DH77EB + I5-3750k Combination Low Power

[cbutters]

I am building a HTPC system built around Ivy Bridge, my goal was to be very power efficient since this box will be on 24/7 to serve as a TV Server. I was hoping for low watts, but It has ended up being even lower than I imagined!

Case: Streacom FC5
Fanless Design

Motherboard: DH77EB
I went with Intel because they are known to be more power efficient.
This motherboard also allows for mini PCIe SSDs to be installed as storage, should save some watts.

PSU (temporary): GS600 Corsair
This will be replaced with a PicoPSU once it arrives.

CPU:
Intel Ivy Bridge I5-3750K
I actually was waiting for a dual core version with HD 4000 graphics, but I finally got impatient and just ordered the quad core with HD 4000 Graphics. Power consumption is usually very close at idle between the dual cores and quads (if Sandy Bridge can be compared here)

SSD:
A Sandisk SDSA4DH 32GB SSD (mini pcie size) This is from a EP121 notebook, should be low power.

RAM: OCZ Gold 1333mhz 1.65v 2x2GB
I will be swapping this out for some low voltage RAM once I have it.

Here is the test build setup:


Here is an up close shot of SSD setup:


So I decided to Install windows and see how power consumption is... keep in mind this is a complete system!
Here is my power consumption during windows installation:

It fluctuated between 19-24 watts! Pretty dang good!
The only thing I did in the bios was change it from standard to low power savings mode

There are more things I want to try to get power even further down:
low voltage ram
picopsu (remember this is using a 600 watt psu (total overkill))
Adjust BIOS settings and disable unused devices on motherboard.

Anyone else using the DH77EB? Seems to be really good in terms of power consumption!

[Belmonte]

What about temperatures? I'm considering building a system with exactly the same motherboard and CPU, but with a Noctua NH-C12P SE14 heatsink with fan running at 5-7v, and I'm a bit concerned about the TIM Intel is using now. How is the passive cooling working for you?

On top of that, I think the i5-3570k can be undervolted. That could help with power draw and temperatures too.

[cbutters]

What about temperatures? I'm considering building a system with exactly the same motherboard and CPU, but with a Noctua NH-C12P SE14 heatsink with fan running at 5-7v, and I'm a bit concerned about the TIM Intel is using now. How is the passive cooling working for you?

On top of that, I think the i5-3570k can be undervolted. That could help with power draw and temperatures too.

I don't have the lid on the box yet, and haven't done more testing since I took the pictures; however, I was very surprised, idling in windows, installing random updates, i kept touching the top of the CPU and the heatpipes to see if I could ever feel some heat off the thing... It wasn't even warm every time... Im sure once I stress test it I will be able to feel some heat, but normal usage is proving very cool. I will provide some more solid figures once I can do more testing. I will also attempt some undervolting/clocking as well and see if it makes any measurable difference. the cpu should be plenty quick as it is for the purpose of the machine.

[aurania]

Anyone else using the DH77EB? Seems to be really good in terms of power consumption!

I recently upgraded to a DH77EB and a Celeron G530. Measured 39 watts at idle but I have two hard drives, an optical drive, one ssd, and three fans (two 120mm case fans and the stock CPU fan). The power supply I'm using is the 430 watt one that came bundled with the Antec Fusion Remote so it's not the most efficient design around. However at such low consumption levels, I'm not sure that upgrading to the latest and greatest is worth the expensive compared to the modest gains in efficiency.

Biggest complaint so far is that my old Hauppauge tuner card no longer works. Same issue as described here.

[Khato]

I will provide some more solid figures once I can do more testing. I will also attempt some undervolting/clocking as well and see if it makes any measurable difference.

One of my primary disappointments with the DH67GD (the H67 predecessor to the DH77EB) is that it doesn't offer processor voltage adjustments, just memory and IGP. Are processor voltage adjustments available in the DH77EB BIOS? If so then it's definitely back in the running as I'm planning to undervolt an i5-3570k to 0.9V or possibly a bit less - don't need that much processing power in an HTPC.

