StingySage: system with lowest possible power consumption?

[ben_95sl1]

Thanks for posting your results! Did you try the stock heatsink?....I have to say, that with qfan controlling my stock heatsinks on both my x2 3800+ 65W and my sempron 3000+ overclocked, they are ridiculously quiet and surprisingly cool. With prime 95 I got the something like 42degC for the X2 and about the same for the sempron, and I couldn't notice any major noise increase. The X2 idles at like 32degC with CnQ.

I have a via c3 800 with just a passive zalman northbridge heatsink cooling it (system has one fan in power supply running at 5v...I'm tempted to remove it) and even though it doesn't use much power, it also gets handily beaten by my p3 600 setup which probably uses only a little more power. Basically, IMHO, the via chips are so weak they aren't worth it unless you only use it as a file server or maybe for playing mp3s. Given how much improvment has been made with current cpus regarding power consumption, they are well worth it...by underclocking and undervolting, you've got a much better setup then anything VIA. Congrats!

[Oats]

Sounds like a nice system. You could look at getting a fan controller to quiet down your noisy fans or mod them to run at 7 volts. I have a Sunbeam fan controller installed in my HTPC case and it works great. I mounted it backwards so it doesn't mess up the appearance of the case.

[Halle]

Thanks!

I never tried the stock fan/heatsink because I got the tray version of the CPU (I was pretty sure I'd want to use the Evo cooler). Now I think I could have gotten away with a smaller and less over-the-top heatsink, but I don't feel like taking the whole thing apart in order to put in a smaller heatsink.

But, I did conclude last week that all of the noise was coming from the 92mm fan on the Evo cooler (even though it was already attached to a fan controller set at its lowest setting!), so I ordered a Nexus Real Silent fan to replace it (€11).

Attached it to the cooler, plugged it into the mobo and turned on Q-Fan in the BIOS, and now it's impossible to tell whether the system is on or not unless you put your ear to it! Also, the CPU temp has dropped about 3 degrees because the fan is running faster.

I may end up getting one more big-as-possible Real Silent fan to run at a very low speed on the other side of the case to cool the HD, which is running on the warm side (because I suspended it in a part of the case which is a little bit out of the airflow), but I don't feel like there's a rush since it probably won't be an issue until summer.

If I was doing it again, the indispensable parts would be the Athlon 64 3500+, the Asus M2NPV-VM, the Seasonic PSU, Real Silent fans. The other parts I might experiment with if I was starting over.