Fanless ION2 dual core

[ShiningDragon]

I'm curious, how are you measuring power consumption?

Like you between consumer and wall.

I can't quite believe that the iMON VFD and PVR-500MCE adds a good 30~60W to the load.

Just a PVR-500 can raise the consumption around 20 watts per hour. Of course, the quality of a psu is an important thing too (in this case it is a BeQuiet! 300 w modell in sfx formfactor).

Even a typical Q6600 build with the older B3 stepping would only consume around 300W at load.

Ehm, you can not just say "a q6600 would eat xxx w". In my main PC is a GTX 260², 7 harddisks, 1 ssd, 4x ram, 2 opticaldrives, 1 cardreader, 6 fans, 3 pci cards (2x pvr-500, FRITZ!Card), 2 pcie x1 (hvr-2200 / s-ata controller) and an amount of external usb peripherie...

[ilovejedd]

Just a PVR-500 can raise the consumption around 20 watts per hour.

Then that's probably one of the worst tuner cards available in terms of power consumption. However, I still can't reconcile the 90W at load unless the iMON VFD consumes 25W. I'm curious, what power consumption are you getting with the system off or during suspend?

Ehm, you can not just say "a q6600 would eat xxx w". In my main PC is a GTX 260², 7 harddisks, 1 ssd, 4x ram, 2 opticaldrives, 1 cardreader, 6 fans, 3 pci cards (2x pvr-500, FRITZ!Card), 2 pcie x1 (hvr-2200 / s-ata controller) and an amount of external usb peripherie...

The original reply actually had some qualifiers (single GPU, 2~3 HDDs, 2~3 optical). However, I closed the window accidentally and boom, my reply was gone and I was too lazy to type it all up again. GTX 260 in SLI would definitely up the power requirements. The HDD's, surprisingly, not so much. :p

[ShiningDragon]

However, I still can't reconcile the 90W at load unless the iMON VFD consumes 25W.

I tested a time ago the difference of the system w / wo iMON VFD. I am not sure, but i think there was a difference between 12-15 watts per hour.

I'm curious, what power consumption are you getting with the system off

Exactly 0 watt per hour (psu disabled).

or during suspend?

While S3 mode, the consumption is at 7 watts per hour.

The HDD's, surprisingly, not so much. :p

Don't underestimate the hunger of a bunch of harddisks. To much of them could prevent a pc from starting up (each harddisk 2.8 Ampere on the 12v rail at startup). ^^ The used harddisks (Barracuda 7200.10) eats around 9.3 watts at idle (65 w) and up to 13 watts while operating (91 w) <http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_10.pdf>

And again, finally the power consumption is depending on the used psu. Before i used an older one from Enermax (375 w psu) with an efficiency of around 70%. Now i am using an 385 w psu with an efficiency of 83%. In watt this makes a difference of around 60 watts (70% psu: 400 w, 83% psu: 337 w).

It's the same with ION. Of curse i could buy a super duper hyper mega psu with a 90% grade. Then it's consumption would go down a bit. But compared with the saved money and the price for a PSU like this... i am not very intested. The used BeQuiet delivers around 80% efficiency, so that the "real" consumptions drop down to 48 - 72 watts per hour. But i have to pay the "loss" of the psu too (nice warmup in winter), also i calculate the worth between wall and pc.

[ilovejedd]

Don't underestimate the hunger of a bunch of harddisks. To much of them could prevent a pc from starting up (each harddisk 2.8 Ampere on the 12v rail at startup). ^^ The used harddisks (Barracuda 7200.10) eats around 9.3 watts at idle (65 w) and up to 13 watts while operating (91 w) <http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_10.pdf>

Yeah. I'm aware of hard drive power consumption. It's really the start-up load that you'd have to worry about where each hard drive can draw upwards of 30W. Actual power consumption during idle and read/write are fairly low (most modern 7200RPM ones only use 5~7W). Then again, if you're using older drives, that probably explains the slightly higher power consumption.

And again, finally the power consumption is depending on the used psu. Before i used an older one from Enermax (375 w psu) with an efficiency of around 70%. Now i am using an 385 w psu with an efficiency of 83%. In watt this makes a difference of around 60 watts (70% psu: 400 w, 83% psu: 337 w).

It's the same with ION. Of curse i could buy a super duper hyper mega psu with a 90% grade. Then it's consumption would go down a bit. But compared with the saved money and the price for a PSU like this... i am not very intested. The used BeQuiet delivers around 80% efficiency, so that the "real" consumptions drop down to 48 - 72 watts per hour. But i have to pay the "loss" of the psu too (nice warmup in winter), also i calculate the worth between wall and pc.