[cbutters]

Just a quick update...
swapped out the 600Watt power supply for a PicoPSU 150 watt.
I am now showing idle power consumption of this Ivy Bridge Quad w/ this board at ONLY 13 watts!
I'm pretty stoked about this.... atom can kiss it.
I still have to get some low voltage memory in this thing and see if it makes a difference. I wonder if I can get it into the single digits!

[Esben]

Thanks for sharing! That power consumption is amazingly low! I have measured my Linksys E4200 wireless router is using 12W.
I'm thinking, could this board also use the mini PCI Express slot for plugging in an Intel Centrino WLAN adapter and act as a router through the Intel My Wifi Hotspot?

Looking forward to hearing what your tests show with the low voltage memory. Could you try also how using a single stick of memory influence power consumption?

[markchr']

Wow - this is really interesting!

I have been looking for wattage use at idle on the i5-3570K for quite some time now. Thank you very much for posting.

although I am a bit confused now seeing that Toms Hardware has significantly different measurements. Can this all be assigned to the other parts they have in their test-system? Or am I reading the numbers wrong?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cor ... 04-13.html

I am also interested in knowing if the DH77EB can undervolt the CPU?

Kind regards, Mark.

[cbutters]

Wow - this is really interesting!

I have been looking for wattage use at idle on the i5-3570K for quite some time now. Thank you very much for posting.

although I am a bit confused now seeing that Toms Hardware has significantly different measurements. Can this all be assigned to the other parts they have in their test-system? Or am I reading the numbers wrong?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cor ... 04-13.html

I am also interested in knowing if the DH77EB can undervolt the CPU?

Kind regards, Mark.

This difference in wattage between my build and the Tom's Hardware build is almost certainly a difference in component choices, Intel media series motherboards are well known on this forum and others for being extremely power efficient compared to their 1155 counterparts by other manufacturers, that combined with the inefficient for their build Cooler Master UCP-1000 W power supply they were using and also 4-dimms of memory, and the fact that I have the Intel motherboard set to low power mode as well. The small ssd I am using is a factor as well. Also, I have almost no usb ports in use at this point in the build.

[aurania]

I am also interested in knowing if the DH77EB can undervolt the CPU?

I checked BIOS and found that I could set the voltage of the integrated graphics and the memory but not the CPU.

edit:

Looked at the DH77EB manual and it doesn't state that you can undervolt the cpu, only underclock it.

3.11 BIOS Performance Features

The BIOS includes the following options to provide custom performance enhancements when using 3rd generation Intel Core processor family and 2nd generation Intel Core processor family processors in an LGA1155 socket.
• Processor Maximum Non-Turbo Ratio (processor multiplier can only be adjusted down)
• Memory multiplier adjustment
• Memory voltage adjustment
• Graphics multiplier adjustment

[Belmonte]

There's a review of the DH77EB motherboard here (in Korean). They have screenshots of all the bios screens. Indeed, no trace of option for controlling the processor voltage.

Cbutters, is it true that the motherboard makes some kind of startup sound? How is it like?

[cbutters]

There's a review of the DH77EB motherboard here (in Korean). They have screenshots of all the bios screens. Indeed, no trace of option for controlling the processor voltage.

Cbutters, is it true that the motherboard makes some kind of startup sound? How is it like?

I haven't noticed any startup sound at all. I do not have a 4 pin two wire little audio speaker on my case though... is it a beep or some kind of electrical noise? My entire case is fanless, and I am not noticing any noise from the machine at all

[Belmonte]

Then it seems it really needs an external speaker. Have a look at this screenshot. It has an option named 'startup sound'.

[WhiteFireDragon]

Bummer, it's a shame that intel boards never has any CPU voltage adjustments. Only the high end intel boards that were designed specifically for overclocking has CPU voltage, but none other. I just don't understand how the built the board for all other voltage adjustments except for the CPU. This would have been the ultimate power saving board had it had that feature.

