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Underclock a i3 - 2120t

SavellM

SavellM

SavellM

Associate
Joined
15 Nov 2010
Posts
668
Hi guys.

Im kinda going against the trend here.
I want to underclock my i3 2120t cpu.

This is a cpu running in a HTPC so it really doesnt need to be going at full power.
It doesnt get massively warm, around 50c odd.

But I would like to underclock it a bit as well watching like a 25gb+ Blu-Ray I'm hardly utilize like 25% of one of the cores.

But I honestly have no idea where to start or how to start :)
This is running on a ROG V Gene board if it helps anyone.

Thanks :)
 
If Windows is setup properly, it'll only be clocked as high as it needs to be.

My 3220 running linux clocks anywhere between 1.6 and 3.3ghz in 100mhz steps depending on load.
 
Ye I'm running linux.
I often see it drop to 1600Mhz.

But was just wondering if I could drop it a little more, or drop the voltage to save heat.
 
SavellM said:
What would be the best way to go about this?
Click to expand...

At idle it is probably only drawing 10 (If that - my machine draws 30/31W at complete idle and 10W of that is fans!)

If you drop the voltage you might get it down a W or 2 but given I can run mine completely passively at full load is it really worth it?

Disability HT won't get you anything either.
 
Treat it the same as oc'ing really. Use the speedstep voltages/clocks settings as a starting guide. Drop the volts an increment from stock (check via cpuz/bios readings) and stress test for a bit.

You can mess about with the multi too if you like. A few ways to go about it.
Set a fixed multi at the speed you want or drop the fsb so it can throttle/increase on load level just not as high. (Don't know if sandy/ivy bioses allow you to set a max multi while leaving auto set). Disable turbo, keep c states enabled.
You may find a fixed voltage rather than offset better suited once speeds are slow enough at fixed multi or even with speedstep as the cpu can cover a range at that low voltage.

Youl find that there is simply a volt limit that the chip needs to be able to run, and near the lower boundary lower clocks are having a negligible effect on lowering voltage requirments and on power consumption/heat.
 
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If your goal is heat and running passive rather than lowering power consumption it may make a helpful difference.
 
Go for it. If you can undervolt by 10% that's 19% less power draw. Pretty large. Small in absolute terms maybe (around 5 W) but why not.

As above, take it down a few notches on the vcore, stability test (close as much stuff as possible, intel burn test, max memory, 10 loops), repeat until you get instability then put it back up a few. I would then run 100 loops at max to make sure but I do DC projects...

I would also leave speedstep and hyperthreading on.
 
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