My chipset is very hot. Too hot to keep your finger on the heatsink more than a short while. Don't know how hot that is, but I'd guess 60-65C.

Having realised that the P965 chipset seems to prefer a 1:1 memory ratio, I set out to see how a higher FSB would affect the chipset power consumption. This is good to know, since the chipset is passively cooled on my Asus P5B and an increased FSB could require adding another fan. So, I decided to t...

What's your motherboard ? And 1,15V for vcore is low. I'm @ 1,3 in BIOS, which is really around 1,25. Damn lucky you :-). I currently use an Asus P5B, but I've also had a Gigabyte DS3 that I returned. The Asus board needs to have much higher vcore set in BIOS for the CPU to be stable at a particula...

I find my E6600 to be a brilliant CPU for a quiet build, atleast when undervolted. My particular CPU is able to go down to 1.0V on default 2.4GHz. My estimates (calculations and measurements) put the CPU at around 35W at this voltage. I also happen to have a Ninja and from what I can tell, cooling t...

Mescalero wrote:Yeah that's what I read. J If Mikael says he didn't need need to install special IDE drivers maybe newer BIOs revisions have countered that problem.

The first BIOS release on the Gigabyte DS3 had no problem booting from an IDE drive.

That sounds like bull. I have used Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3, Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 and Asus P5B and they all boot fine from the Windows XP or a Memtest disc.

Unless you're using a high power CPU, you shouldn't really need any extra cooling on the VRMs. They're quite able to take high temperatures too. What CPU (and at what settings) do you use?

System: Antec NeoHE 430W E6600 Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 2*1GB Kingmax DDR2-667 GeForce 7900GS @ 520/720 Soundblaster Audigy 4 WD Caviar SE16 250GB Old NEC CD-ROM 2.4GHz @ 1.0V BIOS / 0.98V CPU-Z 3.0GHz @ 1.17V BIOS / 1.14V CPU-Z Judging by the voltages, this is without doubt a pretty good CPU. The first...

jojo4u wrote:Ok, you are right. You loose dynamic switching, though?

Yeah, I believe you do. It's not a big problem for me, though, since I'm running my fans at a constant RPM and low enough to not produce any significant noise.

There is no <1.162V on desktop Core 2 Duo chips. You have to get a Merom which offers 0.95V minimum. This is hardlocked! Only way is to pin-mod you CPU. That would be incorrect. I know, since I've been running my E6600 on 1.0V at stock 2.4GHz with a Gigabyte DS3. There is no "hard-lock", just lazy ...

Okay, here's the pretty much final stable voltage that can be achieved: http://www.etek.chalmers.se/~brunnis/3g_lv.gif So, 3GHz @ ~1.17V BIOS (~1.14V reported by software). I also ran 3DMark06 a few times while Orthos was running, since that seems to produce errors faster. But it all worked fine at ...

To overclock above 3.2 GHz, you will likely need more voltage, perhaps in the 1.3 to 1.4V range. Actually, it turns out that the CPU is much better than I initially thought... I haven't yet clocked it beyond 3GHz, but I have found out that the CPU can run on even lower voltage. I'm currently runnin...

My P5w DH undervolts fine down to what's 1.20v in the BIOS and 1.225 everywhere else. Don't know the 965-boards though but I am fairly certain that anything enthusiast-level will have this option. I need lower, though. My CPU does 2.4GHz at 1V and I'm still trying to find the lowest voltage at 3GHz...

I'm going to return my Gigabyte DS3 because of severe memory incompatibilities. So, now I need another board and I'd preferably want one which allows undervolting of the CPU. I'd like an Asus board, but it doesn't seem as if they allow undervolting though BIOS, or am I wrong? If they don't, is there...

Out of interest how are you calculating this? Is this at idle or load? If idle the X2 3800 number seems rather high. Nope, both figures are under load. I'm estimating it based on my own power consumption measurements at the wall socket and figures measured by various review sites. The differences a...

If it can run at 1.0V on default frequency, it would probably be in the low 20W range. Pretty good. For reference, my X2 3800+ at 2.2GHz and 1.2V seems to consume 40-45W and my E6600 at 2.4GHz and 1.0V seems to consume 25-30W. A C2D E4300/E6300 is probably still a better alternative in every categor...

