mATX board with under volting

prodeous · Post by **prodeous** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:18 pm

I posted a inquiry in System Advice under Silent Cluster post, but as expected, no one replied

So generally what i hope you guys/galls can help me with is the selection of the board.

I live in Poland so access to all the board manufacturers is difficult, but I hope not impossible.

Platform will be AM2

Board requirements:
Size sub 244x224 (not misspell)
1gb Network card
Undervolting in BIOS (each node will run LINUX thick client so no application undervolting as far as I'm aware)
Option to disable everything outside of NIC. (this includes integrated vid)

Chipset wise I have only three options AMD690 G/V, GF 61xx, VIA K8M8xx.

Under Linux, Nvidia has decent support. So the GF6100 / 6150SE seem to be the best option. I haven't seen may reviews of the GF 7050, but i'm not excluding it.

Local availability is MSI, Gigabyte and Asus. (Wroclaw, Poland)

ASROCK is available but is excluded due to the inefficient voltage regulators that increase CPU consumption by a tad to much.

Comments and suggestions are quite welcome.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:41 pm

ASROCK is available but is excluded due to the inefficient voltage regulators that increase CPU consumption by a tad to much.

first I've heard of this; what is the evidence for this (is it AM2-specific)?

prodeous · Post by **prodeous** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:41 am

To tell you the truth, the information was posted here on the forums.

It showed that the 4 phase power regulator was not as efficient as ASUS 3 phase.

A German site performed direct measures of CPU power consumption. And with the two boards above, it ended up that the ASUS was much better. Top end wise, even 30W difference.

Link below. (bottom of the page)

viewtopic.php?t=33425

Original I was hoping for mDTX or DTX formats, but they are no where to be seen. Now Albatron released a mITX AM2 platform. The KI690-AM2.

depending on price and availability,

Time will tell.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:30 am

OK,there is a problem then,because AFAIAA only Asrock make mATX boards with undervolting (NF4G/NF6G-DVI) out of those 4 manufacturers for AM2. I find it hard to believe Asrock has less efficient VRMs, I have NF6G-DVI and AM2NF3-VSTA and the VRMs don't get particularly hot.

prodeous · Post by **prodeous** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:54 am

That is just the info that was provided. But it would be interesting if the source site performed this test on other boards to determine what type of VRM is better.

Either way, i looked that the Asrock boards, size wise they won't fit.

Everything else is

Size being an issue.

Again, with regards to the manufacturers, that is what I can get at the local shops. But that doesn't mean I won't be able to get them via internet, or possibly special order from the local shops.

Csoszi · Post by **Csoszi** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:12 am

With the Asus M2A-VM (HDMI) you can go down to 0.8 Volt.

Concerning dimensions: uATX 245x229 mm; a couple of mm-s bigger than what you have specified.
Has Gb Ethernet.
You can disable almost (?) everything (haven't tried the int. video, since I am using that!)

prodeous · Post by **prodeous** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:22 am

OK. I tried to investigate the issue of software undervolting in Linux, and in general, though not as easy as windows, there are possibilities.

So since there aren't many options, I'll have to just cross my fingers and hope i don't mess anything up.

Still in general undervolting via BIOS is more comfortable.

In general the "mATX roundup" that Anandtech is working on for the past few... months might answer all the questions. I was just hoping that some of you might have input into this.

Either way, thank you jaganath for the input.

gksam · Post by **gksam** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 11:30 am

Csoszi wrote:With the Asus M2A-VM (HDMI) you can go down to 0.8 Volt.

Concerning dimensions: uATX 245x229 mm; a couple of mm-s bigger than what you have specified.
Has Gb Ethernet.
You can disable almost (?) everything (haven't tried the int. video, since I am using that!)

i second that. i'm running an M2A-VM and am running a 3600x2 EE cpu @ 0.975V (orthos 24 hr stable). my cpu won't load windows at 0.9V. at 0.925V it will error out orthos after an hour. at 0.95V it'll run for 24 hours. I put it at 0.975V to be safe.

prodeous · Post by **prodeous** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:58 am

Suffice it to say, this board is high on my list.

But as luck, one of the local shops started to carry X2 3800+ EE SFF 35W version

So that brings lots of options without even undervolting. I'll will double check if any of them carry the X2 3600+ (65nm version) as most seem to have the 90nm EE versions at 65W.

So current board options: (prices are in Polish Zloty...)

Asus M2A-VM (HDMI)
1gb nic
245 x 229 (tad to big)... but still with undervolting option, still a prospect.

For the ones below, I doubt undervolting would be possible.

Albatron KI690-AM2 :: (if under 350zl, Iâ€™ll consider it)

690G
1gb nic
170 x 170

MSI K9N6SGM-V :: ~ 200zl

gf6100
1gb nic
244 x 205

MSI K9AGM2-FIH :: ~ 260zl

690G
1gb nic
244 x 215

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:17 am

Remember socket 754?

I have the Asrock K8NF6G-VSTA and it's the first underclockable (in bios) mobo I've ever had. Voltage and multiplier both underclockable. Problem. I boot XP and immediately I'm back at the defaults. What the heck good is underclocking if Windows resets the defaults when booted?

I can use RMClock to get the underclocking back, but SpeedFan 4.32 and RMClock don't play together.

Nice Marmot · Post by **Nice Marmot** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:19 am

The Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H, an AMD 690G mATX board, is finally up on their website. Don't know if it undervolts yet, but I've been interested in it since hearing about the potential chipset heat issues on the ASUS boards.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 9:21 am

I have the Asrock K8NF6G-VSTA and it's the first underclockable (in bios) mobo I've ever had. Voltage and multiplier both underclockable. Problem. I boot XP and immediately I'm back at the defaults. What the heck good is underclocking if Windows resets the defaults when booted?

this shouldn't happen. disable CnQ in BIOS and in Windows. what multi and Vcore did you set?

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:22 pm

jaganath wrote:this shouldn't happen. disable CnQ in BIOS and in Windows.

I did disable CnQ in bios, and I tried several volt/mult combos. What do you mean, "disable CnQ in Windows"?

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:03 pm

What do you mean, "disable CnQ in Windows"?

uninstall the AMD processor driver and change power scheme in Control Panel to "Home/Office".

Felger Carbon · Post by **Felger Carbon** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:26 pm

jaganath wrote:uninstall the AMD processor driver and change power scheme in Control Panel to "Home/Office".

Thanks for the tip!

prodeous · Post by **prodeous** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 3:34 am

Overall Gigabyte is out as it is simply a tad to big, it uses full 244x244 format. I need something smaller.

I'm just thinking. Should i go for the 90nm 35w version (safe bet it will work) or 65nm 65w version and undervolt it. (but then it totaly depends on the motherboard - or Linux Kernel Mod)