I got my parts yesterday. Wu-hoooo! I've done some testing and here's what I've got so far. First, my test bench setup:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA785GMT-UD2H
CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor (2.9GHz)
Memory: PQI 2GB DDR3 1333
PSU: Seasonic SS-350ET (80plus Bronze)
Heatsink: Scythe Mini Ninja
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint 80GB (Nidec)
DVD: Lite-ON I think
Fan: Artic Cooling 92mm PWM
OS: Windows 7 RC x64
Code: Select all
CPU Voltage CPU NB Power (idle/CPU load/GPU load)
--------------- -------- ------------------------------
1.0V - 1.35V 1.175V 49 - ? - ?
0.9V - 1.25V 1.175V 45 - 75 - 80
0.8V - 1.15V 1.175V 45 - 69 - 75
0.775V - 1.125V 1.175V 44 - 67 - 73
0.75V - 1.10V 1.175V Posted but crashed on windows startup
0.8V - 1.15V 1.15V 45 - 68 - 74
0.8V - 1.15V 1.125V 44 - 68 - 74
0.8V - 1.15V 1.10V 44 - ? - ?
Not bad but I wish I could get it a little lower at idle. I forget to test load power at stock so I'll want to check that. I left off playing with the CPU northbridge voltage but so far it's had minimal effect. The mini ninja has absolutely no problem cooling this CPU. Initially, the only fan was the one on the PSU which was nearby and the heat sink barely gets warm. I added the fan more to blow on the chipset and VRMs. Both of which get pretty warm. As far as the motherboard goes, here's some pros/cons I see so far.
PROS:
- Has BIOS undervolting options so no software is needed and it's not OS dependent. Options are relative so setting it to -0.2 brings it from 1.0V-1.35 to 0.8V-1.15V.
- I'm glad to see Gigabyte go the route of getting rid of one of the PS2 connectors and add another 2 USB on the back.
CONS:
- The chipset gets pretty warm but I think it provides enough cooling. The VRMs also get pretty warm even though this CPU is pretty low powered. My actual setup will include some ducting of the rear fan to provide some air flow along the motherboard which should be more than enough for both of these.
- The 1.5V DDR3 is reported as running at 1.6V. I saw similar things on my AM2 Gigabyte board where the 1.8V DDR2 was reported as running at 1.9V. Not sure if Gigabyte likes to overvolt ram by default or if it's just a reporting issue.