Higher power consumption in idle than load
Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 1:54 pm
I finally built my NAS/browsing/music/seed box. It's made of:
Noah 3988 (80W PSU + power brick) case, Jetway NC62K, AMD 4450e + fanless stock cooler, 1 TB WD GP drive (3 platter), Prodigy HD2 sound card (tight fit, the case doesn't officially support 3,5" HDD + PCI card + riser).
Everything is working fine, the problem is with measured power consumption. I'm using this device, a cheap (~30$) power meter. It seems accurate enough, I measured a 60W light bulb and it showed 57-58W.
Ok, so measuring the power consumption gives me strange figures:
0. Everything stock: 4450e @ 2.3 Ghz and 1.25V, C'n'Q disabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle (2.3Ghz @ 1.25V): 29W
playing HD movie (2.3Ghz @ 1.25V): 38-44 W
1. Everything stock: 4450e @ 2.3 Ghz and 1.25V, C'n'Q enabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle (1.0Ghz @ 1.1V because of C'n'Q): 44 W
playing HD movie (2.3Ghz @ 1.25V): 32-38 W
2. Undervolting in BIOS: 4450e @ 2.3 Ghz and 1.15V, C'n'Q enabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle (1.0Ghz @ 1.0V because of C'n'Q): 42 W
playing HD movie (2.3Ghz @ 1.15V): 27-32 W
3. Underclocking and undervolting in BIOS: 4450e @ 1.0 Ghz and 0.800, C'n'Q enabled/disabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle: 40 W
playing HD movie (1.0 Ghz @ 1.0V): 24-28 W - slideshow
* playing HD movie = Coral Reef Adventure trailer (used in SPCR reviews)
I've tried the same settings (1-3) with CrystalCPUID and I get the same results. RMClock crashes after a few seconds, but seems to cause the same behavior.
While playing around with CrystalCPUID I got at one point a normal behavior: 20-22W in idle, 25-30 during HD playback, but after a restart, using the same settings I was back to 40W in idle.
Voltages are confirmed by CPUID and AMD Hardware Monitor. All measurement are made with the chipset and RAM undervolted to the lowest values available in BIOS.
Later edit: I've sent an e-mail to Jetway technical support and got a surprisingly well documented e-mail (some much better regarded brands have failed me with standard responses - "undervolting is bad, mkay?").
Noah 3988 (80W PSU + power brick) case, Jetway NC62K, AMD 4450e + fanless stock cooler, 1 TB WD GP drive (3 platter), Prodigy HD2 sound card (tight fit, the case doesn't officially support 3,5" HDD + PCI card + riser).
Everything is working fine, the problem is with measured power consumption. I'm using this device, a cheap (~30$) power meter. It seems accurate enough, I measured a 60W light bulb and it showed 57-58W.
Ok, so measuring the power consumption gives me strange figures:
0. Everything stock: 4450e @ 2.3 Ghz and 1.25V, C'n'Q disabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle (2.3Ghz @ 1.25V): 29W
playing HD movie (2.3Ghz @ 1.25V): 38-44 W
1. Everything stock: 4450e @ 2.3 Ghz and 1.25V, C'n'Q enabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle (1.0Ghz @ 1.1V because of C'n'Q): 44 W
playing HD movie (2.3Ghz @ 1.25V): 32-38 W
2. Undervolting in BIOS: 4450e @ 2.3 Ghz and 1.15V, C'n'Q enabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle (1.0Ghz @ 1.0V because of C'n'Q): 42 W
playing HD movie (2.3Ghz @ 1.15V): 27-32 W
3. Underclocking and undervolting in BIOS: 4450e @ 1.0 Ghz and 0.800, C'n'Q enabled/disabled, AMD Driver installed:
idle: 40 W
playing HD movie (1.0 Ghz @ 1.0V): 24-28 W - slideshow
* playing HD movie = Coral Reef Adventure trailer (used in SPCR reviews)
I've tried the same settings (1-3) with CrystalCPUID and I get the same results. RMClock crashes after a few seconds, but seems to cause the same behavior.
While playing around with CrystalCPUID I got at one point a normal behavior: 20-22W in idle, 25-30 during HD playback, but after a restart, using the same settings I was back to 40W in idle.
Voltages are confirmed by CPUID and AMD Hardware Monitor. All measurement are made with the chipset and RAM undervolted to the lowest values available in BIOS.
Later edit: I've sent an e-mail to Jetway technical support and got a surprisingly well documented e-mail (some much better regarded brands have failed me with standard responses - "undervolting is bad, mkay?").
Any ideas? Could the MB be faulty?I had use the watt meter to measure the NC62K power consumption .
I am sorry , I really can't see your problem in here .
The Vcore 1.1 V and 1.25V seem has not apparent different .
this is test environment and result refer to you .
Athlon64X2 4450E / A03 BIOS / NC62KR20 mainboard / ASUS DVD-RW
/ Seagate 3.5 inch 80G HDD / 400W power supply / Adata DDR2-800 512M X1
CPU Vcore measured Window Vista Idle power consumption
1.25V (3dmark2006) 1.26V 58W max (heavy loading)
1.25V (CnQ) 1V 27~28W
1.1V (3dmark2006) 1.1V 55W max (heavy loading)
1.1V (CnQ) 0.85V 27W
1.25V (S1) 1.26V 23W
1.25V (S3) 0V Under 1W
Power off 0V Under 1W
Attached our Power consumption report refer to you .