Many thanks for you reply
JamieG. Yes, I've missed it before reading and searching articles in English, so sorry for it.
ilovejedd, I'll try to reply you of the HTPC issue with some maths on €/kWh.
Saosin, please follow closer this post and think what I have asked you: does it worth to change? If you are not caring about money, well... no doubt about it! xD Instead, take a look closer to the reasoning. Also, ask yourself if anybody will buy your actual sys /try to sell your actual sys.
Heck, for me, even a Celeron E3200/E3300 would be sufficient and that's probably what I'd use given the lower power consumption and price point. There's also the advantage that all Celeron E3000 models have VT-x support while only some select Pentium E5000 processors have it.
I don't think there are many e5300 of the "old ones", because the one I've buyed has vt-x (BX80571E5300, SLGTL). When I was buying it, I hadn't looked on the model because I was not planning to run virtual machines on HTPC/Pc for every day as well as I do not run them actually on my Game/Pc for every day.
Then,
I have found the post that
Inigx said about unRAID forums (whose nickname is Romir). His/her mobo has the chipset G33, for which as sayed on motherboards SPCR forum:
G33: 14.5 W, 5.75 W, with 333 MHz FSB
So taking his/her measurements:
e5200 2.5ghz, 2MB L2, 800mhz FSB, 45nm Wolfdale.
1.15 VID @ min 6x multi (1.2ghz). 1.25 VID @ max 12.5 (2.5ghz). Poor idle vid sample.
36w idle with one core disabled in bios
50w prime95 load with one core disabled in bios
36w idle with both cores enabled
64w prime95 load with both cores enabled
@load 100%: 64-14,5 = ~50 Watts
@idle: 36-5,75 = ~30 Watss
which are almost JamieG ones, and resembles de 20W difference load-idle showed on Xbit labs.
So then, the difference at load between i3 530/540 with e5xxx will be around 20W.
Also, as sayed on mobos SPCR thread: "Max TDP for the latest Intel socket 1156 chipsets H55, H57 and Q57 is 5.2 / 5.2 / 5.1W". Then if you go for Zotac H55 it will be at load: CPU 28.8W + H55 5.2W = 34W. No more chips (IGP is on CPU, no northbridge), just we need to add the Watss from RAM and the peak Wattage of HDDs to have the total Watts at load.
Now, lets move to
bit-tech Zotac 9300 review power consumption. It has an e5200.
The power is: 80W load / 55W idle, so if you substract the e5200, then for 9300 "all-in-one" chip: 80-50= 30W load / 55-30 = 25W idle.
Now that we have all the numbers, the difference between Zotac 9300+e5200+ etc / Zotac H55 + i3 530/540 +etc will be around 40-43W at load. About idle for the H55 sys maybe will have 25 Watss? So at idle we have 30 Watss of difference.
Then, running sys 24/7, 50% of the times load 50% times idle it will make a difference ~35 W.
If I am not wrong, all this measures are Watts per hour, and in Spain I think the Kilowatt/hour is around 0,10-0,11€ (1€ ~ 1,43$) => 0,10-0,11€/kWh. => 0,0001-0,00011€/Wh if I am not wrong.
One year has 365 days x24 hours/day = 8760 hours have a year
Lets suppose that you use the sys 24/7 at full load:
Zotac H55: ~37W/h x 0,11€ /kWh x8760 hours = 35,65 € per year
Zotac 9300: ~80W/h x 0,11€ /kWh x8760 hours = 77 € per year
difference = 41,35 €
1 year and some months to recover the money
Lets suppose that you use the sys 24/7 at idle:
Zotac H55: ~20W/h x 0,11€ /kWh x8760 hours = 19,27 € per year
Zotac H55: ~25W/h x 0,11€ /kWh x8760 hours = 24,09 € per year
Zotac 9300: ~55W/h x 0,11€ /kWh x8760 hours = 53 € per year
difference = 29€ - 34€
~ 2 years to recover the money
So, does it worth? The numbers have proven that I am wrong
providing you are going to use the sys as described, so yes, as the numbers resembles it is worth.
4 hours/day at full load => 1460 hours/year
difference at load = 12,848 - 5.9422 = 6.9058 ~ 6.91€. The difference is 50€ between CPUs, so 50/6.91 = 7,23 years!!
6 hours/day at full load => 2190 hours/year
difference at load = 19,272 - 8,9133 = 10,3587 ~ 10,36€. The difference is 50€ between CPUs, so ~ 5 years.
8 hours/day at full load => 2920 hours/year
difference at load 2 x 6.91€ = 13,82€. The difference is 50€ between CPUs, so 50/13,82 ~ 3,62 years (more than 3 years and 6 months)
Notice that with idle loads the results are a ~25% more of the years calculated.
Summing up, for an average HTPC ussage like 8 hours per day providing you use it is always at full load, probably when 3,62 years have passed, maybe you have in mind to change your HTPC sys, so IMHO, I don't think now it would be a good idea to buy H55 + i3 530/540 as the numbers says. If the prices will go down in 6-8 months, well... maybe the maths resembles that yes, it will be worth, so by then, I'll be wrong
Hope to have been usefull
Javier