Media PC 3.0

[suraswami]

Nice work there Mussels. I wish I had the time when I built my HTPC with Blueray and HDDVD playing capabilities last Thanksgiving.

Lately I had issue with DolbyTrueHD and DTS-HD sound decoding and this is how it was solved. May be it will be helpful for somebody.

Problem
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74282

Solution
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1072252

I am using Slysoft's Reclock and it is working wonderfully. It seems its a beta version and will expire end of January 2009. So until then enjoy.

 

[Mussels]

Nice work there Mussels. I wish I had the time when I built my HTPC with Blueray and HDDVD playing capabilities last Thanksgiving.

Lately I had issue with DolbyTrueHD and DTS-HD sound decoding and this is how it was solved. May be it will be helpful for somebody.

Problem
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74282

Solution
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1072252

I am using Slysoft's Reclock and it is working wonderfully. It seems its a beta version and will expire end of January 2009. So until then enjoy.

I cant test anything with that, as i dont use HDMI audio. Thanks for providing the links anyway.

 

[DrunkenMafia]

ahah! more OCing! this time, the onboard video.

The motherboard BIOS lets you change from 150MHz GPU core to 1100MHz, with stock being 500. The box even states you can OC Upto 950MHz and achieve 2000 3dmarks with a phenom, so i'll damn well try and beat that

I ran a 3dmark on all stock, and got a measly 1200 points. Poor DrunkenMafia.

next of all, i cranked it straight to 850Mhz because i liked the number: its stable!
overall 3dmark score: 1344

terrible! i want more! i want.... 1GHz!

*reboots*
NB voltage to 1.40V, GPU to 1Ghz
System boots.
System load windows.
success! i have gotten faster than teh cardboard box states i can!

*runs 3dmark*
1377
bah! low gains!

time to add the CPU OC into the mix.
CPU: 2.62GHz
Ram: 866MHz
GPU 1000MHz

and the final score is... *drumroll*

Man!! I must be doing something wrong. The first board I had, the rev 1. I upped the fsb to 220 and the thing crashed and died!! I think there was another issue with that board though.

This rev 2.0 I have. I can't boot above 210 fsb. maybe I didn't put the nb volts up.

What were all your settings for the other crap .. ht, memory freq etc... ?? did you leave all those on auto?

its been a while.

And I am going to have a look at my box when I get home. I didn't realise you could oc the GFX that much with a stock cooler.

What are your NB temps like??? just curious.

 

[Mussels]

Man!! I must be doing something wrong. The first board I had, the rev 1. I upped the fsb to 220 and the thing crashed and died!! I think there was another issue with that board though.

This rev 2.0 I have. I can't boot above 210 fsb. maybe I didn't put the nb volts up.

What were all your settings for the other crap .. ht, memory freq etc... ?? did you leave all those on auto?

its been a while.

And I am going to have a look at my box when I get home. I didn't realise you could oc the GFX that much with a stock cooler.

What are your NB temps like??? just curious.

everthing was on auto. with a 120mm fan perched near the NB and running at about 600rpm, NB temps were around 70C. the fan was barely moving air at that speed tho.

 

[SkyKast]

looking great awesome to see you OCing in action, you really pumped the hell out of it lol

 

[Mussels]

looking great awesome to see you OCing in action, you really pumped the hell out of it lol

250MHz GPU + 1000MHz CPU + 500MHz DDR2 ram plays that trailer just fine.

Then i clock it to 1000MHz / 2600MHz / 866MHz... and despite tripling the power usage, nothing runs any faster. sigh.

 

[SkyKast]

thats good.....save power and get the same performance? that sounds great to me!

 

[Mussels]

thats good.....save power and get the same performance? that sounds great to me!

and for yet another random idea, i'm about to slap a windows 7 beta on there and see how she performs.

 

[SkyKast]

oh sweet I have been really interested in seeing this in action!

 

[Mussels]

oh sweet I have been really interested in seeing this in action!

i got a copy of the beta ISO at the last lan, i assume it'll last for 30 days without a key just like vista does, which is long enough to mess around with it. i'm just curious as to whats new, especially in changes to the media center features.

