low power chipsets - ideas

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Keiron

Hello all,

I'm looking for a motherboard with the AMD 780G chipset as I understand
this offers unrivaled features and low power consumption. However, I also
understand that this was the case in 2008. Are there significantly better
chipsets with this low power:feature ratio now? I'm looking to use it
with an AMD Athlon 64 2000+; yep, the 8Watt cpu, so if I can get a 780G
somewhere so much the better as anything newer would be overkill ....
unless it's an absolute bargin!

So comments on 780G, similar and other chipsets, places to purchase a
board in the UK.

Cheers
 
Keiron said:
Hello all,

I'm looking for a motherboard with the AMD 780G chipset as I understand
this offers unrivaled features and low power consumption. However, I also
understand that this was the case in 2008. Are there significantly better
chipsets with this low power:feature ratio now? I'm looking to use it
with an AMD Athlon 64 2000+; yep, the 8Watt cpu, so if I can get a 780G
somewhere so much the better as anything newer would be overkill ....
unless it's an absolute bargin!

So comments on 780G, similar and other chipsets, places to purchase a
board in the UK.

Cheers
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_700_chipset_series#Energy_efficiency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_800_chipset_series (table at the bottom)

If you look at the numbers, the 780G is still pretty good. The thing
is, sometimes, on a silicon die shrink, there is higher DC leakage, and
that accounts for some of the power. Also, on newer chips, you might
have more high speed interfaces (tons of PCI Express lanes,
SATA III and the like), and they might be driving up the power a bit.
Or the integrated GPU might be slightly more powerful.

There are still a few 780G chipsets around. (The selection isn't that
good though, so you might end up with a bad BIOS or a DOA motherboard.)
Or, you could try looking for a 785G. There are more motherboards with that
chipset, and it isn't much different from the 780G.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8296&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=22&srchInDesc=785

There are also mini-itx boards available, but it's pretty hard
to compare total power numbers between all of these computing
solutions.

(Some of the power numbers on this summary page are real, and
others are quoted TDP values which are useless to you. For example,
I have a TDP 65W processor, and it draws 12W or so at idle. Quoting
a TDP, is not a good way to estimate idle power performance.)

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=2

The only real way to do this, is for somebody to sit down, with
the same set of PC components, and try one motherboard after
another, measuring the power of each, with a standard set of
test cases applied. Reading articles, such as the numbers
quoted in the Wikipedia article, can be misleading. You don't
really know what you're getting, in terms of power performance,
until it's too late. So a site that specializes in HTPCs or
PCs for cars, might be one place to look, if the site is
sufficient technically competent in their evaluations.

HTH,
Paul
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_700_chipset_series#Energy_efficiency

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_800_chipset_series (table at the
bottom)

If you look at the numbers, the 780G is still pretty good. The thing is,
sometimes, on a silicon die shrink, there is higher DC leakage, and that
accounts for some of the power. Also, on newer chips, you might have
more high speed interfaces (tons of PCI Express lanes, SATA III and the
like), and they might be driving up the power a bit. Or the integrated
GPU might be slightly more powerful.

There are still a few 780G chipsets around. (The selection isn't that
good though, so you might end up with a bad BIOS or a DOA motherboard.)
Or, you could try looking for a 785G. There are more motherboards with
that chipset, and it isn't much different from the 780G.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007625 +600008296&IsNodeId=1&Subcategory=22&srchInDesc=785

There are also mini-itx boards available, but it's pretty hard to
compare total power numbers between all of these computing solutions.

(Some of the power numbers on this summary page are real, and others are
quoted TDP values which are useless to you. For example, I have a TDP
65W processor, and it draws 12W or so at idle. Quoting a TDP, is not a
good way to estimate idle power performance.)

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=2

The only real way to do this, is for somebody to sit down, with the same
set of PC components, and try one motherboard after another, measuring
the power of each, with a standard set of test cases applied. Reading
articles, such as the numbers quoted in the Wikipedia article, can be
misleading. You don't really know what you're getting, in terms of power
performance, until it's too late. So a site that specializes in HTPCs or
PCs for cars, might be one place to look, if the site is sufficient
technically competent in their evaluations.

HTH,
Paul
Click to expand...

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply. In fact when I last posted to this newsgroup about
6 months ago you replied. It seems you're holding this part of usenet
together by yourself!

I definitely take your point about real world testing to find actual
power values but i'm not too concerned just as long it's relatively good.
I just liked the review tomshardware gave of 780G a couple years ago
which indicated a good power. Having looked at the sources you've
provided I don't see any reason not to go for the more freely available
785G. I've looked at the specs of boards of the 780G and 785G and given
my pc knowledge stopped at my last build (Duron 1.3 Morgan core) I'm not
entirely sure what I'm reading. Is it fair/obvious that the 785G is
actually an improvement on the 780G, i.e. there are no obvious bugs? And
the HD4200 graphics model/chip is superior to HD3200? (I'd not feel safe
assuming based purely on the bigger number!)

Thanks
 
Keiron said:
Hi Paul,

Thanks for your reply. In fact when I last posted to this newsgroup about
6 months ago you replied. It seems you're holding this part of usenet
together by yourself!

I definitely take your point about real world testing to find actual
power values but i'm not too concerned just as long it's relatively good.
I just liked the review tomshardware gave of 780G a couple years ago
which indicated a good power. Having looked at the sources you've
provided I don't see any reason not to go for the more freely available
785G. I've looked at the specs of boards of the 780G and 785G and given
my pc knowledge stopped at my last build (Duron 1.3 Morgan core) I'm not
entirely sure what I'm reading. Is it fair/obvious that the 785G is
actually an improvement on the 780G, i.e. there are no obvious bugs? And
the HD4200 graphics model/chip is superior to HD3200? (I'd not feel safe
assuming based purely on the bigger number!)

Thanks
Click to expand...

"Is it fair/obvious that the 785G is actually an improvement on the 780G, i.e.
there are no obvious bugs?"

You can try reading the customer reviews, for the motherboards on Newegg.
When I provide a link to Newegg products, it's not because I expect you
to buy from them. They have pictures with each product, so you can see
what comes with the motherboard. The customer reviews tell you whether
the motherboard is a good one or not. Since there are more than
20 motherboards using the 785G, once you read the reviews for all the
motherboards, you'll have a better idea whether it is the right way to
go or not.

On this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_700_chipset_series#Energy_efficiency

there is one section with issues in it.

"Northbridge issues(760G, M770, 780x, M780x, 790GX)"

The 785G is not in that list, although that might be an oversight.

There are other items in the Wikipedia article, you should also be
reading. They included a few KB articles that are hardware related.
I'd recommend you keep reading that Wikipedia page.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982091

Paul
 
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