# Low powered computing on the cheap



## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

Im about to move and my power consumption has now fallen under scrutiny.

Im considering getting rid of my secondary rig and getting one of these

How cheap are ITX cases?


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

Do these boards support boot from usb?

If so the case doesnt need to have a cd drive space but it should be able to hold a 3.5 hard drive


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## ktr (Aug 7, 2008)

First of all, don't get the D201GLY2, get the newer D945GCLF.

ITX cases are not so cheap. They cost around $70+ with PSU (i say a rip off for how much material they use ). Newegg has a few itx cases, but i recommend googling around for better deals/cases...such as http://www.logicsupply.com/


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-MacsTek-Min...92|39:1|66:2|65:12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318


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## ktr (Aug 7, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> http://cgi.ebay.com/New-MacsTek-Min...92|39:1|66:2|65:12&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14.l1318



not bad...even comes with a FSP psu, which is a very good company.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

heard the 945 is very thirsty .. is the extra power worth it


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 7, 2008)

there is a few mini itx boards that have 775 sockets and 16x pci-e slots if that suits your needs. im guessing not though seeing how you want low power. however.... the 45nm chips are all pretty low power if you dont OC and keep all the cpu features turned on. the 4k ati cards also have a throttling feature that saves a ton of power in 2d mode but still allows full kick ass 3d unlike the onboard of most itx boards.


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## ktr (Aug 7, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> heard the 945 is very thirsty .. is the extra power worth it



Actually, the sis662 is more thirsty, as well as the Celeron compared to the atom. The D201GLY2 produces 20w more heat than the newer D945GCLF.

Celeron 220 - 19w TDP
Atom 230 - 4w TDP
Sis 662 - 31w TDP
945GC - 23w TDP

Most reviews for the D201GLY2 saws it uses about 45-50w of electricity

while the D945GCLF uses 35-40w electricity


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

thanks


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

anyone else?


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## FatForester (Aug 7, 2008)

+1 on the D945GCLF. If you don't want to sacrifice performance you could grab a 45nm or e2xx0 and try to undervolt it, but that'd be spending a lot more money which would defeat the purpose.


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 7, 2008)

like i said... i've seen one that is pretty new and has the g33 chipset that is far better then the ones you have been looking at. i cant seem to find it now though. my local microcenter sells them every once in a while.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

how much do they go for?


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 7, 2008)

i believe they sell for like $120-$140 at MC. im still trying to find them though. i've gotta run to MC today so hopefully i can find out for ya.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 7, 2008)

I think its a bit out of budget as i have a few other thing dealing with as u know


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 8, 2008)

saw them todat fit?


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 8, 2008)

none in stock and they have no idea on the arrive time. $139.99 + tax and shipping though. 

intel g33 itx board
16x pci-e slot
2x ddr2 slots
7.1ch hd audio w/opt & coax out
gbe 10/100/1000
onboard video
775 socket


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 8, 2008)

and.... i found this...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1050640

^^^ i'd DEFINITELY get that for sure.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 8, 2008)

definately over budget and over power consumption


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 8, 2008)

aw come on.. thats a sick ass board for the size.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 8, 2008)

i know, its jsut that i have a lot of things going no right now 

this
my psu is dead
plus my e6400 has been sold and i need to get a replacement chip

i want to go quad, which is more motivation to have an energy efficient rig for browsing ... electric bills in ja are stunning


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 8, 2008)

get that board, an e7200/e8400/e8200, and a single 2gig stick of ram. use the stock intel cooler and you can get away with a 200watt psu.

cost on the other hand... prolly over budget.... but thats how i roll.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 8, 2008)

i want to go quad for my main rig, which is more motivation to have an energy efficient rig for browsing ... electric bills in Jamaica are stunning.


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 8, 2008)

change all your light bulbs to the new fluorescent 13w ones. my bill is $40 lower a month and we leave the lights on all the time and the AC runs NON STOP. my bill is $51 a month in the summer.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 8, 2008)

Ive done that and i have no a/c


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 10, 2008)

hows this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130166

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103197

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371005

choice gleamed from this

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Atom-Efficient,1981-13.html


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## Katanai (Aug 11, 2008)

How about this? 

http://www.dell.com/content/product...o-hybrid?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=designtab

It's fairly new so I don't know the exact specs but seeing how small it is I doubt that it draws much power. If you can stomach the styling it could be a good secondary PC.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 11, 2008)

whats the price on that?


