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CPU Power usage

Chris_83

Chris_83

Chris_83

Associate
Joined
6 Apr 2007
Posts
306
Location
Hull, UK
Following on from a thread on one of the other boards about me building a small file server, it was suggested that instead of getting one of the VIA EPIA boards, just getting some normal hardware would be more cost effective. However the main issues still remain a computer thats on 24/7 mostly in an idle state and heat/noise.

I've been looking around at some different CPU's, mainly the new E1200 and Sempron 3000. However I'm struggling to get any power usage data on these chips (more the E1200 than anything else). Anyone point me in the direction of some? Google is not being my friend :(.
 
Chris_83 said:
Following on from a thread on one of the other boards about me building a small file server, it was suggested that instead of getting one of the VIA EPIA boards, just getting some normal hardware would be more cost effective. However the main issues still remain a computer thats on 24/7 mostly in an idle state and heat/noise.

I've been looking around at some different CPU's, mainly the new E1200 and Sempron 3000. However I'm struggling to get any power usage data on these chips (more the E1200 than anything else). Anyone point me in the direction of some? Google is not being my friend :(.
Click to expand...
E2100 is 65W I believe
And the Sempron according to the AMD data sheet is 20W?
 
you could underclock & undervolt if the machine isnt going to be put to any real use apart from fileserving which would allow you to run the fan at a lower speed (7volt mod?) so you would get the benefit of lower powerusage heat and noise.

an alternative would be to use a nas enclosure or if your router allows plug in a usb based hard drive?
 
As noted above, undervolting and underclocking are going to be your friends if you're only interested in fileserving. I have an E2140 cpu which is the same stepping, architecture and speed as the 1200, just more cache, and I think the same specifications apply. They are specified as consuming 8W at idle, presumably with speed step enabled, which reduces the voltage about to something like 1.15v.

I tried some underclocking/undervolting experiments recently and the cpu runs perfectly with only 0.9 volts vcore with a 6x multiplier and a 200fsb or a 150fsb. At these speeds the cpu runs really cool, at idle or load, and can't be using much power although I can't give you exact values. As voltage has more of an effect on power consumption than processor speed I imagine at idle the cpu is using far less than its standard 8W. At 0.9v and 900mhz I calculated its full load consumption as about 18W.

I don't know what VIA EPIA platform uses by comparison, obviously the mobo power consumption might make a difference, but hope that helps you somewhat. Let us know how you get on, I'm considering building something similar in the future.
 
I'd go with a Athlon EE Dual Core (65nm Brisbane), 35w TDP at 2GHz.

So running at say 0.9v at 1.5GHz you'll drop well below 20W and bugger all at idle. :D
 
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