If you obtain the Geode (keep in mind that you can only run 'Athlon'-based Geode's. AMD also built other Geode's) you can try lowering the voltage as well. However, I do have an Athlon XP 1700+ (0308MPMW) which actually runs better in terms of overclocking as well as undervolting than a lot of Geode's I've seen. Of course you should have the luck of getting a good chip but if you have Thoroughbred B's on the shelve you can try using them first rather than buy new stuff.

The FX5200 doesn't seem like a low-power card to me. It's a sluggish 150nm part; an underclocked and undervolted FX5600 (130nm) would do better I guess. I would choose the 9250 over the 5200 based on gut-feeling.

Interesting project. I would also check out under-clocking and volting of Duron / Athlon / Athlon XP before ruling them out. What power draw are we talking for this alternative CPU?

386SX wrote:

I tried the Radeon 9600 standard 256Mb, the Radeon 9250 128Mb, also a Matrox G450, these are not bad but I think I could save even some more watts.

Out of curiosity, which of these three cards was the most power-efficient in your tests?

For suggestions, it might be useful to try cards with 64-bit memory buses, such as the 128MB versions of the Radeon 9550 and GeForce 6200A. (For 6200A, make sure you find the native AGP version, instead of the type with PCIe-AGP bridge chip, which will likely consume extra power.)

Depending on what type of office use you're looking for, you could try some GF4MX or so? Or maybe even GF2MX, but the older you go the more performance you will probably loose. You could always underclock it if you want to have even less power consumption, but wouldn't the CPU be more of a space heater here anyway? Radeon 9600 already was a reasonably cool card.

The most recent AGP graphics card I've seen that did not come stock with a heatsink was some Vanta I think (it came with 16MB RAM), but I can't be sure all of those will work in an AGP 8x slot (they are physically AGP 4x iirc, but with AGP cards of that era AGP 8x compatibility was not always guaranteed).

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Interesting project. I would also check out under-clocking and volting of Duron / Athlon / Athlon XP before ruling them out. What power draw are we talking for this alternative CPU?

Maybe with the original Duron or Athlon it will be difficult to get low wattage. I used the Duron 900, 1200/1300 SSE, the Athlon 1000, 1333 and 1400 and they sure runs hot.
The "best" was probably with the Athlon XP mobile 1400+ (0,13u 1,2Ghz,256Kbyte, maybe 25->35W?) but unfortunately on linux I can't get powernow recognizing bios pst table so it stay at the multiplier setting and default (max) voltage. Another bad thing is that my mainboards can't set cpu voltages on bios or on jumpers.

Do you know this project?

The guy undervolts his CPU (in further steps) and his VGA card.

His CPU: original XP1700+ (1466 MHz, 1.75V), max. undervolt (1000 MHz, 1.15V)
His VGA: org. GF4 Ti4200 (core 250 MHz, 1.64V), max. undervolt (core 225 MHz, 1.40V)

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article33-page1.html

SW-SSG wrote:

386SX wrote:

I tried the Radeon 9600 standard 256Mb, the Radeon 9250 128Mb, also a Matrox G450, these are not bad but I think I could save even some more watts.

Out of curiosity, which of these three cards was the most power-efficient in your tests?

For suggestions, it might be useful to try cards with 64-bit memory buses, such as the 128MB versions of the Radeon 9550 and GeForce 6200A. (For 6200A, make sure you find the native AGP version, instead of the type with PCIe-AGP bridge chip, which will likely consume extra power.)

I've only looked at idle os status but I'd think maybe the 9250 (a late built around 2007, low profile thin heatsink) seems required some less watt looking at the total plug watt meter but I don't know about Win 9x with original optimized drivers or 3D. But we're talking about few watts, they all are easy on power demand.

