Thanks for your reply MtnHermit. I'm not sure I follow you though. Do you consider all the PSUs you listed to be junk? If so, what would be an acceptable result. Also I'm not sure what you are suggesting with what you wrote in the last paragraph? Are you suggesting that I should buy a Dell RM112 an...

Don't make the mistake of getting an unrated smaller PSU, from my tests they're all junk. PSU FF No Load Idle Comments Seasonic 180W SFX 7W 44W SS-180SFD Sparkle 200W SFX 9W 45W FSP200-50SNV Antec EW 380W ATX 6W 34W EA-380 80+ TT 420W ATX 14W 45W Thermaltake HPC-420-102DF Bestec 250W ATX 6W 39W ATX-...

1) Low Power Usage - My highest priority is the power usage - I want this board to use as little power as possible. This is the most influential factor when considering a board. 2) On-board graphics - Something that could at least handle DVD playback, although I would prefer an HDMI output and be a...

leg wrote:It's much faster to run WD Align on an empty drive.
I partitioned my WD15EARS and right after that ran WD Align (windows version) and it took about 10 minutes to finish.

Did you use WinXP?

AMD tries to make up for Intel better design technique with SOI Here I thought Intel's advantage has been fabs, always one generation ahead of AMD, TSCM, etc. Case in point, A64 was a better design than P4, but the 800# gorilla figured it out and used its fabs to leap ahead. The fact Intel has mult...

silconguy, You took offense when none was intended. Had I wished to offend you I would have quoted the exact sentence/paragraph. It's obvious from your post and handle that you have fab experience. My post was a linear and generic reply to the OP and the tendency to get overly wrapped up in marketin...

It matters not what marketing spin you put on the process tech, here's a recent Engadget quote as a lead-in to a bit-tech article: if you're looking for the best combination of performance and power consumption possible, you'll have to swallow any animosity and put an Intel inside, with an efficienc...

For 8-months I ran an Atom 330 w/ a single 2GB DDR2 as my primary PC. I use a mapping program where the memory goes above 1GB, had no problems. I was very impressed. Ran at 39W idle using the OEM 150W PSU. I just tried my new Dell RM112 mod PSU in it, 32W idle. If it is available, go with Atom Pine ...

See my post above. I used the WD Align System Utility (from Paragon), which I think is what you mean by the Windows XP command line utility. Exactly what I needed, based on your experience with a 1TB drive, a 1.5TB should be 50% longer and therefore 12-hours, half-a-day. Yikes I now know it is wort...

According to the WD Align Webpage I have two options to format a 1.5TB HDD within WinXP. The CD iso is 3x faster than the WinXP command line solution. Are we talking min, hours, days, what?

I have an i3-530 if that matters.

Thanks for the review.

I have the MSI E33 with a Core i3 530. Undervolting is limited to 1.1v on this board. That still allowed me to overclock to 3.5ghz @ 1.1v and still save 12w under load. Did you see any idle power savings at 1.1v? On my Gigabyte H55 MB I could go a low as I wanted, except unstable at 0.975v and no i...

Something like this: Asus AT5NM10-I Atom Dual-Core D510/ Intel NM10/ A&V&GbE/ Mini-ITX Motherboard Super low power, should take your DDR2. Intel makes a similar MB, as do others. I had an Atom 330 for 8-mo, I was very impressed. http://www.ewiz.com/newg/M/B/-/MB-AT5NM10/MB-AT5NM10.2_TH.GIF I'll bet ...

My refrigerator is by far the biggest noise maker, ~25% duty cycle. After that the wood stove, even thought it's mostly 1/4" steel plate, in the morning when I fire it, creaks a lot. The Blackhawks and Chinooks overwhelm everything, but less than 1% DC, and only middle of the day. Engineer much? :)...

VIA Nano + Better performance than Atom + Lower power consumption than Atom + 4 SATA ports on some mobos + Low power out the box - Ridiculously expensive - Small and loud fan Not True, not by a long shot. I also believe the reviewer was referring to Diamondville, not Pine Trail, which uses substant...

