LOW heat CPU

[syuri]

Guys,

I have old system which I used as my desktop, which long time has been replaced with new one. I want to use it for home linux workstation, primarily as a server, may be to run something like torrent, but not more.
It has:
MSI Turbo (VIA chipset) (Socket A)
AMD Athlon 1.4Ghz (not XP) (Socket A)
1GB SD RAM (not DDR*)

My main desktop heats my room more then enough and do not want to add another "stove". I read about AMD Geode NX cpu line, which is VERY power friendly, and heard it can be used as a direct drop in replacement for my old Athlon. Any experience with it? I checked MSI site but no info about geode support.

I also seeking for alternative advises on *low heat* solution. The main goal is to keep performance of my old system with cheapest price (do not mind used components once they work).

Thanks.

 

[Andrew1990]

Why not go for a Intel Atom setup from newegg? It will set you back $70 + Ram Cost, it equals the performace of your current setup, and it uses very little power.

I believe it uses something like 2w alone just for the CPU. It also doesnt produce much heat and DDR2 is dirt cheap.

 

[syuri]

Andrew,

thanks for the hint.
I've already thought about Atom. But it will set me for $100 at least,
thought that I may try something cheaper. I can get Geode for $20, max $30.
Besides Atom solution gives me only one PCI slot, would be nice to have two.
I have couple SCSI HDs, so will need to put the controller in the machine.

Do you know if performance of the Atom will be up to the pair with Atlon 1.4Ghz?

 

[mooseracing]

Do you know if performance of the Atom will be up to the pair with Atlon 1.4Ghz?

No one trully knows yet, I have onyl seen a handfull of test.

I currently run a C7 and an AMD Geode 1.7, it used your socket and it uses the standard socket A heatsink. I tried to run my fanless but it gets to hot and I can't find a big enough heatsink for a 1u case. I ended up pulling the fan off the heatsink, and putting a 40mm blowing at it like a 1u case would be set up. It runs in the 40-50c range.

I am running server 2008 on it for my file server, also using it as a web server and hopefully some other apps once I get time.

It would drop in your socket but I'm not sure how well it would work, I'm not in front of mine right now so I can't see the specs but do they both require the same core voltage? Does your bios have all the adjustable setting for speeding up or slowing down the cpu?

 

[syuri]

Mooseracing,

my motherboard is MSI K7T Turbo, see some their description:
http://www.pchardware.ro/Articles/print.php?id=130
http://www.techsupportforum.co...otherboard-review.html
at the time I bought it it was considered as one of the best for overclocking,
so I suppose it has something useful in BIOS to tweak the things.
Though I am not that experienced in tweaking voltages, multipliers and such,
I was hoping that just simple drop in will work.

 

[o1die]

I found a used socket 754 asus board and 3000 amd cpu for a total of $38.25 including shipping at smksuperstore. The 3000 is very cool; averaging less than 40 celcius. My old 2800 754 ran about half the time with the fan not spinning, it was so cool with the amd cool and quiet software enabled.

 

[ther00kie16]

Well, Atom-based MSI Wind is supposed to be <$300. VIA is a good choice too though as I think those can even play HD while Atom (at least single-core) struggles to make 720p watchable.

 

[CTho9305]

I would expect a 1.6 GHz Atom to be clobbered by a 1.7GHz Athlon. Atom's architecture is radically simplified compared to modern processors, whereas the Athlon isn't all that different from the Athlon 64 (compare block diagrams, if you can find them).

 

[Andrew1990]

Well, the Atom 1.6GHz is around a Pentium M 800MHz performance level. If you want I could benchmark my Pentium M at 800MHz, just tell me what program to use and the n you can compare my scores against your scores for a rough translation of performance of the atom vs your Athlon.