to kick more rpm from the mobo or maybe PWM fans are not meant to by dynamically controlled by the MOBO but just to be set without a fan controller. Just wondering if this is the case, and if so, without any software i would like to increase the rpm on outake fan from 300rpm to 500rpm, can this be done in the bios?

2) Taking the ram to 1.25V
According to mobo it can use memory rated as low as 1.2V, but i didnt see any automatic settings on the bios, i did see some RAM adjustments, but didnt understand it too much, is there are option that i can tweak so the voltage goes down to 1.25?

PWM (pulse width modulation) is just a fancy way to control the fan. It doesn't control itself but usually the BIOS has that functionality. Normal non-PWM fans can also be controlled and even fans without RPM sensor.
How much control you have depends on the BIOS. Sometimes you can set temp thresholds, sometimes the fan control only has an on/off control.

You could easily cool that system with a single temperature controlled case fan. I cool a 2100T with only the intake fan in my Fractal Design Array R2 and a strange heatpipe heatsink I found in the used electronics bin that's ziptied in place.

my guess on the RPM staying the same is because there is not a large enough difference in temps between load and idle for it to ramp up. 10-12°C difference is hardly anything. my i7-2600k idle temps is the same as your i3-2100 load temps. the reason why your temps hardly change is because that cooler is way overkill for the processor. that cooler can handle an overclocked i7 passively, so a stock i3 heat output is only a fraction of what the cooler can actually dissipate. such a small rise in temps probably won't warrant a change in fan rpm because you dont need the additional cooling

as for the memory voltage, intel motherboards in general has very little options to change voltages, including the memory voltage. i wouldn't worry too much about memory voltage though, the difference between 1.65v down to 1.25v is less than 1w.

any reason why you went with a lower end intel mobo than another mini-ITX mobo that has full range of control over everything in bios?

Thanks for the feedback,

Well didnt want to gamble with the mobo, i was checked missingremote review of the i3 2100T with idles close to 14W, and comments by people about intel being one the best into low voltage or low power consumption, so i wanted basically the same mobo on the review, but was never in stock, the only one that i could get my hand was the intel H61, so thats the main reason. Another reason is i wanted to try this picoPSU, and most of the 3rd party mobo have the PSU right next to ram slots, with the 150XT having circuits/caps on the front might prevented installing. One that i did though about was ASUS P8H67-I DELUXE, but at the end decided on the intel out of being cheaper and not gambling on how the asus might consume worst or better electricity.

I would have liked it though, upon installing all win7 updates and latest drivers the the PC is starting to idle between 13.8W - 15W, so even though 1W is probably not worth, its between 5-10% of what the actual computer consumes. The only options i see on bios is one that kinda restricts the low and high voltages, by defaults says on the low says 0.4 and for high says 2.0, but i dont see any option to manually set the voltage.



The weird thing is from intel website, Intel® Desktop Board DH61DL, System memory for DH61DL,


So i would assume if its supports it, there should be a way to tell it set it up on the bios

Yeah, that motherboard was the right choice I think. I went with the MSI H61I-E35 since I needed four SATA-ports. I get a slightly higher idle power draw, about 17W iirc with one 3.5" HDD and 2 GB DDR3 1.5v.
In the recent past Intel has had the lowest draw, MSI second, Gigabyte and ASUS much worse.

memory doesn't take that much power. high performing memory with high voltages will consume 3-5w at most on load. for regular memory with no load, it'll draw only like 1-2w. just for comparison, i "upgraded" from a 2x2gb 1.65v set to a 1x4gb 1.25v stick and saw no measurable difference in power consumption from kill-a-watt. that probably meant that the difference in power saving was less than 1w. but if you want to save power consumption by each single wattage, then i would pull out the 2 fans and just leave the front intake one. that'll probably save you 2-3w.

the motherboard reads and uses the SPD to determine the memory voltage, timing, and speed. some motherboards will give options to control all these features, but intel mobos have been known to have limited bios options, but they do have better power consumption on average. it's able to support memory voltages that default in those ranges, but that doesn't mean you can control them, similar to how you're not able to control the CPU voltage either. i personally went with a gigabyte mini-ITX because it gave me a full range of voltage control for CPU, VTT, memory, and PCH. i went in the bios and undervolted everything and ended up saving me 10-12w, so even though gigabyte might use a little more power at default settings, you can manually decrease the voltages and i think that ends up saving a little more power than the intel's board. the power slot is also not next to the memory slots btw.

That was not always the case with the last generation of boards. Check out the review of the Gigabyte H55N-USB3 for example.
Are you able to measure the idle power draw of your system? It would be interesting to know.

The PSU cover just arrived and got installed, with this the build is complete





The PSU cover was made by StardogChampion in case someone in interested.

that is VERY cool

Purty!

What are the final power figures?

Thanks for the comments, glad you like it


13W to 15W in idle
15W to 17W with apps running, mostly how its going to be used 24/7
48W to 50W Load (prime95)

very interesting rig. Maybe a PICOpsu 90 would be enough for that power consumption.

I will build soon a similar rig.

