is the 90nm athlon64 a good undervolter at stock speed?

dan · Post by **dan** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 11:38 am

i know that with 90nm products, current leakage is a problem, but amd builds its athlon 64 "winchestor" cores with 90nm SOI technology.

overclockers claims it can be as much as 50% overclocked, with aggressive cooling and overvolting. generally, good overclockers are good undervolters.

the stock speed of the athlon64 3000+ is 1.8ghz, and stock voltage is 1.5volts. i think 1.8ghz PC3200 dual channel is fine, but can the cpu be stably undervolted while maintaining 1.8ghz speed and retail heatsink/fan? are any nforce 3 ultra motherboards good and stable with undervolting, such as the gigabyte?

if 50% speed overclocks are possible with increase in cooling and vcore voltage, is 50% decrease power consumption (which reduces to square of vcore) possible at stock voltage and heatsink/fan?

since www.overclockers.com has a "overclocker's" database, i wonder whether spcr could have "undervolter's" database, in which posters post their experience with undervolting/power reduction with particular cpus.

does anyone have an undervolted winchestor core they could post their vcore and power consumption and mhz speed?

ilh · Post by **ilh** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 12:00 pm

I've got a Winchester 3500+ due to arrive tomorrow for my DFI Ultra-D. I'll try undervolting it over the weekend. I believe the DFI's Vcore can go as low as 0.8V, so that shouldn't be a limitation.

I think Winchesters default to 1.4V, whereas the Newcastle is 1.5V.

--Lee

ilh · Post by **ilh** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:32 am

I was able to get into Windows and run some things at 1.2V (indicated as 1.16V in various monitoring programs) and 200x10 on my 3500+, but it wasn't prime stable. In my 15C ambient, out of a case, my CPU temps dropped from about 32C to 24C with the stock HSF running at minimal speed.

I don't know of the motherboard is undervolting or misreporting voltages.

I've gone back up to stock for now and tweaking things to get that the way I want. Later, I'll explore undervolting/underclocking some more.

Not that I really have much to compare it to, but my S12 500W seems pretty quiet. I'm sure it is running at its minimum fan speed. I'm not in a terribly quiet room though. A WD2500JB (temporary!) just idling is by far the loudest thing on my desk right now.

--Lee

acaurora · Post by **acaurora** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:34 am

ilh wrote:I've got a Winchester 3500+ due to arrive tomorrow for my DFI Ultra-D. I'll try undervolting it over the weekend. I believe the DFI's Vcore can go as low as 0.8V, so that shouldn't be a limitation.

I think Winchesters default to 1.4V, whereas the Newcastle is 1.5V.

--Lee

I don't know if this is particularly relevant, but Dan was asking for any good overclockable NF3 boards, not NF4.

JimK · Post by **JimK** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 6:55 pm

Dan,

I know you are looking at a Winchester 939 but did you see Ed's Newcastle 754 writeup he posted today? Has some nice undervolting and underclocking data.

AndyP · Post by **AndyP** » Mon Feb 21, 2005 10:09 pm

I can vouch for that motherboard cpu combination, very impressive performance, very low price.

There just aren't any good 939 NForce3 motherboards that a Thermalright XP120 will fit. The Dfi NForce4 boards also seem to have some teething problems with memory compatability (see Anandtech forums).

Its very likely the Winchester Amd's are better than the Newcastle's. But the Newcastle is so good that for most silent pc users the difference is probably not worth the motherboard struggle. Currently I'm running a 3000 Newcastle under 1.2v at stock speeds folding 100% with CPU temps of 40C (its cold here and I've got to much cooling!).

So maybe you don't need a 939 and can save a bundle and follow Ed's route - just something to consider...