Underclocking a 3200+ Venice (754)

[BlueWeasel]

I recently installed WHS on my older system made up of 754 parts:

Jetway NF4 754 M/B with onboard GF6100 graphics
A64 3200+ Venice (2.2Ghz stock/1.4v with CnQ enabled) w/ Freezer Pro HSF
1GB DDR-400
250GB SATA HD (7200rpm system drive)
1TB SATA HD (WD green power)

Prior to installing WHS, the 3200+ overclocked nicely to 2.55Ghz on the stock volts . However, now running WHS 24/7, the system simply doesn't need all that CPU power.

I've installed the AMD processor driver, enabled CnQ, and enabled the balanced Server profile within WHS. The AMD monitor indicates that CnQ is working properly and the CPU underclocks to 1.0Ghz/1.1v when idle.

Given all of that, would I really gain much power savings by manually underclocking the chip to 1.5-1.6Ghz with the voltage around 1.25v to 1.30v?

 

[A554SS1N]

You might save about 15-20watts on the CPU with those settings from stock; of course if you take into account the overclock power, then it might be around 30watts as an estimate. Hard to work out really. It's probably not a huge amount under normal circumstances, but nice to have if you really don't need the power and of course will matter more if it's always kept on - so might even work out quite alot over a year. You could probably turn the fans down alot (even off in cool enough conditions) too.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Originally posted by: A554SS1N
You might save about 15-20watts on the CPU with those settings from stock; of course if you take into account the overclock power, then it might be around 30watts as an estimate. Hard to work out really. It's probably not a huge amount under normal circumstances, but nice to have if you really don't need the power and of course will matter more if it's always kept on - so might even work out quite alot over a year. You could probably turn the fans down alot (even off in cool enough conditions) too.

Thanks for the info. However, does the 15-20w saving take into account Cool N Quiet? With CnQ, I can run at 1.0Ghz on 1.1v. Further, I can use RMclock to lower the clock speed down to 800Mhz (also still at 1.1v).

Given that, I really don't see much need in tweaking and manually changing BIOS settings. If software or CnQ underclocking is good enough, then I'm happy.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

CnQ sure does help out alot.

I like how my x2 4200+ finally utilized CnQ with Vista while XP never worked no matter what power settings i chose. From 2.2ghz to 1ghz it lowered my idle temps by ridiculous amounts (10-15C at times). I'm sure that also translates to your situation. At load it'll save you some power, but idle we're talking 800mhz to 1ghz. Not a big difference tbh..

 

[A554SS1N]

Originally posted by: BlueWeasel

Thanks for the info. However, does the 15-20w saving take into account Cool N Quiet?.

I was basing my comment around your manual underclock to 1.6Ghz and undervolt (i.e. comparing the load scenario) - I should have stated that With the cool and quiet, I'd have to compare it to a like-wise idle or low-usage situation, and from what I've seen in reviews, another smaller portion of wattage would be further saved.