I see alot of people measuring power consumption with Kill-a-Watt, UPS readings, or using other devices. All along, I've been measuring my power consumption using a very cheap and simple technique. I modified a power cable with a 1 ohm 10 watt resistor inline of the neutral wire (not the live wire, ...

Anyone attempt to modify a notebook power supply for use with this DC-DC, such as the Dell 90W adapters which can go for <$20? The newer Dell AC-DC bricks appear to be very efficient, but there is also an extra "data" pin which I am not sure if it can be ignored. There isnt exactly that much data av...

Very close to plugging the trigger on a cpu now. What do you guys think about the Sempron LE-1200 vs Athlon LE-1640 more specifically? I can get the LE-1640 for only $6 more than the LE-1200. I probably wont need the extra processing power, but which one is more power efficient? The G1 stepping on t...

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I'll definitely post my results in the end. I ended up picking up a Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 locally. I picked this board because of its proven low power consumption and 6 SATA ports. Although not as low as the Biostar A760G, but I couldnt find that board anywhere...

Im running an Antec Earthwatts 380 which I would estimate to be 75 - 80% efficient when running a super light load of 30 watts. I suppose that could always be replaced. I'm not sure how well those Pico-PSUs are at powering 4-6 hard drives though. I could always get a CarPC power supply which has the...

Thanks for the details. 1. Is driver support really that important though? On my current WHS, I think the only drivers I installed were the VGA ones. As long as the board is supported by Windowns 7 (since the new WHS will be based on this), then I figure it should suffice. As for your other points, ...

My current Foxconn board only has 2 SATA, so that's why I was considering the 6 port Gigabyte port. I'm aiming for a 30 watt system, but can't seem to be able to find many of the "proven" parts that work up here in Canada.

I'm glad I found this forum, you guys really seem to know what you're talking about when it comes to low power systems. Currently, my Windows home Server consists of a Celeron 430 + Foxconn G31MV-K + 640GB WD Blue + 1TB WD Green + 380W Antec Earthwatts 80plus PSU. With this system, I idle at around ...

If I recall correctly, the e3200 probably has more room for underclocking as well compared to the 430. With my Foxconn G31MV-K board + 430, there is no room for underclocking at all. All I was able to do was to decrease the CPU voltage a bit, which saved me 1W. Underclocking the ram saved about 3W. ...

Cool, nice to know. But Im assuming that under load, the Celeron will have the least power consumption? One thing to consider though is that you get can the Celeron 430 for almost half the price of the other chips, so the marginal increase in power consumption may require years and years to pay itse...

How come you said the Celeron 430 is the power hog of the system compared to maybe a e5200 or e3200? The e5200 and e3200 are both 65w processors, whereas the 430 is a 35w. I initially picked up the 430 because it was the lowest power 775 cpu (correct me if Im wrong).

Bumping an old thread, but I was just wondering what you guys think would be the lowest power consumption Intel 775 board. I currently run a WHS using a Celeron 430 + Foxconn G31MV-K + 640GB WD Blue + 1TB WD Green and I idle at about 45W, load 60W. Im thinking of moving this motherboard to another s...