low power build thoughts

Got a shopping cart of parts that you want opinions on? Get advice from members on your planned or existing system (or upgrade).

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

low power build thoughts

Post by Zargon » Mon Feb 22, 2010 2:54 pm

Purchased:Case:
Antec P180 Mini

HDD's:
Primary: 30GB SSD OCZ Vertex
Secondary:320 GB Seagate Momentus 5400.6

CPU:
AMD Athlon II X240 Regor(undervolted and downclocked)
Xigmatek HDT-S1283 R

Mobo:
GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H


Not Purchased:
PSU:
Antec Earthwatts 380D or another ~300W 80+ PSU in the 40 buck range
maybe electrodacus's PSU?

I need a second NIC for some VPN/routing purposes, but am not sure whats a good one for power consumption.
Last edited by Zargon on Sat Mar 13, 2010 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

Parappaman
Posts: 419
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:30 am
Location: Italy

Post by Parappaman » Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:41 am

Seasonic S12II 330w for PSU, Scythe Ninja II for passive cooling (just to be safe, as I think even the stock HS with the fan disconnected will be enough on that cpu!).

HFat
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:27 am
Location: Switzerland

Post by HFat » Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:47 am

Do any of you know the low-wattage efficiencies of these PSUs?

Any experience or links for passive cooling experiments with that CPU? I doubt it'd work in every case, even with a huge heatsink.

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:06 am

thanks for the suggestion.

newegg needs to put it on a free shipping sale so I can snag it!

my current PC is idling at ~125w. by idle I of course mean running the junk it always runs, none of which is very intensive.

if I could get this new one to to do 45w that would be great.

save me 11 bucks a month at winter electricity rates

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:07 am

HFat wrote:Do any of you know the low-wattage efficiencies of these PSUs?

Any experience or links for passive cooling experiments with that CPU? I doubt it'd work in every case, even with a huge heatsink.
I have seen posts from a few guys wth the x2 240 running them at stock speed at <.9v

I figure with .8ishv and turning the clock down, it shouldnt be an issue with a big HS in the p180 mini, since it has good flow and Ill leave the fans on low...


here is the toms hardware review of the seasonic:
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsu ... 6&p=8&cp=2

HFat
Posts: 1753
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2008 4:27 am
Location: Switzerland

Post by HFat » Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:09 am

It ain't passive if your huge case fans are blowing on the heatsink!

I think it would be interesting to see what temps you get with the fans off. With the CPU underclocked and undervolted and a case that's vented at the top, it might work.

bonestonne
Posts: 1839
Joined: Mon Feb 05, 2007 2:10 pm
Location: Northern New Jersey
Contact:

Post by bonestonne » Tue Feb 23, 2010 8:01 am

What about a PICO? remove a fan, increase efficiency, and remove a lot of heat in the process...

PICO 80 could do that easily, you could even get the wide input model to use it with almost all bricks...

It's not even that demanding, a PICO could even drop power usage beyond a conventional PSU.

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:42 pm

its a possibility.

I'm not all that familiar with them however.

aren't they a little pricier?

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:43 pm

HFat wrote:It ain't passive if your huge case fans are blowing on the heatsink!

I think it would be interesting to see what temps you get with the fans off. With the CPU underclocked and undervolted and a case that's vented at the top, it might work.
:lol: shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


I would be willing to try it, for no other reason and checking how the temps do

surrealillusion
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2009 8:18 am
Location: Canada

Post by surrealillusion » Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:11 pm

Zargon wrote:
HFat wrote:Do any of you know the low-wattage efficiencies of these PSUs?

Any experience or links for passive cooling experiments with that CPU? I doubt it'd work in every case, even with a huge heatsink.
I have seen posts from a few guys wth the x2 240 running them at stock speed at <.9v

I figure with .8ishv and turning the clock down, it shouldnt be an issue with a big HS in the p180 mini, since it has good flow and Ill leave the fans on low...


here is the toms hardware review of the seasonic:
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsu ... 6&p=8&cp=2
That might be hit and miss on getting the CPU to run under .9V. I managed to get mine down to 1.125 in the BIOS and tested with an overnight burn in of Prime95 so I wouldn't encounter any surprises. Going below 1V causes black screens on boot, but the wattage gains were minimal at best by that point (1-2W at most).

I noticed 2-3W variance in running XP vs Vista though (XP giving me lower idle power consumption).

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:18 pm

interesting.

Im willing to clock it down some too

the xigmatek cooler and my ram got here today :)

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Fri Mar 05, 2010 9:24 am

any thoughts on this combo?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDeal ... mbo.344672


with the second core unlocked how much faster is the 240?

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:26 am

everything is here, and its going together.

should have pics and kill a watt #'s soon!

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Mon Apr 05, 2010 5:41 am

no OS yet

idlign in the mid 60's on stock volts

hybrid2d4x4
Posts: 310
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 1:45 pm
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Post by hybrid2d4x4 » Mon Apr 05, 2010 11:42 am

It should go down when you get the OS loaded and C&Q (CPU throttling/undervolting) takes effect. :)

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:35 pm

sweet. now only if I could

getting wierd errors trying to get anything loaded.

viewtopic.php?p=505994#505994

I may pull the sata dvd drive out of another machine, as I dont have the cable to use the ide one I had planned on using

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:34 pm

moving the hdd to another port once I got server installed fixed the boot wierdness

and a new DVD drive, an asus burner thats short enough to fit up top of the p180 mini

46w at idle with everything stock!

once I get it alil more configured we'll see how it does

and I will start to undervolt it some, maybe clock it down too

greenfrank
Posts: 101
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2009 2:32 pm
Location: Mexico

Post by greenfrank » Wed Apr 14, 2010 5:03 pm

having a similar "regor" rig, maybe my experience could help you:

viewtopic.php?t=58228

with a good undervoltage you can idle at a 30w ish level.

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Wed Apr 14, 2010 6:59 pm

reading it now thanks!

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Post by Zargon » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:16 pm

very minor undervolting(mine doesnt seem to want to go to far) got me a comfy 40w idle

I had it in the low 30's but it wasnt acting all that stable. I am also not sure that the undervolt tool was really doing what it was supposed to.

any tips in that area would be appreciated

since it replaced something in the 130-150w range I suppose I shouldnt fuss with it much more. now I just need a different monitor for it, not that I use it much, but a 21" viewsonic tube surely is gobbling power when its on.

Zargon
Posts: 77
Joined: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:00 am
Location: Urbana, IL

Re: low power build thoughts

Post by Zargon » Fri May 13, 2011 8:15 am

wow I need to find my pictures and post them, cant believe I forgot!

this box is about to WHS or freeNAS, so its HDD setups are going to change significantly

Post Reply