Intel Core i3-4130 undervolting, how low can you go?

[Hi-Fi Man]

There doesn't seem to be too much info on undervolting these CPUs. Does anybody know an average of how low you can take these CPUs and what is the usual stock VID range?

How good do these i3s undervolt as far as heat reduction, power consumption, and noise are concerned?

 

[BSim500]

There doesn't seem to be too much info on undervolting these CPUs. Does anybody know an average of how low you can take these CPUs and what is the usual stock VID range?

How good do these i3s undervolt as far as heat reduction, power consumption, and noise are concerned?

I don't own a Haswell i3 in particular, but the only thing I can find is this German guy who undervolted an i3-4330 from 1.044v stock (3.5GHz) to 0.984v and knocked off about 10c and 250rpm fan speed:-
http://extreme.pcgameshardware.de/prozessoren/300614-temperatur-dualcore-haswell-undervolting.html

Usual Haswell i3 stock VID range from what I've seen is about 1.05v to 1.15v with some "good" and "bad" outliers at around 1.0v and 1.2v. Overall, you should be looking at a -0.10v to -0.15v undervolt.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

How good do these i3s undervolt as far as heat reduction, power consumption, and noise are concerned?

If you want a guaranteed low-power i3, why not just get a T version? A T will have a lower (~0.1V) Vcore then a regular i3. They can be a little difficult to source, but are essentially the same price, and save you a good deal of tweaking...

Unless tweaking is the point...

 

[PPB]

Intel chips are prone to be already in the low range of volts regarding binning. So there isnt really much room left for you to undervolt it at stock clocks. AMD on the other hand is just plain lazy and this is why, for example, I could shove off a whole 0.1v across all Pstates without stability issues on my 8320.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Yeah I kind of figured it wouldn't be much but since I can't tweak anything else (sigh Intel...) I thought I'd try to go lower. stock VID seems like a bit of a lottery and just Haswell in general seems like a lottery.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Yeah I kind of figured it wouldn't be much but since I can't tweak anything else (sigh Intel...) I thought I'd try to go lower. stock VID seems like a bit of a lottery and just Haswell in general seems like a lottery.

I'll just add that Haswell is already tremendously efficient at stock. I doubt if you can push much below 0.05-0.1V at stock.

 

[Khato]

No idea how an i3 would undervolt as it really depends upon the stock VID. I do know that I was able to ratchet up the efficiency of an i7-4770k by disabling turbo-boost to keep it at a constant 3.5 GHz and lower it to 0.95V. It's an interesting exercise, and actually can be useful in cases where maximum performance isn't necessary.

 

[shrewdgamer]

Intel chips are prone to be already in the low range of volts regarding binning. So there isnt really much room left for you to undervolt it at stock clocks. AMD on the other hand is just plain lazy and this is why, for example, I could shove off a whole 0.1v across all Pstates without stability issues on my 8320.

By undervolting 8320 how much power consumption was reduced? From 125 to what?

 

[crashtech]

I will second the 4130T. It's currently the only commonly available 35W Haswell afaik. I'm running one passively cooled, so far so good.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I will second the 4130T. It's currently the only commonly available 35W Haswell afaik. I'm running one passively cooled, so far so good.

Passively cooled? Now I'm interested. I've been wondering if it was possible without being unreasonably expensive. What case/heat-sink are you using?

 

[Accord99]

I don't have a Haswell i3 but for comparison purposes I currently have a laptop with a Haswell i7-4702HQ that I've undervolted by 0.09375v. This results in a reported voltage of <0.89v at 3 GHz with all 4 cores running.

Also, I have several Ivy Bridge Celeron G1610s that run at <0.9v stock at 2.7 GHz.

 

[stuff_me_good]

I have i3-4130 and I adjusted the offset voltage to -0.05v, so idling it will be running on 0.750v. Have not tested any lower than that. It works now and has not crashed ever so far.

 

[Haserath]

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2338897

Balla was able to get much less than 1V for typical i3 clocks.

 

[tweakboy]

Youre going gang green.. congrats

 

[PPB]

By undervolting 8320 how much power consumption was reduced? From 125 to what?

Cant tell really, apart from lower load temps, because I dont have a kill-a-watt just yet :x

 

[crashtech]

Passively cooled? Now I'm interested. I've been wondering if it was possible without being unreasonably expensive. What case/heat-sink are you using?

