Intel Atom D945GCLF Power consumption - warning!

[chrisbirkinshaw]

If anyone wants to buy this for it's low power consumption don't bother! I've done some testing and found that at idle the board uses 45 watts, compared to 55 watts for my dual core AMD X2 3000 processor.

This is because the motherboard chipset uses around 25 watts!

Chris

[totallymaxed]

If anyone wants to buy this for it's low power consumption don't bother! I've done some testing and found that at idle the board uses 45 watts, compared to 55 watts for my dual core AMD X2 3000 processor.

This is because the motherboard chipset uses around 25 watts!

Chris

We're testing energy usage. The ASUS Eee Box uses just a touch over 23W when playing DVD's or TV and thats with WiFi & Hard Drive powered. The Eee Box uses a mobile 945 chipset which accounts for the much lower power usage.

Our MM200 MD uses just 30W with Optical drive but without hard drive. The MM200 is built with a Celeron-M 1.6Ghz and a mobile 945 chipset.

Andrew

[Zaerc]

You can probably lower the consumption of the AMD machine further by using an AMD64 X2 4850E.

[niz23]

And there is these very low power AMD CPUs available too.
Don´t remember their names right now.
Know Tomshardware did a comparison between a amd board with one and an Atom based board.

/niz23

[Zaerc]

Funny you should mention it, I was just reading that article myself, looks like it not only performs better, but uses less power too: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997.html

[Marie.O]

Zaerc,

interesting article. And AMD even has a fab in Germany, so they do do something right.

rgds
Oliver

[totallymaxed]

Funny you should mention it, I was just reading that article myself, looks like it not only performs better, but uses less power too: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997.html

Hmmm... this is interesting. The ASUS Eee Box clearly has some very clever engineering as its overall system energy usage ie not just the motherboard on its own but with Hard drive & WiFi powered to...is less than 50% of the Athlon or i945GCLF boards tested. Also from a physical perspective the ASUS package ie the actual system unit enclosure is half the size of the i945GCLF motherboard without enclosure (we have all of these here on test).

So overall ASUS have done a damn good job on the Eee box.

I'll post our energy measurement results from a range of current hardware and which are based on fully configure Cores/MD's on the Wiki in the next few days for comparison.

All the best

Andrew

[adder]

Hi Andrew
Any update on your energy testing?
Have you managed to test an Eee box as a media director yet?
TIA

[totallymaxed]

Hi Andrew
Any update on your energy testing?
Have you managed to test an Eee box as a media director yet?
TIA

Yes we are testing the ASUS Eee Box here and it is working very well indeed using UI2 + Overlay (after adding support for the NIC to the initramfs etc... see other threads here on that issue). In fact we are seeing possibly the best video performance from the Eee Box of any MD... and I include nVidia/ATI in that statement too.

All the best

Andrew

[Marie.O]

Andrew,

that is very nice information you post here, regarding the video performance of the little ASUS box. You might be on to something here

I assume, you are testing it with SD content.

rgds
Oliver

[Kallan]

I'm also very interested in using the eee box as a MD. But are you using the b202 or the b204/206. I'm also interested to know if you are talking about SD or >720p content.  I think a eeebox mounted to the vesa mounts would make a perfect MD. But what about IR receiver for the remote and rs-232 for TV control?

[totallymaxed]

I'm also very interested in using the eee box as a MD. But are you using the b202 or the b204/206. I'm also interested to know if you are talking about SD or >720p content.  I think a eeebox mounted to the vesa mounts would make a perfect MD. But what about IR receiver for the remote and rs-232 for TV control?

We use the B202 currently. The B202 is only really suitable for SD content upscaled to 720p. The B202 is a nice unit and works well when attached behind or to the back of a screen. A MCE USB IR receiver will work fine and you can use a USB->Serial adapter cable for rs232 control of the TV.

All the best

Andrew