Any downsides to underclocking besides less system performance?

[Link19]

Well, the obvious about underclocking your system bus and CPU is slower system performance. But are there any other side affects to underclocking a system besides just performance? And would underclocking a socket 478 Celeron 400MHz FSB be an ok thing to do? The reason I ask is because the slowest FSB for socket 478 Celeron is 400MHz, so would underclocking a socket 478 Celeron FSB say to 350MHz make it's performance even worse than a socket 370 Celeron run at stock speed? If you want to know why i want to underclock, I'm looking to build a silent PC.

 

[quakefiend420]

i cant really see any other downside to it...actually, your components would probably last longer...but you're looking at a timeline of 8-15 yrs...dunno if you would still be using it by then...cept that i would know my pc wasn't performing to its max potential...but im an avid overclocker...so that would bug me...

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: Link19
Well, the obvious about underclocking your system bus and CPU is slower system performance. But are there any other side affects to underclocking a system besides just performance? And would underclocking a socket 478 Celeron 400MHz FSB be an ok thing to do? The reason I ask is because the slowest FSB for socket 478 Celeron is 400MHz, so would underclocking a socket 478 Celeron FSB say to 350MHz make it's performance even worse than a socket 370 Celeron run at stock speed? If you want to know why i want to underclock, I'm looking to build a silent PC.

Guess what....you don't need to underclock. Get a big heatsink (Thermalright) and a low CFM fan (NMB.) Then put a single low CFM fan in the exhaust position. As an alternative, use whatever fans you have laying around but 7 volt them. If you could hear that over the drone of the hard drives and power supply, then you should be working for the CIA or something.

After that, replace the mobo's chipset fan with a Zalman. Then find a quiet power supply. Then find a way to quiet those noisy drives.

There's way too much drama over this sort of thing on forums like this. You DON'T need 4 case fans. You DON'T need 30+ CFM screamers. But if you truly want a wimpy system, build one around an Epia!

 

[PhoenixOrion]

No need to undervolt a celeron.

There are already too many silent solutions for cooling systems nowadays thanks to companies such as Zalman, etc.

 

[Metron]

I agree with chocoruacal... go with low noise components.

EndPCNoise is your friend...

Metron

 

[Link19]

I'm looking to go completely solid state thus being fanless. I don't care what anybody thinks about how unecessary it is and how little of a difference it will make, that's what I want to do is build a pure solid state system. Now does anyone know this regarding the FSB speed for socket 478 CPUs? When it says it's 400MHz, is that really 100MHz quad pumped for an effective FSB of 400MHz? Or is it 200MHz double pumped? And is the performance of 100MHz quad pumped exactly the same as 400MHz single pumped with no noticable differences? Also, do socket 478 CPUs have to run at a minimum of a 400MHz FSB to be able to perform how they should? Another words, would underclocking a 400MHz FSB to 390MHz make a socket 478 CPU perform worse than a socket 370 CPU at stock speed? I don't mind giving up performance for an underclock, but i don't want to construct a socket 478 CPU system and have it under perform a a socket 370 CPU system which is much slower in MHz to begin with.

 

[Appledrop]

Originally posted by: Link19
I'm looking to go completely solid state thus being fanless. I don't care what anybody thinks about how unecessary it is and how little of a difference it will make

arrogant noobz

 

[Link19]

Originally posted by: Azzy64

Originally posted by: Link19
I'm looking to go completely solid state thus being fanless. I don't care what anybody thinks about how unecessary it is and how little of a difference it will make

arrogant noobz

That's what I want to do and there is nothing wrong with it!!!

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

Originally posted by: Azzy64

Originally posted by: Link19
I'm looking to go completely solid state thus being fanless. I don't care what anybody thinks about how unecessary it is and how little of a difference it will make

arrogant noobz

haaaaaa! anywho,

i'm not sure if yuo realized this but most power supplies have fans, and youl pay more than 100 for a cheap fanless

your best bet for fanless would be to get a pentium m dothan or mobile athlon 64, especially with cooln quiet this would produce less or equal the heat of an underclocked cellery. and still give btter performance. anywho if you want fanless get one of those giant 120mm solid copper heatsinks and make sure there is plenty of room around the heatsink for natural convection to occur. also a blow hole or something would be good to make sure the heat escapes.

i don't want to gump at your idea, but even 1 7 volt pananflo will help cooling immensely and produce way less noise than even the quietest hard drives (either a seagate or a 5400 rpm) i think the system would be quietest overall to put a fan on it and seal up the case with sound dampening material

 

[RelaxTheMind]

Do you have solid state hard drives? I saw those running at about $2000 for like 20gb. They are only like ata66 but then again they do have a <.02ms seek time...

You should keep it next to your bed in winter because its gonna be a nice heater with all that sitting hot air.

I personally would underclock a mobile athon xp. 1.5v

Or at least a fan that comes on when your temps get above 80ºC

viclfo

 

[stevty2889]

Even with a P4 based celeron, it is highly unlikely you can go completely fanless. Modern CPU's gernerate far too much heat for passive cooling. If you really want to go fanless, you would pretty much have to go back to a pentium 2, or you could always go with water cooling.

 

[Viper96720]

I think the socket 370 celerons were faster than the socket 478 ones. With equal speed not sure now though.