Fanless ION2 dual core

[ShiningDragon]

So, meanwhile there's a lot of time gone. The 1st bought i3-550 was very impressive, so i decide to built more machines on this base. The server has now: 1x H55 Mainboard (ATX), 1x i3-550 (K0), 2x 2 GB DDR3-1333, 2x 2-Port S-ATA 2 Controller (PCIe x1), 1x ISDN PCI Card, 2x HVR-2200, 1 ODD and 9 HDDs. The regular power consumption while idle within Windows 7 64-Bit Pro ist only at ~90-100 Wh. And this one have enough power to manage all services i need at home AND transcoding dvd / bluray to .x264. The powerconsumption while transcoding is at 122 Wh. The speed is nearly the same as on a Intel Q6600 (with my settings around 30 fps).

But that is not all. I loved this one. Also i sold my bad ION (nvidia sucks at chipsets!) MediaCenter and replaced it with an Intel H55 (µATX), i3-550 (K0), 2x 1 GB DDR3-1333, 1x ISDN PCI Card, 1 ODD (BluRay) and 2 HDDs (2,5"). That i choosed the more expensive i3-550 instead a really cheap i3-530 is because the better manufacturing (newer stepping, lesser errata) and the possibility to drive this cpu complete passive (it has more than enough power to hold this cpu down for any task!). The powerconsumption in idle lies at around 50 Wh. While playback isos (mpeg-2) or mkv (x264) the cpu usage stays down. The integrated graphics is a really good one. The same quality and speed as any nvidia counterpart! So the powerconsumption don't really raise up. I love this one!

Not enough till now, no. Until last week i had my good old Q6600 on a G965 chipset. Very reliable. Really fast. Good enough not to uprade, i thought. The only weakpoint was it's really big powerconsumption. So i changed my main machine. A stronger cpu i wanted to use. More power. Lesser powerconsumption and a LOT smaller than my Big Tower before. Also i bought an Intel H57 (ITX) mainboard and an i5-760 (normaly this board has no quadcore support, bios is recognizing this cpu as dualcore, but after win 7 starts up all is fine). This system is a really fine thing! Short explained: The power consumption drops at 50% while the power raises at 50% (transcoding x264 with my settings: Q6600=30 fps, i5-760=45 fps). The main system has above configuration + GeForce GTX 260², 2x 4 GB DDR3-1333, 3x HDDs and 1x ODD (and a bunch of usb devices). While transcoding the powerconsumption raises up to 150-180 Wh (depends on turbo of the i5). While idling (and writing this text) the consumption is at around 100 Wh. Not bad at all, i would say. There are running enough backgroundtasks, not enough to raise speedstep, but enough to consume power.

Lust but not least: I am very happy with this new generation. It is strong, efficient and a lot cheaper than my old flagships. The time will show, how robust and reliable this systems really are. I will replace my other Socket 775 hardware and the last ION platform after sandy bridge appears.

[ShiningDragon]

Muahaha... quality made by intel/nvidia/asus:

Yeah... ION 1 is a hot machine. ^^;