690g v 690v

NX3 · Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 82

I've got a Asus M2A-VM HDMI (690g) and a Gigabyte GA-MA69VM-S2 (690v).

The Asus has vcore voltage options the Gigabyte does not. If you want to underclock the Gigabyte use RMClock.

Anyway the point of this. Using a Sempron 3200+ manila core with the same PSU, memory, no drivers connected the Gigabyte uses 79w in bios. In XP with RMClock using 1v vcore I can get that down to about 57w.

The Asus uses 67w at bios and in XP 56w. The IGP on both is set to 400mhz. I can't understand why the Gigabyte uses at extra 12w at bios screen but by the time you get to XP, RMClock at 1v vore it works out the better.

Using a Athlon 3600+ x2 brisbane I can undervolt and get the whole thing, 160gb HD, Pioneer DVD writer to us 60w which I'm pretty pleased about. I've yet to use RMClock to get this lower with this cpu yet.

Both northbridge chips get pretty hot as per the M2A-VM thread, to be expected.

LAThierry · Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2007 2:30 pm Post subject:

I just want to chime in and back up your tests with respect to the Gigabyte and the Athlon 64 X2 3600, I too tested it to 79 watts at the wall, idle under linux.

I was quite a bit surprised as well because at the time I wanted to put together a firewall / gateway, but felt that 80 watts, 24/7/365 was way too much.

My plans were thus changed and I ended up using a VIA EPIA EK800 (which has 2 lan ports) with a 2.5" hd, totalling 27 watts at the time in the NSK3300 (with the fairly quiet & efficient PSU).

I have since then switched the case for an iStarUSA storm s3 with an external PSU, but haven't measured its efficient yet

prod · Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 12

Can either of you see if the gigabyte motherboard has any advanced bios options? Apparently pressing CTRL-F1 on boot may give extra management settings.

austinbike · Joined: 08 Apr 2007 Posts: 192

Here is the main screen:

Here is the ctrl + F1 screen:

Here is the extra screen:

And here is the power at the wall, 1 400GB, 1 DIMM, no I/O cards, DVDRW, floppy and 65W Athlon processor:

[/img]

NX3 · Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 82

The Gigabyte is running bios F4 and yes CTRL-F1 works to get to advanced features. I had 2 x 512gb @ 667mhz, I clocked to 800 which made 1w difference. The IGP runs at 400 by default, according to wikipedia the 690v is a 350mhz part so I dropped that back. Again that made 1w difference so overall I'm still at 79w.

I need to try the Athlon x2 in the Gigabyte to compare but so far the more advanced 690g asus is using less power at bios level. Once I boot to XP its down to figures about 56 which are pretty good. Shame it has no vcore control but it seems odd that it runs so high compared to the asus.

NX3 · Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 82

The Gigabyte is running bios F4 and yes CTRL-F1 works to get to advanced features. I had 2 x 512gb @ 667mhz, I clocked to 800 which made 1w difference. The IGP runs at 400 by default, according to wikipedia the 690v is a 350mhz part so I dropped that back. Again that made 1w difference so overall I'm still at 79w.

I need to try the Athlon x2 in the Gigabyte to compare but so far the more advanced 690g asus is using less power at bios level. Once I boot to XP its down to figures about 56 which are pretty good. Shame it has no vcore control but it seems odd that it runs so high compared to the asus.

tgdrums1990 · Joined: 30 Apr 2007 Posts: 47

GA-MA69VM-S2 and would like to know how to over clock it. I am running 3800+ X2, and would like to tack on 200hz, and am using the stock heatsink and cooler.

NX3 · Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Posts: 82

I've switched the PSU from a Antec SP-350P to a Antec Earthwatts 380w. The Asus board now runs at 43 and with Cool'n'quiet 41 !!!!! Standby is only 2.5w as well compared to 6-7w before ! I have yet to test the gigabyte setup but thats an amazing drop of 25w just for a PSU.