My refrigerator is by far the biggest noise maker, ~25% duty cycle. After that the wood stove, even thought it's mostly 1/4" steel plate, in the morning when I fire it, creaks a lot.

The Blackhawks and Chinooks overwhelm everything, but less than 1% DC, and only middle of the day.

IanM wrote:Was looking at the Intel DH55TC for the power efficient system, is the Gigabyte better? as in more efficient?

Definitely not, you'll want either the Intel or MSI MB. Read the Anandtech H55 article for more details. Too bad it wasn't available 4-weeks ago.

You and I are/were seeking perfection and it doesn't exist. I'm about 4-weeks ahead of you on the path and this is what I've learned: PSU FF No Load Idle Comments Seasonic 180W SFX 7W 44W SS-180SFD Sparkle 200W SFX 9W 45W FSP200-50SNV Antec EW 380W ATX 6W 34W EA-380 80+ TT 420W ATX 14W 45W Thermalta...

how much noise does the EW 380 make at <100w load? Can't speak to 100W, but I have the EA-380 sitting on top of my microATX case, on the table top 3-feet from my ear. I'm looking at the fan spin and I can hear nothing . That's probably 40W, I'm sure if I got to 380W it'd sing, but I'll never get th...

Before I got my Dell RM112 I was considering a Pico or Wingate. I moved away because the efficiency was too dependent on the AC to DC brick, not just the DC/DC converter. Also having an external brick was a negative. I found on eBay a 12V - 120W LCD monitor brick out of Hong Kong for $24 shipped. Wo...

What i'm curios is since MSI has underclocking and undervolting abilities in bios could that board go even lower than Intel board? Unlikely. On my Gigabyte H55 MB I set the CPU voltage to 1.0V from the stock 1.2+V and got no power savings. It was explained to me that the Core i's all have sophistic...

flapane wrote:Lowest stable vcore.
Not bad at 2.5ghz

Both of those graphics say to me you're running at 1.2GHz, NOT 2.5GHz. What am I missing?

I asked the same question a couple of weeks ago, the answers may interest you.

Well according to Photo 3 of 3 the Pico has a 5 x 2.5mm input jack. Does your brick have a corresponding plug? If not, you need to adapt it somehow.

It would seem one of these PicoPSU-150-XT would be a slam dunk for your application. You just need to adapt your 12V brick to the 12V input of the Pico. Should be silent and easily able to handle the E5200 + 4770.

Just have to find it in the UK.

speedboxx wrote:I wonder if there would be significant improvement in something like the gold rated Dell RM112 vs the Earthwatts 380.

I would certainly expect an improvement, but significant???

A modern 80plus bronze psu like the seasonic 1u @250 watts would beat any 400+ watt psu at those power levels. I've not seen that model, is it only available in Greece? The Dell RM112 is certainly impressive, however its unusual shape makes it a poor fit for my case. A SFX/microATX is what I need.

Reading some of the posts of this forum I had an inkling that efficiency was important, but prior to my test today I always thought a small PSU operating in its power range trumps efficiency, not even close. PSU FF No Load Idle Comments Seasonic 180W SFX 7W 44W SS-180SFD Sparkle 200W SFX 9W 45W FSP2...

I have a GIGABYTE GA-H55M-UD2H LGA 1156 with a i3-530, which is trivial to undervolt. I started at 1.0V, no problem, but at 0.975V it failed POST. Haven't tried to OC it. Arguing against the Gigabyte is it's multi-phase VRM's and their excessive power consumption. MSI seems to do better. For a HTPC,...

I know very little about Athlon II's, but classically you underclock by either lowering the CPU multiplier and/or lower the system base frequency. I have the H55 version of this Gigabyte MA785GPMT-UD2H 785G Motherboard and the BIOS was very flexible for either underclocking/volting or overclocking/v...

BillyBuerger wrote: The PSU itself is 3.25" x 2.5" x 8.25".

What are the dimensions of the projection? I believe the Dell RM112 will fit w/o modification into my Foxconn mini-ITX case, but the projection is the key. Also do you have a photo of the power plug/mounting end?

Your great results have me interested.

Thanks