From my recent research I came to the conclusion that it was not possible to have an HTPC that was both low-power consuming at idle and be able to play games at decent settings (my definition of acceptable gaming settings was 1920x1080 at high quality settings). So the OP must decide what he really ...

You're not likely to get the answer from any graphs or charts as none of them is likely to show a system that's optimized for low power consumption. In my experience an underclocked and undervolted system based on the 780G when powered by a DC-DC PSU such as the PicoPSU is hands down the best in low...

So this Ion thing is a unilateral agreement? I guess nvidia jumped the gun and p*ssed off the giant.

Don't be fooled by the appearance - this HSF was designed to fit inside Silverstone's slim cases like the LC19 and ML02 which have 50mm interior space. It has a lower height (36.5mm) than Intel's low profile HSF (45mm). Silverstone expanded their NT07 brand HSFs recently, first for the AM2 last year...

Some people, especially those running linux, would want their 24/7 server system to act as a broadband router. So a built-in NIC is a nice feature. Although one can always get a cheap USB ethernet device for the WAN side of the connection. For some people the support for 7.1 sound is a make-or-break...

Just noticed this $130 Zotac nvidia 8200 based mini-tix board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500021 Feature wise it looks better than Jetway's 8200 board (fanless, two DDR2 slots, wifi). It's much cheaper, too. Good alternative to G45 (which has no working XP driver for Bl...

I wasn't happy with the mediocre picture quality of my PS3 on a 1080p HDTV - many if not most games/demos go only up to 720p. So I wanted to get a real graphics card as an upgrade for my HTPC and (hopefully) be able to play games at 1080p. My first reaction was to get a card that can be powered off ...

Kind of OT on this board. Does anyone know of a free Windows based program that allows you to test a gigabit network? Currently the best way that I can test my network is to copy large video files over the network. I'm getting only 30% network utilization. I suspect the throughput of the disks on bo...

Aren't overclocking and EIST contradiction in terms? My understanding of EIST is that it goes by some table of predefined vcore and multiplier pairings. If you bump up the FSB clock and the EIST logic uses the pre-defined vcore in its table wouldn't your system become unstable (i.e. the vcore is low...

I never noticed any problem with HDMI. What sorts of problem is the Gigabyte having?

My system is connected to an HDMI 1.2 compliant HDTV. The output resolution is 1920x1080p. Both audio and video work perfectly. Since I can play Blu-Ray from disc, I'm guessing HDCP is working, too.

I know some of these cooler underclocked systems seem to rise to the occasion, but I have never determined exactly how that is. I am guessing it has more to do with the software than hardware. The reason is very simple: The IGP does most of the heavy lifting. It also helps to have the right softwar...

But I really need references: Tests with low power rigs I don't have a RAID setup, but you can extrapolate from my actual running system to suit your config: mobo: Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI (780G based, 1GbE NIC) cpu: BE2350, underclocked and undervolted with CrystalCPUID mem: 2x1GB fans: 1 stock 70mm CP...

I'm done messing with this board. But for those interested, Intel just posted a new version of the graphics driver, 15.11.4.1591, dated 11/10/2008.

I also noticed Intel removed version 0079 of the BIOS from their archive site for some reason.

Here's my 0085 BIOS upgrade experience: Express BIOS Update from Vista claimed it completed successfully on reboot. It never updated the BIOS. I had to use iflash.exe from a bootable USB drive in order to upgrade from 0079 to 0085. With 0085, not only was I not able to play H.264 Blu-Ray movies from...

For those seeking an alternative to 780G/G45/8200 mini-itx boards, there's a new board in the works based on the just announced Nivida 9300 chipset for the Intel processor: http://minicomputerworld.com/mini-motherboard/ecs-mcp7a-nvidia-geforce-9300-mini-itx-motherboard The board pictured looks like ...

Wow, I blinked and I already missed a release or two of the BIOS. The latest version is now 0085. Here are the change notes: • Updated VBIOS to from 1659 to 1702. • Updated ME firmware from 1087 to 1096. • Updated RAID OPROM from 8.0.0.1039 to 8.6.0.1007. • Updated iQST thermal profile. • ...

Intel just posted a new version of the BIOS (0083). From the release notes: Changed the processor temperature string. Changed the PAVP mode default setting to "Lite". Updated iQST performance. Not sure what the PAVP deal is, as it was already done in 0079. The other two look like they might translat...

I just noticed newegg is now selling the Jetway 780G mini-itx board for $165: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153124&Tpk=jnc81-lf It does not have the "new product" label, so I don't know how long they've been carrying it. Also, note the product name is JNC81-LF, not the mor...

Ashex wrote:No noticeable difference in Fan logic.

Thanks. I guess Intel does not think it's an important issue. That's too bad as it was one of my big gripes.

Muzza - If you haven't already flashed your BIOS to the latest update (0081), I'm curious to know if you are able to play Blu-Ray AVC (aka H.264/mpeg4) movies from disc under Vista with the factory 0075 BIOS. The reason I'm interested in this is that according to Intel they changed the BIOS after 00...

If your mobo uses an AMD chipset (e.g. 690g/780g) you don't need to do anything. Otherwise download the processor driver from AMD: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Tec ... 06,00.html

Intel has just posted a new BIOS (0081) and a new video driver (15.11.3.1576) today.

If anyone has upgraded the BIOS I'm curious as to whether the fan control logic has been improved.

C&Q does not appear to be kicking in. If you are running XP change the power profile to Minimum Power Management. Also make sure you have installed AMD's C&Q driver. The idle multiplier for AMD is 5x, or clock freq of 1GHz.

Also want to add that if you plan on expanding the system to include more than a quad-core processor per board (e.g two quad-core processors, a common config in a VM environment), you might want to invest in a Xeon quad-core instead of a desktop quad-core since only Xeon processors are multi-process...

No, it's a simple AMD stock cooler came with 35W X2 3800+. Ah, a 35-watter. That explains it the low temp and low fan speed. Your situation was weird to me as Asus Q-Fan had gave me pretty decent control. Did you enable silent/optimal/performance mode? Maybe the Q Fan on the M3A78-EMH HDMI is inten...

loimlo- Wow, impressive numbers indeed. I assume you have a huge HSF? Thanks for all the inputs. I'm convinced my ASUS BIOS is buggy. I flashed it to the latest version (v1101) just before I started to toy with BIOS fan control. Unfortunately Asus's EZ Flash did not allow me to flash to an older ver...

Since you will be running vmware you want to make sure the processor you select supports hardware virtualization. A cheap $50 AMD has hardware virtualization support. But for an Intel dual core processor you'll need to get something like an E8200 in order to get that feature. As rule of thumb, if th...

The newer picoPSU comes with IDE and SATA power connectors (one each). If you need to power a mobo that requires the P4 power connector and an IDE device you'll also need a Molex Y splitter cable.

Is it my bad luck, or do all BIOS fan control algorithms suck? I recently tried using BIOS fan controls on two mobos - the Intel DG45FC (C2D) and the Asus M3A78-EMH HDMI (AM2). The HSFs used are both PWM capable (i.e. 4 pins). On the Intel board, the fan toggles between silent (< 900RPM) to full bla...

I recently upgraded my 690G based HTPC/PVR to a 780G based system. I swapped only the motherboards and kept everything else the same. The idle power consumption dropped from 33W to 29W. Here are the system specs: - 690G board: Biostar TA690G (mATX) - 780G board: Asus M3A78-EMH HDM (mATX) - CPU: Bris...