 

[SkyKast]

i got a copy of the beta ISO at the last lan, i assume it'll last for 30 days without a key just like vista does, which is long enough to mess around with it. i'm just curious as to whats new, especially in changes to the media center features.

I think i remember hearing that 70%+ of their research for 7 went towards media

 

[Mussels]

just because i can, i've decided on a final strategy.

SO far i've learned this PC can run as low as 50W, at 1.5GHz and below. below 1.5GHz, PSU inefficency kicked in and negated any further power reduction.
It can also run at 2.65GHz stable, without overheating. (albeit, at 125W)

So... lets go for both at once, shall we?

Combining RMclock and my OC, i've done the following.

• System boots at 250x8 (2GHz) on auto CPU voltages. Ram is at 866Mhz (its stable)
• RMclock then kicks in, raising the multi to 10.5 (CPU max) and voltage to 1.328V
• RMclock then uses its automatic adjustments, dropping to 1.25GHz (5x250) at 0.9v
• system runs cool and low power at idle/watching movies, and clocks right up when needed (which is... well, never)

end result: a smart PC that does exactly what i want, when i want it... and doesnt waste any power doing it. pity this doesnt help the pathetic 3dmark 06 score.


Edit: managed to get max stable OC (2.625GHz) voltage down to 1.325v. stock volts for 500MHz more? win!
(not to mention its load temp is 38C in everest (15C in coretemp, but thats obviously wrong)

 

[SkyKast]

wow thats an amazing OC you just made it really smart and PERFECT for media!

nice job

 

[theJesus]

Wow, that's pretty awesome that you can run it so well at such low frequencies and power consumption. I may have to think about that whenever I actually have to pay for my power usage I think I may just find an apartment with utils included in rent when I move out

@SkyKast: I like your new avvy

 

[Mussels]

thanks jesus. i attempted this with my last (939) built but fell apart on a few things.
it had no onboard video, and the BIOS wouldnt go below 1.10V (even through RMclock) which meant power savings were basically nil due to that, it just wouldnt drop below 75W or so.

 

[theJesus]

75w still isn't bad I don't think. lol, there's single components still that can use up more than that.

 

[Mussels]

75w still isn't bad I don't think. lol, there's single components still that can use up more than that.

yeah but i pay my own power bills. i realised early on having my 200-300W rig downloading overnight was a bad idea.

 

[SkyKast]

yeah but i pay my own power bills. i realised early on having my 200-300W rig downloading overnight was a bad idea.

haha yeah I bet

isnt it funny how you pay so much more attension to your phone/power bills if you pay them yourself lol

 

[theJesus]

lol, I'm really surprised that my parents haven't complained to me about their electricity bill yet. I leave my setup running 24/7

 

[SkyKast]

lol, I'm really surprised that my parents haven't complained to me about their electricity bill yet. I leave my setup running 24/7

I dot leave it running I put it to sleep every night and when Im at school but its not all the way off...if there is a difference

 

[Mussels]

hey skykast... you'll need a new avatar. thejesus is already in this thread.

sleep mode uses the same power as off on my PC's, maybe 1-2w more. (they all use 5W or so, remember the onboard LED's and stuff)

 

[SkyKast]

hey skykast... you'll need a new avatar. thejesus is already in this thread.

sleep mode uses the same power as off on my PC's, maybe 1-2w more. (they all use 5W or so, remember the onboard LED's and stuff)

well I asked him if he minded that we had almost the same themes avvy and he didnt respond so...

hey skykast... you'll need a new avatar. thejesus is already in this thread.

sleep mode uses the same power as off on my PC's, maybe 1-2w more. (they all use 5W or so, remember the onboard LED's and stuff)

oh i see thanks for the info

 

[Mussels]

the key thing with sleep mode is S1 or S3 - most bioses have the option to choose which one (gigabytes default to S1)

S1, fans remain spinning - more or less only the screen and HDD's power down.

S3, the system might as well be off. no fans, no lights, nothing. a few watts are used to maintain data in ram, thats it.

 

[SkyKast]

oh well I dont remember changing anything and my fans definitely stop...

 

[Mussels]

oh well I dont remember changing anything and my fans definitely stop...

some boards have auto, so you mighta got lucky

if the fans stop, consider it good.