atom330/gma950 + et
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24 Jan 2009, 19:32
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Journals
hoiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!
i'm planning to build up an ultra low power consumption home pc to reduce electricity costs!
what i want to use the computer for/what i expect from it is/are:
-10+ hours usage, of course any pc can do that (thus tdp is really important)
-NO NOISE (ffs, my current rig is as loud as a hoover)
-tv out capabilities for low-skilled htpc purposes
-should handle ET + CS:S at a decent framerate (and Q3,CS 1.6 too but that will work for sure)
i have a nice fps config, and i don't care about graphics quality at all!
-preferably dual core cpu
-matx form factor (since i already own an old matx p3 based celeron rig. i want to change the inner specifications of that pc!)
i only need mobo+cpu+ram(+vga? gonna explain this below)
what brought my attention was:
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945gclf2/D945gclf2-overview.htm
Intel® Desktop Board D945GCLF2 With Integrated Intel® Atom™ 330 Dual Core Processor
i'd say the price of this one is fairly acceptable.
according to google, it can handle up to 1080i mkv.
i'd like to team it up with 2G DDR2 667mhz.
it has GMA950 graphics, and no hdmi :( actually s-video would already do it for me....
i am really interested in how well it can handle ET! what do you think?
my eee pc with GMA915 can run it, but it's not playable. i guess gma950 is faster but the difference is not too big.
the 2 core atom cpu with hyper threading should do fine. i'm more concerned about the vga.
the only possible upgrade would be a PCI (normal PCI, not PCI-E) video card, which is rare, expensive, and slow. but could well be faster than the GMA950!
i could get a PCI Radeon 9250 128MB 64bit video card for a decent price. do you think it's any better than the GMA? (i really hope so. the only downside of it would be no hdmi. a pci hd2400 would do it for me, but i can't find it anywhere.....)
what's your opinion (don't write useless comments please. thank you!) ?
could you recommend any other systems? :-) (i couldn't find any. something with via c7/nano might be possible tho!)
***EDIT***
i've just found this:
so maybe at 640x480 ultra low i could squeeze out 76 fps :> or perhaps not ? :(.......
i'm planning to build up an ultra low power consumption home pc to reduce electricity costs!
what i want to use the computer for/what i expect from it is/are:
-10+ hours usage, of course any pc can do that (thus tdp is really important)
-NO NOISE (ffs, my current rig is as loud as a hoover)
-tv out capabilities for low-skilled htpc purposes
-should handle ET + CS:S at a decent framerate (and Q3,CS 1.6 too but that will work for sure)
i have a nice fps config, and i don't care about graphics quality at all!
-preferably dual core cpu
-matx form factor (since i already own an old matx p3 based celeron rig. i want to change the inner specifications of that pc!)
i only need mobo+cpu+ram(+vga? gonna explain this below)
what brought my attention was:
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945gclf2/D945gclf2-overview.htm
Intel® Desktop Board D945GCLF2 With Integrated Intel® Atom™ 330 Dual Core Processor
i'd say the price of this one is fairly acceptable.
according to google, it can handle up to 1080i mkv.
i'd like to team it up with 2G DDR2 667mhz.
it has GMA950 graphics, and no hdmi :( actually s-video would already do it for me....
i am really interested in how well it can handle ET! what do you think?
my eee pc with GMA915 can run it, but it's not playable. i guess gma950 is faster but the difference is not too big.
the 2 core atom cpu with hyper threading should do fine. i'm more concerned about the vga.
the only possible upgrade would be a PCI (normal PCI, not PCI-E) video card, which is rare, expensive, and slow. but could well be faster than the GMA950!
i could get a PCI Radeon 9250 128MB 64bit video card for a decent price. do you think it's any better than the GMA? (i really hope so. the only downside of it would be no hdmi. a pci hd2400 would do it for me, but i can't find it anywhere.....)
what's your opinion (don't write useless comments please. thank you!) ?
could you recommend any other systems? :-) (i couldn't find any. something with via c7/nano might be possible tho!)
***EDIT***
i've just found this:
so maybe at 640x480 ultra low i could squeeze out 76 fps :> or perhaps not ? :(.......
together with a MSI K9AG Neo2-Digital, 690G (dual PC2-6400U DDR2) which has obviously HDMI and DVI. AND you can add a PCI-E card.
if you really want to play with it I'd recommend you a fanless Gigabyte Radeon HD 4550, 512MB GDDR3, VGA, DVI, HDMI, PCIe 2.0
RAM: Corsair XMS2 DIMM Kit 2GB PC2-6400U CL4-4-4-12 (DDR2-800) (TWIN2X2048-6400C4)
so altogether mobo ~60e CPU ~50e vga ~45e RAM ~28e in total 183 EURO
unfortunately i don't know yet how much my budget is limited!
i am pretty sure i wouldn't be able to afford this :-(
the atom with 2G ram and with the 9250 would cost 125 euros
without the 9250 it would be around 93 euros
it could well happen that this would be the maximum i could afford.......
