Does anyone undervolt their PCs?

[ManBearPig]

Im running and a64 3400+ and kinda wanna attempt to undervolt it. Any opinions? Negatives, positives? Thanks

 

[imported_Kensai]

It works wonder if you're aiming to build a silent PC with the capabilities of a fast system, if you're in need.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

"kinda wanna attempt"?

Usually one devises a reason first, then finds a method to accomplish it.

- M4H

 

[Duvie]

Need those temps to stay low and to be able to run at low rpm (near silent decibels)...If you have the right controls you can drop the cpu of some of the A64 winchesters like +.1v below stock 1.4v. That can get those load temp swings to be minimal and thus can work in a SFF case where maybe only 1 case fan will work...

 

[ManBearPig]

What if i just wanna do it to keep low temps? Will it hurt anything?

 

[Budman]

Does anyone undervolt their PCs?

Yes all the time, it's called Cool & Quiet.

 

[sellmen]

Originally posted by: Heen05
What if i just wanna do it to keep low temps? Will it hurt anything?

It won't hurt anything. If you set the voltage to low low the CPU won't work properly, but that's about it.

 

[teutonicknight]

Originally posted by: Budman

Does anyone undervolt their PCs?

Yes all the time, it's called Cool & Quiet.

1.1v right now, 26c/78f on my Winchester 3200.

 

[WW2Planes1]

Originally posted by: teutonicknight

Originally posted by: Budman

Does anyone undervolt their PCs?

Yes all the time, it's called Cool & Quiet.

1.1v right now, 26c/78f on my Winchester 3200.

Yeah, cool and quiet is nice. I'm running 30 CPU/31 Case on a Newcastle 3000 (Vcore =1.088, clock speed 1GHz). But i've got the QFan (availible on Asus at least, not sure about other motherboard makers), so my CPU fan is running at 1454. Although, if it gets cold enough, the fan will shut off completely. The CPU can idle at around 33-34C with no fan (on the stock HSF).

 

[AristoV300]

If you undervolt make sure that you stress it for stability.

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

i have a 3000 130 nm. it does 2.0 ghz stable at down to 1.20 Vcore. makes a ton less heat then. I think you need to disable cool and quiet if you do this btw

 

[Pandamonium]

Undervolting is great if you don't want to overclock (or don't want to overclock very much). Most people undervolt in an attempt to reduce case temps, and underclocking is another common method to accomplish this.

I'm undervolting a Barton 2500+ @ 1.3V and have software to scale the FSB from 100MHz to 166MHz @ 1.3V. If I weren't so lazy, I would tweak each FSB for its lowest voltage and scale it that way, but @ 1.3V/100MHz FSB, my CPU is only reporting 37°C.

With your A64, I would recommend taking advantage of CnQ if at all possible. It's a much better version of what I'm doing, and I would imagine that it works much better as well. If your board doesn't support CnQ, you could try undervolting. From what I gather, A64's undervolt like champs. You could probably hit the minimum voltage at stock clockspeed and be stable.

 

[Blain]

I'm underclocking a P3-933. :shocked:
A friend's PC got zapped by something. He lost his old BX MB, 550MHz Katmai and one DIMM.
I had a clunky VIA MB. But it only seems to work using the 100MHz FSB. So I've got him fixed up with a 933 running @ 700, because of the MB problem.
Heck, it's still 150MHz faster than his Katmai was! :laugh:

 

[ManBearPig]

Thanks guys...since i cant really OC because of my RAM (and other stuff, long story, maybe one day when im not lazy ill retry ) im just gonna undervolt it. Its at ~1.50, think i should reduce it by the most minimal increment?