Your 13w is still very impressive though.

[equally wrong]

...I'm thinking, could this board also use the mini PCI Express slot for plugging in an Intel Centrino WLAN adapter...

The answer to that question is a yes and a no. The board DOES support, in addition to mSSDs, Centrino WLAN adapters. However tread cautiously. Some models of the Centrino family come integrated with bluetooth. The motherboard will recognize the WLAN but will not recognize the bluetooth.

Intel has either made the mini PCIe slot electrically incompatible with Centrino combo cards or has a BIOS lock on certain electrically traces. Intel will not provide support on any Centrino products because its only supposed to be sold to OEMs. Only way for them to even attempt to look into this issue is to say your having trouble with the mini PCIe slot.

If all you want is Centrino WLAN, your good to go.

[pod03]

Hi cbutters, can you confirm or deny the suggestion that the combination that you have can do some basic overclocking:

http://communities.intel.com/thread/29206
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1908808
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1914307
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1908781

Thanks,

Mark

[dx2]

Very nice combination. I will probably get this setup with a small variation.
What's the power consumption under full load with this system ?

Did you try a Core i3 2100 or 2100T ? I've read they are more power saving under load. I am referring to this power consumption comparison:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/di ... html#sect0

EDIT:
According to this article
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... 9&reid=207
it is possible to achieve very high efficiency and lower noise ripple by combining a high quality brick (FSF power block, 19V) with the PicoPSU 120-WI-25, so you are not enforced to choose a 12V brick.

[Vicotnik]

EDIT:
According to this article
http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?na ... 9&reid=207
it is possible to achieve very high efficiency and lower noise ripple by combining a high quality brick (FSF power block, 19V) with the PicoPSU 120-WI-25, so you are not enforced to choose a 12V brick.

That article is crap.

I'm sure the WI picos are quite nice, but with a good 12V brick and a normal picoPSU you will have better efficiency. JonnyGuru fails to see that because they use lousy 12V adapters (and a good 19V adapter).

[dx2]

According to the specifications the 60W adapter looks neat (http://www.mini-box.com/60w-12v-5A-AC-DC-Power-Adapter)
Is there any other adapter manufacturer you could recommend ?

[freka586]

@cbutters:

Any chance you can measure the power draw during boot and BIOS POST?
Is this influenced by the "low power savings" setting in BIOS?

I am looking at running a similar setup with a very small PSU. Once undervolting kicks-in I have little concern, but the boot and BIOS step feels sort of out of my control.

Thanks,

Fredrik

[RHN]

Power efficiency is key to quiet computing, so the newer Intel DH boards are interesting, but according to what's been said here so far they don't allow undervolting.

What about a board like the DH77EB (or DH77KC) in combination not with the i5 3750K but the i5-3475S, which like the 3750K has HD4000 but is rated at 65 watts?

Or is it better to undervolt the 3750K so that you can "eat your cake and have it, too" (as Lawrence Lee concluded in his discussion of the 2400S under http://www.silentpcreview.com/article1202-page7.html)?

But combining the 3750K with a more versatile board like (among others) the Asus P8Z77-m pro, which allows undervolting, might not be a better solution for PC silencers because that board draws more power.

[freka586]

I'm thinking about the exact same tradeoff as RHN!
- Undervolting a 3570K with a non-Intel Z77 board or running e.g. 3575S at stock settings with a suitable Intel board.

I guess one bonus of the 3570K choice is that you can adjust and adapt it according to power requirements or cooling. Perhaps it turns out that you can handle more than expected - just dial up for more performance. Or perhaps you want even further reduced thermals for less noise - dial down performance accordingly.

[flyingsherpa]

I'm interested in building a similar system (same cpu and mobo) but would like some more info on loaded power use. I have a modified Dell RM112 psu I would like to use and just want to make sure the loading is acceptable.

cbutters (or anyone else with a similar setup), if you're still around, would you mind providing load power consumption of your setup?