I wonder why the Anand review test idle and load consumption with a power hungry 5870 installed. I believe the 5870 is his standard video card so other CPU's will have a reference. Also of note, he does not publish the PSU. When Clarkdale was released on Jan 7th, most of the reviewers used 600+W PS...

In a relevant "classic" match, MadShrimps compares two similarly equipped systems based around the midrange Intel Core i3-661 and AMD's fastest but still cheaper quadcore, Phenom II X4-965. Results are intriguing. I hate to shoot the messenger, impolite, but relevant? This is like comparing a Merce...

I'll report back after I get past these first hurdles and can actually get it up and running. I'll then do some comparisons with my other PSUs. Seasonic SS-300SFD, picoPSU 150 + 200W brick and maybe some others. That's a nice set of low power/high efficiency PSU you have. Add me to the list looking...

Gigabyte MA790XTA-UD4, 4Gb G.Skill 1.35v DDR3, Intel SSD, AMD 605e, Powercolor 5750 If I had to do it again I would get a faster processor and a slower/cooler video card. Maybe the 5750 Eco/Green edition or a GT220 or 240 fanless which I think use less power, and a 65w Intel Q9550s. Even if I had t...

readk wrote:Right now I have a 150 watt Pico and a 150 watt (12v / 12.5a) brick. The brick gets pretty hot. Kill-a-watt ranges from 60 watts idle to 110 watts gaming and 145 watts in Furmark.

What components do you have connected (MB, RAM, HDD, CPU, VGA)? I'm considering getting a pico 150.

if i could get a decent motherboard with built in Nvidia graphics + decent underclocking options, i could get rid of the gpu, and undervolt the cpu saving me alot of power (+ giving me a spare slot for future upgrades) Why not one of the Atom + Ion MB's? No reason to undervolt/clock an Atom. Plus y...

The focus on just CPU idle power is too narrow. So many CPUs will get down below 10W these days that it's no longer the primary limit to how low your system can idle. Using all low power components is what you need, and on top of that, a power supply that is really efficient at that low power range...

I bought the chinese almost noname brick for 10A ($25) and it works fine. Here is its details: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220405348069 http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-12V-10A-Adapter-Power-Supply-for-LCD-monitor-Cord_W0QQitemZ260414982682QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=it...

loimlo wrote: 300SFD is better than 200SFD in every regard.

Which Seasonic SS-300SFD do you have: this one eBay or this one Newegg? If it is the former I'll likely get it, if it's the latter, then a picoPSU likely makes more sense.

Thanks

Power consumption with Seasonic 200SFD First of all, it's the first time that I experienced a board that isn't fully compatible with K10stat. To be more specific, K10stat presets identical frequency/voltage settings as CnQ, and you can't change cpu voltage. In other words, you're stuck with CnQ. Ok...

Just be careful with the 120W pico, as it doesnt have a P4 connector, only has a 20pin connector, and still has a floppy connector on it. That's very useful. I hooked up an old 90W PSU I had, it also had no P4 connector. The PC wouldn't even boot. It tried but shut down within a few seconds. From w...

bonestonne wrote:120W PICO...little headroom so the brick doesn't have problems.

What do you mean by "little headroom"?

Thanks

My new microATX case had a 200W PSU made by Sparkle, whoever they are. It uses 9W just to power itself, I shorted the green and black with nothing connected. By comparison, my Antec 380W 80+ only needed 5W at no load. I believe the Sparkle is a SFX form factor, three screws. I've got a Core i3 530, ...

Looking for some tips on setting the BIOS for lowest power at idle. I have this GIGABYTE GA-H55M-UD2H MB and this G.SKILL ECO Series 4GB 1.35V DDR3 memory, a Core i3-530 CPU and a generic 200W PSU. When I fired it up the CPU was set to ~1.2V and the memory to 1.5V and with just the WinXP screen it w...

This Athenatech A100SC.200 MicroATX Case will hold 2 - 3.5" HDD, comes in Black or Silver. The PSU has zero SATA connectors, probably a throw away.

Gigabyte markets its Ultradurable 3 as allowing cooler overclocks due to use of copper, solid japanese capacities and other technologies. Better ingredients, Better Pizza. It's all just marketing speak. Most of the industry has moved to Japanese solid caps. I ordered a Gigabyte MB because of many f...

ntavlas wrote:and after:

Very impressive!!!

I like the understated design, quite elegant.

Had either of you considered the DFI LANParty MI P55-T36 P55 Mini ITX

P55 so you have to use discrete VGA but at $135, seems a contender.

I'm currently considering either the Intel DH57JG or the Zotac H55-ITX. The ECS one is a maybe... Not too sure about their build quality. Whoever gets the first one to market at a reasonable price ($100~$150) will get my money. :wink: To me it's counter intuitive to pay more for mini-ITX than micro...

OP

You might find this article worthwhile as to power. It demonstrates the importance of the PSU, as in smaller is better.

Boot drive: 8 GB Compact flash via PATA-to-CF adapter Curious about your boot drive. I tried the same thing with a SATA to CF adapter using a Kingston 133X 16GB CF. It took ~3 hours to load XP SP2 on the card and I was never successful booting from it. Any suggestions or comments? BTW: Great articl...

As for H55, I can't say anything since I've no experience. Were I you, I'd wait for reviews to find out the most efficient motherboard before pulling the trigger. X58, P45, 780G had taught me a lesson that you cannot judge motherboard power consumption according to chipset. If I want to use Clarkda...

I don't want to spoil your image concerning Gigabyte's DES/EES, but it is useless from my experience. To make matters worse, Gigabyte never implement hardware-based phase-changing mechanism on AMD platform. DES on AMD platform merely adjusts CPU's vcore depending on CPU load in order to reduce powe...

qpc wrote:If the money is not the problem, is it P or H then?

I'd say H. For the P you must use a discrete VGA card, with H you can use the on chip IGP or discrete VGA. I believe P can do SLI/CF at full x16 bandwidth, H series cannot.

Low voltage is not necessarily lower power. Anyway, the difference is small and hard to measure. Many "regular" RAMs would work at lower voltage. All other variables being equal, lower voltage WILL net lower power. But, as you said, the difference will be very small. In my case the 1.35V RAM was ab...

I know not but I just ordered a 4GB (2 x 2GB) kit of DDR3 1.35V for my new low power build. I didn't even know 1.35V existed until I saw a G.Skill ad about a week ago. Here's hoping. Will post some power numbers in a couple of weeks.

As a side note, what is a VGA output doing on a board produced in 2010? And no displayport? Are you referring to the Intel H55 MB? This GIGABYTE GA-H55M-UD2H has Display Port + VGA. I did a look see on Newegg and I could find only one Display Port monitor, a $1000+ HP. Not going to sell a lot of th...

For the life of me, I don't understand this obsession with CPU idle power consumption. It's somewhere on the order of only 15% of the power draw of the system at idle (with a low power system). Furthermore, your getting all hot and bothered about 2 - 3w; that's like $0.25 worth of electricity in a ...

Most sites used the Asus P7H57DV-EVO which consumes a lot more power than the Intel H55 board that SPCR used – TechReport . It’ll be interesting to see what a decent low power H5x board can achieve when over-clocking or under-volting. The link you provided shows both the Intel H55 and Asus H57 ...

I wanted to know general setup costs, and how much you are able to run of off it. in real world rather then Kwh Not sure I understand, but . . . Roughly $20K installed, verses $135K for a wire, I'm roughly 4-miles from the nearest utility wires @ $35K/mi. The solar > battery > inverter system runs ...