I'd say even a 60W Pico would be enough - abula provides us with AC power figures, which means we still have to deduct efficiency losses - say, 15%. That is, if he chooses not to load the CPU & GPU at once. At any rate, these are some impressive power figures [/drools_in_awe]

My HTPC is nicely undervolted and generally well optimized, but nowhere near these figures. Still, I use it only for watchin 2-3 films per week really, and upgrading to much more expensive parts to save on energy would actually moot the whole affair.

i'm waiting my intel dh61dl ,]

Anyone have experience with the Thin Mini-ITX DH61AG? This should have similar or even lower power consumption, with the built-in power supply.

Sorry cant help you much there, still on my DH61DL, but you might want to read MissingRemote Intel DH61AG Media Series Mini-ITX Motherboard and Core i5-2390T, my personal guess its going to be very similar in consumption, but really depends on what power brick you end up using. Mini-box is marketing one for it, not sure how good is it or if there are better, 19v/8.4A 160 Watt AC-DC Power Adapter. Another brick that had my attention before when i was deciding on my picoPSU, was from JonnyGuru Reviews - Pico PSU Round Up, they used 3 bricks, but like a lot the one 19V from FPS Group, searching on the web.... Replacement Fujitus FSP120-AAB Power Supply Charger AC Adapter 19v 6.3a, seems the same as the review, but its best to cross check it and to see what plug it uses and if its the same as the DH61AG.

Good luck,

I have got DH61DL and G620 and I use 55W 4.5A power brick . No problems at all

I also got DH61AG and will compare them head to head using same CPU , HDD and power meter. Just waiting for 19V power brick to arrive.



P.S Dobrze widzieć kogoś z Polski na forum

Thanks for the info Abula, and yes tramall the comparison will be interesting, look forward to it.

cheers

Does the DH61DL board have any wacky transistors on the back that would interfere with a CPU heatsink bracket? The DH67CF board is perhaps infamous for this; with it, you're effectively limited to push-pin style heatsink mounts.

I looked at pics online of the DH61DL, and at least there's not the huge, obvious chip like the DH67CF. But there were a few chips here and there in the path of a typical retention bracket; but I couldn't tell from the pics if they are big enough to pose a problem or not. I couldn't find any pics of the HR02's mounting bracket; even the DH67CF probably has an odd bracket or two that will work... so basically, I'm wondering if this build just happened to be a lucky fit, or if the DH61DL doesn't have the issue.

Yes it does have a some small platic/chips (idk what they are really), they do touch, but to what i remember (i did the build more than 6 months ago), it didnt really conflicted much, it does touch it, but till today no problems.

The Thermalright HR-02 uses the Venon mount, and my AXP 140 uses the same mount, other versions might vary but thats what i got. So in essence i dont think there would be an issue mounting the AXP 140 on the DHH61DL if the mount is the same as mine came with. But there is something worth mentioning, the mounting bracket is very close to the 4pin cpu fan header, if you plan on using it you will need to plug the fan before finishing on mounting the bracket.

If you still want to presue intel, but you find the DH61DL too plain in terms of connectivity and feature, check Intel BOXDQ67EPB3, but cross check the little chips if it will allow to install the AXP 140.

Hello,

I've just tried my new DH61DL config and I'm disappointed.
For comparing with atom n270 i disconnected everething (no hdds), so it has connected:
psu, mouse, keyboard, usb stick with bootable ubuntu and monitor through dsub.

Atom board: 12W on idle.
DH61DL: 21W!!!

DH61DL with Intel G530 and G.Skill 2x 4GB ram (regular 1,5V)
Pico psu 150W.
12V 4,1A power brick (the same for pico psu and for atom).
Tried undervolting RAM and GPU, no noticeable difference.
Also flashed newest BIOS.

Question for Abula and other DH61DL owners:
When I switch on system, cpu fan goes ON, then stops and after ~1 second again ON and then slows down. After this strange sequence system is booting. Is it normal?
Maybe my board is faulty?
And about power consumption - is it possible to get better efficiency with windows OS? Maybe it has better power management than Ubuntu booted from usb?
What do you think?


Regards
Hubert

I would try another OS, windows 7 its what i use, maybe the powersaving features on ubuntu aren't as efficient or you need to set them up. At least 2 (tramall and mine) have very similar consumptions or with in acceptable range depending on each setups, if with same OS then probably mobo or bios can be blamed.

If you test in Linux, be aware of that the 3.0 kernel has problems with Sandy Bridge causing it to idle higher than normal. I get 16.4W with 2.6.38-11 and more than 10W higher with 3.0.x

Great news guys

Ubuntu 11.10, which I used for testing, have 3.0.x kernel.
I will try older release, and also windows .

Thanks!

And what about fan switching on and off on startup? Normal thing?

Regards
Hubert

EDIT:
Vicotnik you were 100% right!
Just tried Ubuntu 10.10 (kernel 2.6.35) and results?
Idle with screen on: 16,2W
Screen off: 15W

Not excellent result (it's without hdd, network) but a good one.

I'll keep on testing. When I finally set up the new server (windows 2008 r2) I will share with you

Regards
Hubert