Ah, if you were originally using a 70% efficiency PSU, then yeah, I can understand why. Meh, a lot of the 80 Plus Gold power supplies are a poor fit for low-power systems such as the ION owing to their kilowatt ratings. 80Plus only works within the 20~100% range and 30W is usually well below that. One of the ION motherboards I use (IONITX-A-U) has a power supply onboard and I'm guessing the included 90W AC-DC brick has fairly good efficiency. Hmm, come to think of it, both my ION builds are powered by DC-DC boards w/AC-DC bricks which probably explains the relatively high efficiency. Same goes for the GF9300+Celeron E3300 build. One of my ION boards (IONITX-D-E) is currently on RMA. I should test it with a run of the mill 80Plus ATX power supply (Antec EA380-D) once I get it back and see what power consumption values I'll get compared with the laptop brick solution.

[carpeVideo]

Ok I know this has been hashed out a million times before - but I have been reading this thread hoping to gleen the answer to this question:

I am looking for a quiet low power computer to have with my main TV to act as (who doesn't)
a) media player for GBPVR and other media files (HD MPEG-2 and H.264) - needs SPDIF
b) netflix viewer
c) general web browser

I have tried popcorn hour but it a) doesn't do browsing or netflix and b) handles network interruptions very poorly (which is truly sad for something called a networked media tank - I am really tired of power-cycling this thing whenever a server goes to sleep)

I was thinking one of the Zotac ION barebones with a small SSD would be the simplest and around $300 with the drive and some memory I have laying around. But then I read here that its power consumption and heat generated are not so good. Any other suggestion before I plunk down my hard earned cash.

I also looked at the intel i5's mentioned but the CPU's I see list are almost $200 by themselves and certainly are not list as low power.

CV

FYI - I have a small VCR (yes) VCR that I was thinking of gutting and using as a retro case if I go with a small motherboard.

[mvallevand]

I have tried popcorn hour but it a) doesn't do browsing or netflix and b) handles network interruptions very poorly (which is truly sad for something called a networked media tank - I am really tired of power-cycling this thing whenever a server goes to sleep)

That's typically caused by bad user practise. Most people turn off their DVD, CD, HTPC clients (even IONs), amp, tuners, cable STB's yet they feel compelled to leave their PCH's in GBPVR mode. If there is a problem this isn't hardware it is software and sub doesn't do a clean shutdown, and even if he did, I'd have to add more code than it is worth to make this work.

Martin

[carpeVideo]

Martin - you've done an awesome job with the popcorn hour and MVMPX2- oddly enough the issue for me occurs playing files in native PCH mode not even GBPVR mode.

For example I will watch something on a network share, finish watching, turn the PCH off and go to bed (even bringing it to the main menu). The next evening (after server has been asleep) - I wake it turn on the pCH and playing anything from that share causes a freeze and requires a hard restart. Similar things occur if the server has the audacity to sleep when I am watching a networked file.

[mvallevand]

If you haven't already, try changing the smb: setting for your share to use the IP rather than a hostname to potentially solve the restart issue, but I can see issues with the video demux being left in a bad state if you crash it by shutting down video in play.

I have an ION and I much prefer the my PCH, I hoped a H55 system would be my next PC upgrade but not being able to play 24 fps doesn't buy me anything over my Intel on board and nothing is appealing PC wise right now. BluRay on an HTPC is also way too expensive in comparison with a standalone player, and I hope that changes.

Martin

[carpeVideo]

I have an ION and I much prefer the my PCH, I hoped a H55 system would be my next PC upgrade but not being able to play 24 fps doesn't buy me anything over my Intel on board and nothing is appealing PC wise right now. BluRay on an HTPC is also way too expensive in comparison with a standalone player, and I hope that changes.

Martin

Thanks that is exactly the type of feedback I am looking for - I know where you are going on blue-ray I am very tempted to buy a player that does netflix and networked media for less that $100 at costco or some such place. however, I lose the web browsing and gbpvr interface then :0(

I will try your suggestion with the IP - although I may already be doing that since I use all static IPs

[ShiningDragon]

Whew... just built the new server for n-PVR. The H55 chipset is very impressive. In combination with an i3-550, 2x 2GB RAM, 6 hdds (more will follow), 1 odd, 1 sata controller and installed Win 7 pro 64, the powerconsumption is idle at 55 Wh. After full setup, i will check some scenarios and measure the consumption.

Btw., the chipset has not a fan. The fan of the boxed cooler is good enough for the cpu. The i3-550 stays below 40°c. I will later test a scenario totally silent without any fan (perhaps interesting for sub and others).