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## Katanai (Aug 11, 2008)

I dunno exactly but from reading a bit more about it I think it's waay too much. Did you ever considered a Via Nano? Via has some awesome mini boards out there which don't consume that much power and are much better than the Atom platform. Don't be fooled by the fact that the Nano consumes more power than the Atom. The north bridge on the Atom platform probably consumes more than both put together...


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 11, 2008)

the via itx boards cost like 200+ dollars .. that could sort out a sempron 780g and a hard drive with change .. are they a significant difference to previous options?


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 15, 2008)

read this

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997.html


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Aug 15, 2008)

no one interested in low powered computing?


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## Fitseries3 (Aug 15, 2008)

i like that intel p45 board.. but i guess thats not low power.


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## peach1971 (Aug 22, 2008)

[I.R.A]_FBi said:


> read this
> 
> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997.html









My Athlon X2 4850e system sucks 97W idle (IGP switched off in BIOS) http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=937696&postcount=2
That means my HD3850 needs more power in idle than the whole rest of the system. Gotcha!
I guess I need to undervolt my video card for 2D mode...

First of all I will take out the HD3850 for new power measurements.
If there only was an option for switching off the video card from PEG slot and power connection!


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## xfire (Aug 22, 2008)

You should try going the AMD way, the IGP's are good and require lesser power.
Also use of Linux reduces the system resource hogging and Cool and Quite works very well with Linux.


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Sep 10, 2008)

hmmm .. now a dual core atom now makes everything more interesting ...


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## peach1971 (Sep 10, 2008)

AMD Bulldozer > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer_(processor)


> Bulldozer is the codename AMD has given to one of the next-generation CPU cores after the K10 microarchitecture for the company's M-SPACE design methodology, with the core specifically aimed at 10 watt to 100 watt TDP computing products. Bulldozer is a completely new design developed from the ground up. AMD claims dramatic performance-per-watt improvements in HPC applications with Bulldozer cores. [1] Products implementing the Bulldozer core are planned for release in 2010. [2]
> 
> The Bulldozer core, under the M-SPACE design method, can also to be paired with at least one full DirectX compatible GPU core (though AMD did not specify the compatible GPUs, it was presumed to be based on Radeon GPUs), to become part of the Falcon family, a product under the codename "Fusion" label. A new architecture, codenamed Sandtiger, with 8 to 16 Bulldozer cores was also in the works, optimized for servers and HPC applications. The Bulldozer cores will also implement a new iteration of Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) with 170 new instructions, named SSE5.




AMD Bobcat, 1.0 GHz, *8W* TPD






*COMING NOVEMER 2008:
AMD "Ultra-Value Client" series*
AMD Athlon 2650e (Lima 65nm), 1.6 GHz, *15W* TPD
AMD Athlon X2 3250e (Brisbane 65nm), 1.5 GHz, *22W* TPD

*Sources:*
http://www.computerbase.de/news/har...08/september/amd_15-_22-watt-athlon_november/
http://www.computerbase.de/news/hardware/prozessoren/amd/2008/juli/amds_atom-konkurrent_bobcat/
(language  >german)


*Comment:*
Coming to such low TPDs like the Atom´s (2.5W, right?) moves the *focus* more and more on *other components sucking energy* (chipset etc.), doesn´t it?


*BTW: Dear motherboard and video card manufacturers:
Would you please give us all an option to fully disable video cards when we just want to click through the web only using our IGPs?? *


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## [I.R.A]_FBi (Sep 30, 2008)

any more additions?


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## Boyfriend (May 15, 2009)

OK!
Can I use D945GCLF for internet browsing (along with AV+Firewall like KIS 2009)+DVD watching (DVD-9 probably in high quality with PowerDVD 9)+music listening and other day-to-day tasks. Can it deal with all of the above mentioned (especially AV and DVD) well without any problem or slow down. I am mostly concerned about DVD quality on Atom


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