New Build - Power consumption....how low can you go?

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 6:28 pm

hey all, I am going to be building a new computer that I can play with all the linux and BSD distro's on - I'll be having fun doing lots of test with NAS type software like Clarkconnect, FreeNAS, Openfiler, etc etc (if you know of other's pls let me know)

anyways, I'm looking to put together the lowest power computer I can. I'm not opposed to using older hardware but I'd like to have some of the newer bells and whistles (like integreated VGA and SATA)

for core components (MB and CPU) I'm considering:

A) [Socket 479] Pentium M or Celeron M (dothon or banais type) 915chipset
B) [Socket M] mobile Core (solo,duo, 2 duo) on a 945G chipset
C) [Socket AM2] Sempron (Manila) using CnQ
D) [Socket 754] mobile Turion 64 (probably MT37)

I'm not considering MINI-ITX

I'll be using a full sized ATX Seasonic as they give the best efficiency vs using a power brick and a pico type DC-DC board (correct me if I am wrong)

most important aspect is power consumption, which platform (or is there another you can recommend) has the lowest idle for 24x7 operation?

Right now I am leaning toward the AM2 or Socket 754 because it's a bit cheaper and possible to find a MB that has 4xSATA ports on it

any suggestions? I'd like to try and get a *total system* idle consumption of about 35watts with a 2.5 notebook drive

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:10 pm

Doesn't Via have CPU anymore for non-mini-ITX? I recall when I bought my Via C3-800 it was a Socket-370 and there were assorted full-sized ATX boards in that period you could put it in.

Smiling Crow had a good thread or two. You should read Green Computing and use the Search function liberally, it's a common topic but the 20 Watt range is achievable with a bit of care.

viewtopic.php?t=35472&highlight=

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:17 pm

thanks for the link, I will read up on it - hopefully I will find a solution in there

cheers!

vincentfox · Post by **vincentfox** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 7:30 pm

Thought I should add, I still have a couple of SV-24 cubes with C3-800 "Ezra" CPU's, 512 megs PC133, 40-gig laptop drives, and the predecessor to the PicoPSU. They take about 25 Watts, and performance good enough for my needs. At their age though the capacitors are starting to bulge, think I will have to send them off to BadCaps.net for replacement. Just saying nothing wrong with looking at older systems unless you have large needs Linux runs well on systems that other OS will not. I used to have a Gateway PII-333 that used about 30 Watts but got rid of it for space reason. So the 30-Watt range is not a new area to be targetting with a PC you shouldn't have too much trouble.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:10 am

Right now I am leaning toward the AM2 or Socket 754

I wouldn't get 754 because a lot of the chips had 1.1V Vcore lock that limited how much you could reduce CPU power consumption. AM2 is better because it does not have this lock. 35 watts is definitely doable, IIRC Smilingcrow made a Core Solo system that only took ~15W at idle!

sjoukew · Post by **sjoukew** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:47 am

The lowest power consumption is a VIA cpu with a via motherboard. But it isn't really fast.

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 4:53 am

sjoukew wrote:The lowest power consumption is a VIA cpu with a via motherboard. But it isn't really fast.

it also depends on the power supply and the board

the original epia 600mhz board uses about 30 watts, my epia v (800 mhz) uses about 40 watts -

Mini-itx is great - but VIA havsn't really invested as much time and energy as they should into the chips

nowadays there are systems (both amd and Intel) that will nearly match them on power consumption but blow them away in performance.

if the ITX performance was ATX who would use it?

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:34 pm

I suspect the Manila core Sempron 3000 with Crystal CPU can be set up to go slow and frugal,yet also be able to give full power when needed...plus it's real low $. Not sure which Mobo's do best with that,but typically MATX boards would best save watts. The better Gigabyte and Asus boards have stuff like 4 SATA's,4 RAM slots,better vid/aud quality. ECS makes nice stable econo boards too.

nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:04 pm

I have another question to add

strange as it may seem - my design for the case requires that I reverse the airflow through the powersupply (normally the exhaust is out the back but I need to suck air in from the 'back')

has anyone tried this before? I'd like to use a seasonic but the airflow on thier PS makes a 90 turn and I would preferr a straight through design

Palindroman · Post by **Palindroman** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:07 pm

How's about a Geode? On this German site they review a AMD Geode LX 800 and it is said to use 7 watts at idle.

But otherwise I'd recommend AM2.

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nzimmers · Post by **nzimmers** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:31 pm

they have the geode listed at 399 Euros on that site.... tad pricey and I'm really looking for 4 x SATA

I'm seriously looking at AM2 but I am confused about which manila processor I should get - there's 2 Sempron 3200's listed on newegg - both AM2 and same specifications, but one is a few dollars more......

SDA3200CWBOX - Retail (CW)

or

SDA3200CNBOX - Retail (CN)

I assume one is lower power ?

actually, here's something that I also found -

the Turion 64 MT-37 is only $69 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819103521

any maybe This ECS socket 754 motherboard

but there's no guarantee that it will work with the turion - there is a list of MB's on the internet that work with Turion's but it's OLD and all the MB's on there aren't even sold anymore!

going with an AM2 + Sempron will be approx $125

going with Socket 754 + Turion (if it works) will be approx. $120

anyone here recently purchase a 754 MB + turion 64?

New Build - Power consumption....how low can you go?

New Build - Power consumption....how low can you go?

cool

how about power supply

EEEK!