Undervolting Questions for New Build w/Core i3 2120T

[Azuma Hazuki]

So, not two hours ago I just finished building a new machine for the family. It's my first mini-ITX build, and being that it's on a B75 chipset, the voltages are all fully-controllable.

Core i3-2120T
8 GB (2x4 GB) DDR3-1333 7-7-7-21 @ 1.5v
Kingston SSDNow 100v 64 GB SSD
ASRock B75-MITX mini-ITX motherboard
Habey EMC-800BL chassis

I've got the FCH and CPU voltage settings at 1.00v exactly, and the peak temps for case and CPU are a little over 40C. What I want to know is, how low can the 2120T go? And, does undervolting damage the hardware at all? So far there's been no instability but I haven't pushed it very far...

Edit: and good Lord was this a tight fit...i ended up removing the optical-drive bracket and simply duct-taping the SSD to the ceiling panel. Kind of ghetto but it works.

 

[Blastman]

Computerbase undervolted a i3-2100 (3.1Ghz) by - 0.15 from the stock 1.136v. So that puts it at 0.986v. But it’s running faster than your 2.6Ghz so you should be able to go a little lower.

You would have to test to see how low you can go. My i3-530 (same 0.32 process tech) will boot up and get to windows at 0.95v. Any lower and no go. So I just add 0.05 – 0.06v to that minimum boot up number to get a stable VCORE which is ~ 1.00-1.01v for my i3 (at least that is a method that has worked for me). You could probably go a little lower than 1.00v with that i3-2120T, maybe 0.95-0.96 and then test run it with Prime95 for stability. Although I don’t think you will lower the wattage consumption much at this point because 1.00v is already pretty good.

Lower vcores won’t hurt anything.

 

[jstn2007]

That site also tested the 2100T and was able to pull off an -0.18 offset, 16-25 multi! I also have an ITX box with the 2120T as well. Will post screens later.

 

[Don Karnage]

Undervolt all you want. Doesn't hurt anything