Came across this review of several H55 motherboards http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=3119&cid=6&pg=12 MSI comes out best in power consumption (discounting the intel board due to having no voltage options in the bios) with the Gigabyte board fairly close behind... http://www.hardwarez...

Hi,

Looking to build a new PC, will be used as my main pc for the immediate future but have decided to go with an i3 chip and H55/57 board so that I can upgrade my HTPC in the future.

So looking for a board that can overclock and that supports undervolting, any suggestions?

Many thanks

Hi, Looking to overclock my E6600 cpu to extend the life of my rig before upgrading, however the overclock will certainly require increasing the cpu voltage and I'd really like to see how much this effects power consumption. Can anyone recommend me a very accurate power meter that will tell me how m...

For me 250MHz, was the lowest I could go with my HD4870's memory. Any lower and I'd get "yellow snow" artifacting. Lowering the memory from the default 900MHz to 250MHz, while in idle mode saves around 30W, which is fantastic. As you've also stated, temperatures on my card, in Gpu-Z, dropped from 7...

... Thanks for the report, do you have any way to test the idle power consumption of the system after the BIOS update? Unfortunately I don't have any equipment to monitor power consumption so no way of telling, although I'd also be very interested to find out! btw seems others have done the same bi...

** UPDATE ** Probably best to hold fire before flashing with a bios file modified with the latest version of RBE, could be some issues with it... http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=192759 ** Edit ** a fix has been found, seems that the problem was isolated to the 4870 cards and DD...

After reading in this thread that some of the MSI cards have a newer bios that clocks lower while in a 2D profile I can across this review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Powercolor/HD_4850/21.html What I found interesting is that the review data included both an MSI and Power Colour 4850… Sys...

Hi, I've recently upgrade to x4 1GB sticks of OCZ DDR2 400mhz memory, however I have the opportunity to sell a pair at cost price and buy a new 4GB DD2 400Mhz Corsair set of x2 2GB sticks (note the OCZ sticks are rated @ 2.1-2.2v, whereas the Corsair are rated @ 1.8-19v). I certainly have noticed th...

I put this question to Intel support and this is the reply.... Thank you for contacting Intel(R) Technical Support. Please keep in mind that in order for the processor to run at 0.85v the system needs to be in standby mode, this means no background applications running, no video on screen, basically...

Hi, Recently built a Core2duo system, E6600 with Gigabyte DS3P motherboard, so I've been playing around with different settings and decided to enable EIST, to my surprise and dismay, the E6600 is only lowered to 1.1v?! http://www.navalon.co.uk/temp/computer/cpu-specs3.gif The product code for my E66...

@elitezoid: if you would have spent 20-30 more quid for the DS4, you wouldn't have this problem. I got my DQ6 specifically because I didn't want to have chipset cooling issues. It's true that a HR-05 (or even HR-05 SLI) is still less than the mobo price difference, but when installing it you'll voi...

Hi, Just recently built a new Core2duo system: E6600 Gigabyte P965 DS3P 2GB OZC 6400 DDR2 Sapphire X1950 Pro Ultimate The board has been stable and performs well (so far, only been a couple of days), however I'm really SHOCKED at just how hot the northbridge heatsink gets. It's literally burning to ...

Well got my system built, and thought I'd leave some feedback.... I'm quite impressed with the retail cooler, surprised to see it has a copper core, and looks a decent quality for boxed cooler. However I really don't like the push pins system for mounting, felt concerned that I had to apply too much...

Will be getting a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P motherboard and E6600 processor tomorrow, I am initially planning to use the boxed cooler, as I will be undervolting. However if the boxed cooler is too loud, as a contingency plan I’m trying to decide on which heatsink to buy. Interested in the ‘Thermalri...

Thanks for the replies! The motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P, should be getting the board/cpu tomorrow. To start off I was hoping to undervolt as low as possible (1volt, read a post from a DS3 user who's done this), and if necessary drop the cpu speed, currently I'm only using a AMD 3000+ so i...