(and i would save the price within 2 years for sure due to the small consumption. my current dual core opteron's tdp is HUGE)
but still i'd say, the most important thing why i would build this pc would be to cut down electricity costs :)
and ofc to get rid of the noise......... i can't even sleep besides that xD
thus i already have a case, a psu, a hdd and a dvd drive
if i would swap for the configuration you suggested, i'd also have to buy a psu, because the current one is only up to 120W :d
performance wise, it would be million times better than the atom. but it's also more expensive, so it's an interesting question.
apparently i'm still a student and i would have to buy the whole thing from my saved pocket money.
maybe i might sell my current computer and then i could switch for that one.
The latest driver updates should be able to give you 76 on maps like braundorf
You could buy the GMA 965 though for a bit more performance
http://www.crossfire.nu/?x=journal&mode=item&id=65394
i could get 30 fps with the gma 915, 512mb notebook ddr2, 630mhz celeron mobile cpu......
so i agree with you about the gma950 & the drivers.
Much like the 950
Only reason why it scored that low was due to old drivers and lack of RAM/CPU power I suppose
I get pretty decent FPS with it
with the atom i SHOULD get about 60 at least.
Don't expect outstanding 3d performance coz it's simply not meant for this. Everything else should work just fine though :)
I think the VIA's are well lower in performance (but have much better power consumption)
i've heard about the chipset fan too, but it's possible to replace it with a Zalman NB32J afaik, which is cheap.
as i've said, it's possible to run rather complex games like quake4 or cs:s on my eee pc but at a horrible framerate. and i bet that the biggest problem is 630mhz celeron cpu, not the GMA! so with the dual core atom, the GMA950 should be fine.
i have to say gaming comes after all these, it should simply be an extra. so my whole concept with this motherboard has to be OK.
but i guess it would also be better to play on it rather than on my main rig. i am playing new games on this one, but the one i like the most is ET ofc, so i would be really pleased if i could make it playable!
And let's face it, won't you like it to be able to play ET while chatting, without having to minimize the game :) ? Dual-screen rocks :)
that is 20 euros !!!!
i am gonna call the store on monday and order one asap, before they run out of them :p i am pretty sure they only keep a few of those on stock.
and yeah, with my eeepc i have already found out that one can do miracles even with a low performance computer. i'm pointing at running ET and san andreas, + having all the compiz fusion effects @ ubuntu :D man, it was so funny to own some hardcore crysis fans at university having compiz @ a 630mhz celeron netbook :P
i basically know what i need now, most likely what i've written previously! gaming is only a hobby from now on, not my life anymore, so i will be satisfied having my favourite games up and running. to tell the truth, i don't find any recent games fun, maybe except for crayon physics, penumbra, portal and mirror's edge. all the rest are crap :>. i am pretty sure that these would run with the X1550.
if i would like to play something more complex, i could just use my main rig. (if i don't find it useful anymore, i'll sell it right away :-D)
so I guess it's gonan fail at games.
i'm surprised bcoz i could get 30fps with the 630 mhz celeron aswell......
does anyone have experience with pci video cards then?:| (i could just buy the mobo with the atom and try the gma. if it doesn't work, i could try the 9250, and if it wouldn't work, i would sell the whole thing)
i'm disappointed bcoz the gma can make san andreas playable for example. ofc lower framerates are enough for a game like that aswell.......
i have to say that higher cpu clocks would really make the atom an awesome option. but as long as it has no competition, intel is going to be lazy......
"Like many other designs it divides certain x86-instructions into simpler internal operations prior to execution, but to a significantly lesser extent (only ~4%) than in the Intel P6 (microarchitecture) and NetBurst families. In the Atom, internal μ-ops can contain both a memory load and a memory store in connection with an ALU operation, thus being more similar to the x86 level and more powerful than the μ-ops used in previous designs. This enables relatively good performance with only two integer ALUs, and without any instruction reordering, speculative execution, or register renaming. Atom therefore represents a partial revival of the principles used in earlier Intel designs such as Intel P5 and the i486, with the sole purpose of enhancing the performance per watt ratio."
+ the gma950 is going to be clocked higher aswell
First look says it isn't enough :)
2gig allows you to get 224mb video memory with the GMA950 ,whereas 1gig limits it to 128 afaik
but 128 MB ram for graphics is more then enough for ET
the atom just can't handle it, well it's nice for watching ettv matches but nothing more.
comparing onboard gma950 vs pci r9250
sofware_______________GMA950________________r9250
3dmark2001se__________2331__________________4275
3dmark2003*____________744___________________728 !!!!!!
Aquamark_______________6863__________________8037
vga______________________750__________________1005
cpu_____________________3948__________________2008
it seems like the cpu gets slower when the pci vga card is installed. however the r9250 is indeed faster by appromixately 20 to 80%
gonna go for this one:
- Intel D945GCLF2 (with integrated dual-core atom 330 and gma950)
-1 stick of 2gb ddr2, with nice latency
- HIS Radeon X1550 PCI (if it really is a PCI card, coz the shop's website might have made a mistake.. hoping for the best :P )
and i've heard that the eee boxes are rather expensive ;/