True wattage of a Celeron E3300 dual-core 2.5Ghz LGA775? 20.4W

[VirtualLarry]

They are rated by Intel at 65W, but then again, so aren't the E8400 CPUs too, aren't they?

I'm looking at using an Intel mini-ITX 775 board in this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811321017

It claims to have a 120W PSU, but evidently ships with a 60W power brick.

Will I be able to use an ITX mobo (Q45 chipset, I believe), an E3300, 2x2GB DDR2-667, and an SSD, and fit it all into the power budget?

I do have some Celeron 440 CPUs (single-core 2.0Ghz) that are also in the 35W class, if need be.

Edit: Found an old XBitLabs review of the E3300. They did an isolated power test, and found that the E3300 used 20W under load!
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/celeron-e3300_8.html

 

[videogames101]

TDP is maximum, actual draw will always be lower - that's why Intel introduced SDP or whatever to reflect normal usage power draw.

 

[Dufus]

TDP is maximum, actual draw will always be lower - that's why Intel introduced SDP or whatever to reflect normal usage power draw.

It's not the maximum, it's the thermal design power used by manufacturers to provide a minimum requirement for a cooling solution. The CPU may try to limit maximum draw to keep under the TDP specification which is just a figure, but this can be exceeded, especially by overclocking.

A simple google of "TDP is not the maximum power that the processor can dissipate" will return plenty of results from Intel having stated this time and time again.

Intel defines TDP as follows: The upper point of the thermal profile consists of the Thermal Design Power (TDP) and the associated Tcase value. Thermal Design Power (TDP) should be used for processor thermal solution design targets. TDP is not the maximum power that the processor can dissipate.

Providing the same TDP across differently binned processors simplifies the board manufacturers power and thermal solution. Since the lower binned processors generally require more voltage for the same frequency as their higher binned counterparts and more voltage means more power, their top clock is limited below that of a higher binned chip to keep them within the same TDP specification.

 

[USER8000]

You will be fine. I have an E3400,a mini-ITX motherboard with an SSD and it runs fine off a 120W picoPSU with a 60W power brick. Power consumption does not exceed around 60W at the wall,and is under 50W for most things.

 

[ShintaiDK]

TDP is rated in families. And chips differ. Usually its only the top bins in the TDP family that gets close the TDP.

If you worry about power consumption. Remember its a Q45 setup. Its a very high platform power draw compared to today. 120W is more than plenty tho. But dont expect much difference between idle and load due to the platform.

 

[BSim500]

As others have said, Intel's TDP is purely "worst case theoretical" for the highest binned chip in the range. It's why an i5-4430 has the same listed 84w as an i7-4770k. Or why a Pentium G3220 (3.0GHz) has roughly the same 53-55w TDP as an i3-4340 (3.6GHz). In reality, they're always lower.

I have an i5-3570 (non K) that's theoretically 77w, but in practise, is nearer 50w at stock and can even be pushed below 40w with a -0.1v undervolt (that's 4-cores loaded under Prime). Even OC'd to 4.2Ghz, it doesn't exceed 55w. And I know from prior experience that many "55w" i3's can be undervolted to run below 30-35w. Some chips are better "binned" than others (work at lower voltages) so you might not get exactly 20w out of the box, but you shouldn't have too many problems, especially if your motherboard can undervolt it. You could always use a 90w pico-PSU "brick" for extra overhead if you do.