Hi, Will be buying a Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, I'm not planning to do any overclocking for a while, and will probably instead try to get the cpu to run at default speed on as little voltage as possible. As it will be the Retail version coming with a heatsink, was wondering what the cooling and noise l...

Well I have an update, ended buying another HX520 as I was able to sell on the one I had. This one is quieter, has a much smoother fan noise, which in 2D is 'almost' silent, now I can only really hear the noise of the X1950 Ultimate. One thing I did notice was that the older psu was rev B1W, while t...

nici wrote:The slower 120x25 from Dorothy should be excellent. The one i have starts at about 4.3V and once spinning works down to 2.5V.

Corsair fan voltages.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article692-page4.html

Thanks for the reply, have you used this fan in conjuction with the Corsair PSU?

At the moment the psu is not being pushed at all, it's a MATX board with a 3000+ 64 CPU, and I'm currently only using the onboard Nvida 6150 graphics as the X1950 Pro had been returned to the supplier due to a fault. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it's loud just not as quiet as I first thought, t...

Hi, I'm finding my Corsair 520HX just a little bit too noisy, it's certainly not loud, however it is the loudest single component in my case. Current system consists of the following: Passive Motherboard Sapphire X1950 Pro Ultimate 250GB Western Digital Hard drive suspended Lian-Li PC60 case, 2 Pana...

There is no <1.162V on desktop Core 2 Duo chips. You have to get a Merom which offers 0.95V minimum. This is hardlocked! Only way is to pin-mod you CPU. So what motherboards offer voltages starting from 1.162V? Also I was particularly interested in the 'AI Nap' feature offered by the Asus boards, w...

Hi, Looking at building a new system, looking for a fast and very stable board, that has the following: - Excellent audio - Very importantly can undervolt the CPU (ideally along with chipset, and memory voltages) C - Can change the CPU multiplier. Will be buying an E6600, and see some people on this...

Hi, I'm using the MSI K8NGM2-FID with a AMD64 3000+ venice core, and just been having a quick look at using CrystalCPUID v4.8.3. Was hoping to be able to use this software to overclock the CPU a bit, without the need to increase volts, however it won't adjust the multiplier past the original max, of...

Hi,
Should have pointed out the HIS is the 'Turbo' edition, which comes overclocked (apparently the X1950 is very overclockable, and can perform on par with the X1900XT 256MB), http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ ... 3&view=yes

Hi, Looking to buy a new graphics card, was thinking of holding out for a DirectX 10 card, but will stay DirectX 9 until at least the second generation of DX10 cards come out. Anyway have got the choice down to the MSI 7900GTO or HIS X1950 Pro, - 7900GTO has 512mb, X1950 Pro only 256mb. - X1950 Pro ...

Hi,
Have updated the bios to the latest version, which i noticed updates the onboard graphics firmware. This did improve the colours, however the s-video quality is still very poor in comparison to the 2 previous ATI solutions.

Hi, The screen flicker was the reason I rma'ed the board, went for the MSI board as the supplier didn't have another DFI board to replace it with. Don't think the problem was only related to the s-video, have read that other users have had the same temp screen flicker (as if the driver was adjusting...

Have built a couple of HTPC's, 1st using a socket A board and 9800 Pro, 2nd using a socket 939 DFI RS482 using the onboard ATI express, both with S-Video out. I know S-video out is not meant to provide the best quality, however on both of the systems mentioned above the quality has been very accepta...

Hi, Just RMA'ed a DFI Infinity RS482, now looking for a replacement. Seems the MSI RS482M4 range of boards could be good, can any users confirms this (and does the package contents in the Uk include the optional brackets for TV out, and optical sound out), also do they allow undervolting? If not, wh...

Hi, I have been using the DFI Infinity RS482 motherboard for my HTPC for a few weeks now and generally have been very happy with it, however I have the following minor issues: - Sound, most noticeable when the system is booting, when coming out of S3 suspended, and when the mce app is loading. The s...