If you don't mind a mini-tower setup, I've had good luck with the
Silverstone TJ08. Thread about my build and tuning for lower
power consumption here.

Thanks for the results, everyone! Is 0.975 the stock voltage for the T7400? Or is that with Speedstep enabled? Well, speedstep has been abled since the first boot, so I'm sure that's what the 0.975 thing is. I'm sure it could go lower than that at 1.0 GHz, but it's locked in the sense that the CPU ...

Intel C2D Mobile (Merom) T7400

stock idle freq/volt: 1.0 GHz @ 0.975v
stock busy freq/volt: 2.16 GHz @ 1.21v

undervolt idle: 1.0 GHz @ 0.975v (it's locked, won't go lower)
undervolt busy: 2.16 GHz @ 1.04v

am not overclocking.

I did some surfing into the topic. Undervolting is not yet supported for AMD chips, but there is the powernow daemon project. The developer interest seems to exist to get these concepts into the mainstream, so perhaps a year from now SPCRers who use GNU/Linux will have the same batch of tools to tw...

Most if not all of the undervolting, underclocking, and monitoring software tools used by SPCRers are for Windows. What equivalent tools are available in GNU/Linux? I am aware of lm_sensors but that is all. Are there any tools to undervolt and underclock other than through the BIOS? There is the cp...

I have a ViewSonic VG2030wm (1680 x 1050 20"). It begins to
squeal if I put the brightness below 97%! I've learned to live
with it. Lately, it makes a faint light-saber sort of hum if large
progress bars move quickly or if I quickly move a window
around on the screen. Call it special effects.

Hmm. Check out the SPCR review of 92mm fans,

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article720-page1.html

The Nexus is relatively easy to obtain and happens to be what
I've got.

There's an XP-120, but of course it's bigger. From their web site,

L110 x W125 x H63 (mm) Fin only, without fan

Whereas the XP-90 is,

L116 x W96 x H75 (mm) Fin only, without fan
L116 x W96 x H96 (mm) Fin only, with 25mm thick fan

www.thermalright.com

I don't know how hot a CPU you're planning to use, but the
XP-90 ought to fit in that space. Takes a 92mm fan.

Found an old ATX power supply. The idea of using that shell to
utilize the space where the Seasonic used to be appeals to me,
but I probably won't get a chance to work on that for a few weeks.

Actually, I started with a 7600GS and then decided it was overkill. (I don't do gaming, but want to be able to handle occasional 3D stuff). So I went down to the 7300GS; both cards were passive. I'm running Ubuntu Linux (currently 6.10, about time to upgrade to 7.04). To get the undervolting require...

Nice work. There's enough of a difference between this and your prior machine that if you leave it powered on all the time, you might actually see a reduction in your electricity bill! Continuing on MikeC's idea for cooler hard drives: Maybe you could re-build your HDD suspension cage with an old p...

Nice,this is with T7400/AOpen i945Gtm-VHL/GeForce 7300 GS/picoPSU-120/2GB DDR2-667/100 GB RAID-1 ? What kind of harddisc's do you have,3.5 or 2,5? Yes, that's the configuration (plus Samsung DVD-RW). The T7400 is undervolted in software, but that doesn't affect the idle level (the processor ignores...

Just wanted to say that I swapped out an underutilized S12-380 for
the picoPSU-120 with 110w brick today, and it went very well. For
gory details, see the last point in this thread.

Are you talking about the two-wires that connect to the 12V power supply? They are soldered to the PICO board, but can easily be spliced if you need a longer cable. My 200w pico is plugged directly to the MB, and to route the cable like I wanted, I had to splice the lines. No big deal...... Thanks ...

Well, I did it. I swapped out the under-used Seasonic S12-380 for a picoPSU-120 with the 110w AC/DC brick. While I was at it, I decided to remove the front fan and see what the effects were. So, I'm down to two fans, the 120mm Nexus exhaust fan and the 92mm Nexus CPU fan, both undervolted. The case ...

As far as I can tell, there aren't any "user friendly" apps for undervolting your CPU with Linux. I just did a bit of research, and it looks like, at minimum, you'll have to recompile your kernel. The Linux-PHC (Processor Hardware Control) allows you to undervolt a Pentium M processor (but they don...

In theory when you screw the motherboard to the frame it should ground the frame. The case panels however are sometimes not grounded well. And when using the PICO, there is no PSU grounded to the case with screws. I had grounding issues with my first Pico setup (shocks). Now I ground everything to ...

Be sure to ground the negative line of the PICO to the case.....that may prevent shocks and interference. Not being much of an electrical whiz, let me ask: is this something that "normal" power supplies automatically do? Will using the PCI slot cover to hold the DC receptacle create the necessary g...

Greetings, The Antec nsk2400 looks like a good case ... lots of room for a microATX system compared to, say, the Minuet or the Silverstone ML01. However, unlike those smaller cases, it does not appear to be intended to be set up vertically. My desk requires either an upright case, or one that can su...

I'm wondering just how long the cable feeding the picoPSU is. Would it cross the width of a microATX board (9.6" I think)? I have a microATX system that I've gotten down to 51watts idle, 67watts at typical busy, and 82watts when running two copies of Mersenne primes. The Seasonic S12-380 power suppl...

Here's an update: 1. I blocked the openings in the metal frontpiece where the upper 120mm fan was originally placed, with a piece of Damptek foam I had laying around. This seemed to help the ventilation somewhat, in that the airstream is now more focused into two paths: the upper above the DVD-RW un...

Scrooge wrote:Just so no one else has to order an expensive Yonah chip, the Celeron Mobile 410 is based on the Yonah core, costs ~$50, and is quite sufficient for this task...

Has anybody actually tried this? I note that AOpen's BIOS download
web site lists 'Celeron M Support' as a feature of the 12/5/2006 BIOS.

To tell the truth, I probably need only a 7300GS right now, but I was just keeping my possibilities open. At present the machine is used for both mundane needs (email, web) and for C++ programming and extended runs of evolutionary programs (ones that try to find optimal solutions by evaluating the f...

The only one that showed any reluctance to start at 5v was
the Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000. Perhaps I got lucky with
the 'sample variance' on the Nexus 120mm.

I like it! Can you tell me a bit more about the PCI fan controller? I have the same case and don't want to sacrifice a 3.5 or 5.25" bay for a fan controller, and your solution looks excellent. Haven't been able to find one though... It's the Silverstone FP33, available at newegg and other outlets. ...

Good setup, although a bit of cable cleanup and maybe consolidating down to fewer fans would be my choice. Yes, there are a lot of cables, and they're stiff. Putting the HDD cage on the bottom meant a SATA power cable down the middle (it's not long enough to take a circuitous route). Would this mot...

Hello, How does the "golf ball" dimpled fan compare to the Nexus and the S-Flex? At the low voltages used, I can't really tell a difference, although my only testing equipment is my ear. Maybe if I did fan swaps at midnight I could tell something ... [edit] as a later post reminded me, the one thin...

Something was missing ... here's a photo of the back. The orange gaffer tape covers up some miscellaneous holes in the back panel that I thought might be creating minor short-circuits in the airflow. http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5254/p1190692mb0.th.jpg I completely removed the top fan and things...

To those who have been following this thread, everything is working
well now , the new machine is now my main machine,
and I've posted in the General Gallery