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I love Zacate!

VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
There. I've said it.

I built a Zacate rig about 2-3 weeks ago, and I have to say that it does everything just fine for my day-to-day computing needs. I haven't tried running DVDshrink yet on it, which I probably should, but everyday web browsing is snappy, and it runs videos from YouTube just fine, including 1080P ones.

Best of all, it sips around 40W, with a desktop 7200RPM HD, and standard SATA DVD burner. Can't beat that.

I just found out last night, that my existing desktop rigs (in sig), take over 400W under load! (Holly Sheet!)

So I'm planning on replacing them, at my earliest (and budget) convenience. I won't be able to contribute as much to F@H, but that's the least of my worries, with a nearly $100 electric bill every month.

So I'm thinking of perhaps another couple of Zacate rigs, but I'm keeping an eye on LLano, depending on what the power consumption of those looks like, I might go with one of those, since it does have a little bit more power under the hood than Zacate, and I might want to transcode some vids in the future.

But for media consumption (not creation), Zacate is the ultimate HTPC, IMHO.

If you game extensively, then perhaps Zacate is not for you (although, check out LLano), but if you're not a hardcore PC gamer, Zacate will handle your daily computing needs with ease.
 
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Yeah.. That's nice... But I live in an appt. building where I dont have to pay for electricity... At all... So...


However, I am still very excited about Zacate. Looking forward to it becoming more mainstream!
 
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So I'm planning on replacing them, at my earliest (and budget) convenience. I won't be able to contribute as much to F@H, but that's the least of my worries, with a nearly $100 electric bill every month.
Click to expand...

Like Zap says, turn off F@H and then compare the power use. Also try setting the Q6600 back to stock 2.4 GHz -- that will still make it much faster than Zacate.

4 overclocked cores running F@H are going to use much more power than the much slower Zacate CPU.

Cost-wise and for the environment, you should consider using what you have (but letting them idle or sleep) instead of running them flat-out all the time or replacing them with new motherboards that must be manufactured and shipped, generating pollution at every step.
 
ibex333 said:
Yeah.. That's nice... But I live in an appt. building where I dont have to pay for electricity... At all... So...
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No, you're paying for the electricity. You just have the privilege of paying the landlord a nice fat percentage to take care of the bill for you. :biggrin:
 
DaveSimmons said:
Cost-wise and for the environment, you should consider using what you have (but letting them idle or sleep) instead of running them flat-out all the time or replacing them with new motherboards that must be manufactured and shipped, generating pollution at every step.
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I took your words to heart, Dave. I've stopped running F@H on my two Q9300 desktops, and instead, set them to go to sleep after 30 minutes of inactivity. They take 5 watts in sleep mode, and wake up, well, as fast as the monitor takes to wake up. When the monitor clicks on, the screen is already woken up and ready. Pretty nice, actually.

Now I figure that I use the computer a few hours a day, so my power usage will be small, with it in sleep mode most of the time.

To be able to do this, I put my MagicJack onto my HTPC, which required me to get a powered USB hub, since my HTPC's USB ports didn't have enough power for the MJ dongle.

I've got one plug space left on my UPS, to plug in a small server if I wish to. I put all of my power bricks on a "power squid" (non-surge protected, just an outlet multiplier), and plugged them into my UPS. So if power goes out, theoretically, I should still be able to use my MJ for a few minutes.
 
Has anyone else built a Zacate rig, or considering it? Has anyone built one, and overclocked it? I'm curious how well these things overclock. I saw a RE5 benchmark video on youtube, with a Zacate clocked at 2.1Ghz. It was maintaining an acceptable framerate, which really amazed me. These little systems are very capable, way way moreso than Atom rigs.
 
I like my zecate netbook, but I obviously didn't build it. Also couldn't use it as my primary PC, just not fast enough for the occasional games I play. Llano, maybe. But the advantages are not great enough to justify building a new system today.
 
Blain said:
How does the Zacate stack up against an Atom D525 with nexGen video?
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You mean ION2? Zacate should be better all around. Both platforms are CPU limited, as even the low end IGP is more than the CPU can handle. Thus, Zacate wins by having a CPU that is a hair better than dual core Atom.
 
ION2 = yes

Would the hyperthreading support of the dual core D525 help it all around, or would it only benefit with certain applications?
 
Blain said:
ION2 = yes

Would the hyperthreading support of the dual core D525 help it all around, or would it only benefit with certain applications?
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I really wouldn't know, having never purchased an Atom rig with hyperthreading, but I would imagine that it would be similar to how a P4 HT 3.2Ghz chip was, relative to an AMD Athlon64 3200+.
 
Blain said:
ION2 = yes

Would the hyperthreading support of the dual core D525 help it all around, or would it only benefit with certain applications?
Click to expand...

atom is different microarchitecture than lynnfield/nehalem/sb so my guess is that HT gains are going to be more akin to P4's range of maybe ~10-15% instead of the 30-40% what you would see on i7's.

HT helps, but as always YMMV depending on the app used.
 
VirtualLarry said:
I really wouldn't know, having never purchased an Atom rig with hyperthreading, but I would imagine that it would be similar to how a P4 HT 3.2Ghz chip was, relative to an AMD Athlon64 3200+.
Click to expand...

I have a D510 running misc. server tasks, and I can't tell a bit of different with HT on or off. I know that's not very rigorous, but it's at least something. :awe:
 
Has anyone else built a Zacate rig, or considering it?
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Asus zacate MB has just arrived - the rest of the stuff is on the way.

I'm planning to use it as HTPC, so I probably won't OC, unless I'm not happy with stock perf. in HTPC operation.
 
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