The Akasa Euler. There is a caveat, though, which I discovered after having some compatibility issues with an mSATA SSD. It was having some problems with it not waking from sleep or generally just acting weird, and one night after my daughter had been piddling around with homework after I'd gone to bed, I awoke to find it had probably BSODed, restarted itself and couldn't find the SSD. Sitting there hung, with no OS to throttle back the CPU, the internals after a whole night of sitting there hung finally reached about 70°C. No permanent harm done I think, but it can overheat if run at 100% for very long periods. Now that I have a Samsung 840 in there, there haven't been any problems. The chassis gets warm, but never feels hot.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The Akasa Euler. There is a caveat, though, which I discovered after having some compatibility issues with an mSATA SSD. It was having some problems with it not waking from sleep or generally just acting weird, and one night after my daughter had been piddling around with homework after I'd gone to bed, I awoke to find it had probably BSODed, restarted itself and couldn't find the SSD. Sitting there hung, with no OS to throttle back the CPU, the internals after a whole night of sitting there hung finally reached about 70°C. No permanent harm done I think, but it can overheat if run at 100% for very long periods. Now that I have a Samsung 840 in there, there haven't been any problems. The chassis gets warm, but never feels hot.

That is interesting. Thanks, I might look into building something like that. I can see at least a couple of uses for a completely silent/passively cooled PC. Though I'm assuming there has to be -some- sort of airflow around the case, right?

 

[TeknoBug]

Toy with -0.08v to -0.1v.

I'm running -0.115v on my i7. never goes above 60C under heavy load.

PS- that font takes me back to 1983.

 

[crashtech]

That is interesting. Thanks, I might look into building something like that. I can see at least a couple of uses for a completely silent/passively cooled PC. Though I'm assuming there has to be -some- sort of airflow around the case, right?

I don't think it would do well in an enclosed space. The one I have is VESA mounted and in a relatively open and air conditioned space, convectively cooled. When 14nm comes along I am hoping to upgrade it to a lower wattage CPU, 25W or lower, with the same or better computing power.

 

[piasabird]

Just get a weak Celeron. It is already undervolted. Just joking here don't take it too seriously. I have an ITX computer with the Intel i3 4330 and I thought it was running a little warm so since the power supply was above the CPU, I just turned the power supply around so it sucks the hot air off of the top of the CPU. I do not do any gaming so it runs fine for me with the stock cooler. In an ITX case, you don't have a lot of room for a large cooler.

 

[Hi-Fi Man]

Anybody know how much heat these these i3's push with stock heatsink and how loud?

Side thought: Is it possible to cool this CPU with a Hyper 212+ passively? That would be pretty sick.

 

[crashtech]

Anybody know how much heat these these i3's push with stock heatsink and how loud?

Side thought: Is it possible to cool this CPU with a Hyper 212+ passively? That would be pretty sick.

I don't think so. A Megahalems, probably, with some airflow provided by a case fan.

I have a Celeron G1620 with the board mounted vertically in an open-air scenario which is passively cooled with a Megahalems, it has not yet exceeded 50°C under regular use in an area that gets pretty hot. The fins on the heat sink are oriented so air can rise through them as it heats.

 

[Dufus]

Intel chips are prone to be already in the low range of volts regarding binning. So there isnt really much room left for you to undervolt it at stock clocks. AMD on the other hand is just plain lazy and this is why, for example, I could shove off a whole 0.1v across all Pstates without stability issues on my 8320.

FWIW I run a negative 0.1V across all P-States on my Haswell i7-4700MQ with a 20mV to 30mV margin for stability.

This is quite important for laptops that have a limited power delivery and cooling system. Running 3.4GHz across all cores at ~1.0V instead of ~1.1V means a 21% saving in power and temperature reduction from core to local ambient.

 

[stuff_me_good]

Have anyone of you undervolters tested what are the energy savings by undervolting? Like I said before, I undervolted my 4130 processor to 0.75v and I checked with my energy meter after that how much lower energy consumption I got from that and the end result was none. I mean zero, I did not get even one lousy watt less in idle consumption.

So in my case by undervolting there was nothing to be gained, but at the same time you risk your system to become unstable.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Have anyone of you undervolters tested what are the energy savings by undervolting? Like I said before, I undervolted my 4130 processor to 0.75v and I checked with my energy meter after that how much lower energy consumption I got from that and the end result was none. I mean zero, I did not get even one lousy watt less in idle consumption.

So in my case by undervolting there was nothing to be gained, but at the same time you risk your system to become unstable.

Any gains might just be lost in PSU (in)efficiency. What sort of PSU are you running?