Yep. That's a keeper. 1.0V at 2.4 GHz is very good. To overclock above 3.2 GHz, you will likely need more voltage, perhaps in the 1.3 to 1.4V range. Yeah, you're probably right about that. I'm running Orthos on 1.235V now (reported as 1.22V) and that's probably the low limit for stable operation at...

Stereodude wrote:For another point of comparison my 4200+ (65W) is 100% stable at 1.05V.

That's very good. My 3800+ 65W needed 1.1V for 2GHz and 1.2V for 2.2GHz. Wouldn't overclock beyond that, no matter what voltage...

Hi guys! Just got my E6600/Gigabyte DS-3 combo. I started out by undervolting the CPU from its default ~1.265V and it went pretty well (I think). I just ran Orthos for 2 hours at 1.0V! 8) I'm not very familiar with how well C2Ds usually undervolt, but 1.0V at 2.4GHz must be pretty okay, right? I coo...

You should have no problem with the EE processors. They were released alongside the "normal" versions at AM2 launch, so support should definitely be there. The ASUS site is a bit vague, saying it has supported from initial BIOS release, but also saying that latest BIOS (22nd Dec) added support for '...

Why do you just not buy the cheap 65W version? My own tests, as well as those made by Silent PC Review, show that this CPU consumes ~40W at stock settings. Well, SPCR tested the S939 3800+ on 1.22V, but it's basically the same CPU as the AM2 3800+ EE. What's even better is that even crappy ones (lik...

It's not the stock AMD heatsink; as stated earlier, I'm using the Scythe Ninja , which clips to the AM2 bracket a little differently than the stock AMD HS does. It's a real pain, because there's no physical way to just set the Ninja down on the CPU and then clip it on; the clips actually sit comple...

Two things: 1. There's really nothing wrong with the AM2 mounting mechanism. You just place the heatsink on the CPU, make sure the clip is hooked correctly to each side of the bracket and then you just push the lever down. If you have to use any other technique, it's because of the particular heatsi...

System 2: 20W ASUS W3N laptop Can you make a rough-and-ready guess as to the noise level of the laptop at idle? <25dB? I have no experience with noise measurements, so that would be too much of a guess. What I can say is that the laptop is virtually silent as long as the CPU fan is off. The fan doe...

System 1: 90W (118W with CPU and GPU loaded) Antec NeoHE 430W Gigabyte GA-M55S-S3 (Nforce 550) Athlon64 3500+ @ 2.2GHz (1.2V) Stock cooler 2*1GB DDR2-667 GeForce 6500TC 64MB (350MHz GPU and 490MHz mem) D-Link DWL-G122 (WLAN USB adapter) SoundBlaster Audigy 4 WD Caviar SE16 250GB (WD2500KS) Lite-On ...

Some buildings actually have a PFC box for the entire building. I wonder if your office does -- and whether it inteferes with correct operation of your power meter. It's highly unlikely. We're the ones that own the building and the only company in it and we've definitely not installed a PFC box. Be...

Apparent power (69VA and 99VA) sounds about right, it just seems that, for whatever reason, it isn't reading power factor correctly, and therefore can't correctly calculate true power (watts). If you take apparent power * power factor (for a passive PFC unit, we'll assume this is 0.65), you get 49w...

I just bought a simple power meter, kind of like the well-known Kill-A-Watt. Without knowing anything else about your meter, who could say anything worthwhile except -- your meter must be broken? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. The meter is marked with the following: W.H.MANDOLYN INTERNATIONAL MODE...

I have the 2500KS and it has no discernable idle noise, even when mounted in a near silent machine (the system is more or less inaudible from a meter away). It also doesn't seem to vibrate much. Although the idle noise characteristics are very good, but the seeks are clearly audible. This is when so...

I just bought a simple power meter, kind of like the well-known Kill-A-Watt. I've used it on three different systems and the reading are pretty strange. Example: Sempron 2800+ system with 300W PSU with PFC: Idle: ~20W (power factor reported as 0.24-0.33) Load (graphics and CPU): ~32W (power factor r...