underclocking a HTPC

gam3r · 22 Oct 2006 at 10:58

These parts are on their way to me at the moment:

AMD Opteron 144
MSI-RS482M4-ILD
DDR400 PC3200 512MB Crucial

They are all for a HTPC, and i was reading around and found out that a lot of people choose to underclock their CPU's when using them for HTPC's to reduce their heat output.

This lead me to wonder what would be an acceptable underclock for an Opty 144 which wouldn't compromise too much on the power, but still reduce heat by a few degrees?

Has anyone ever underclocked one of these, if so is it worth the hassle?

Cheers guys!

Bomag · 22 Oct 2006 at 12:51

Just enable cool and quiet in BIOS and load the cpu driver. Unless you are playing back h.264 HD video it will spend most of the time at 1Ghz 1.1v and run 5-10C cooler.

gam3r · 22 Oct 2006 at 13:53

Cool, thanks for the reply...

The driver for cool n quiet is that avaiable on AMD's website? And no, i won't be playing h.264 at all...no hdtv

A.N.Other · 22 Oct 2006 at 14:41

gam3r said:
Cool, thanks for the reply... The driver for cool n quiet is that avaiable on AMD's website? And no, i won't be playing h.264 at all...no hdtv

Get it from the AMD driver download page.

The opty bit is here.

gam3r · 22 Oct 2006 at 14:46

Thanks again

AMD Opteron™ Processor PowerNow! Driver for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Version (exe) 1.3.1

That the one? The other ones are for linux :confused:

Cyber-Mav · 22 Oct 2006 at 14:55

doubt u need to underclock. all i had to do was undervolt. my opteron is fully stable at 2.74ghz running 1.275v. im sure your opteron would be easily stable at something like 2ghz at 1.1v possibly even less.,