Something I think I remember:
K6-2+ 550, Radeon 9250 @2X, 650MB PC100, ethernet,sound,raid controller,ssd,dvd... total = 40W idle with powernow functional and cpu scaling auto to 200Mhz.
Athlon XP mobile 1400+,2Gb, Radeon 9600, eth,sound,ssd,dvd total = 68W "idle" but powernow not running cpu @ 1,2Ghz.

Tetrium wrote:

Depending on what type of office use you're looking for, you could try some GF4MX or so? Or maybe even GF2MX, but the older you go the more performance you will probably loose. You could always underclock it if you want to have even less power consumption, but wouldn't the CPU be more of a space heater here anyway? Radeon 9600 already was a reasonably cool card.

The most recent AGP graphics card I've seen that did not come stock with a heatsink was some Vanta I think (it came with 16MB RAM), but I can't be sure all of those will work in an AGP 8x slot (they are physically AGP 4x iirc, but with AGP cards of that era AGP 8x compatibility was not always guaranteed).

If I remember right maybe some 64bit Geforce2 Mx had no heatsink. I tested some usual with heatsink (175Mhz/166 128bit SDR?) but I think they still were complex chip and maybe a bit more power demanding of G450 or 9250 chip.

melbar wrote:

Do you know this project? […]
Show full quote

Do you know this project?

The guy undervolts his CPU (in further steps) and his VGA card.

His CPU: original XP1700+ (1466 MHz, 1.75V), max. undervolt (1000 MHz, 1.15V)
His VGA: org. GF4 Ti4200 (core 250 MHz, 1.64V), max. undervolt (core 225 MHz, 1.40V)

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article33-page1.html

Interesting. I think it used that cpu cause it was one of the last cpu recognized by the A7V133. It was already incredible that the XP model ran on these mobo.
One good thing is that this motherboard you can set everything from both bios and jumpers.

386SX wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Depending on what type of office use you're looking for, you could try some GF4MX or so? Or maybe even GF2MX, but the older you go the more performance you will probably loose. You could always underclock it if you want to have even less power consumption, but wouldn't the CPU be more of a space heater here anyway? Radeon 9600 already was a reasonably cool card.

The most recent AGP graphics card I've seen that did not come stock with a heatsink was some Vanta I think (it came with 16MB RAM), but I can't be sure all of those will work in an AGP 8x slot (they are physically AGP 4x iirc, but with AGP cards of that era AGP 8x compatibility was not always guaranteed).

If I remember right maybe some 64bit Geforce2 Mx had no heatsink. I tested some usual with heatsink (175Mhz/166 128bit SDR?) but I think they still were complex chip and maybe a bit more power demanding of G450 or 9250 chip.

It may very well be possible a heatsinkless GF2MX card exists, but I can't recollect any specific one.

Concerning the rest, I suppose you're kinda looking for something with a low GPU thermal profile, relatively much memory bandwidth and (due to lower manufacturing process) preferably more recent?

Tetrium wrote:

386SX wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Depending on what type of office use you're looking for, you could try some GF4MX or so? Or maybe even GF2MX, but the older you go the more performance you will probably loose. You could always underclock it if you want to have even less power consumption, but wouldn't the CPU be more of a space heater here anyway? Radeon 9600 already was a reasonably cool card.

The most recent AGP graphics card I've seen that did not come stock with a heatsink was some Vanta I think (it came with 16MB RAM), but I can't be sure all of those will work in an AGP 8x slot (they are physically AGP 4x iirc, but with AGP cards of that era AGP 8x compatibility was not always guaranteed).

If I remember right maybe some 64bit Geforce2 Mx had no heatsink. I tested some usual with heatsink (175Mhz/166 128bit SDR?) but I think they still were complex chip and maybe a bit more power demanding of G450 or 9250 chip.

It may very well be possible a heatsinkless GF2MX card exists, but I can't recollect any specific one.

Concerning the rest, I suppose you're kinda looking for something with a low GPU thermal profile, relatively much memory bandwidth and (due to lower manufacturing process) preferably more recent?

Maybe I'm wrong but if I remember there was a nice looking Creative early Geforce2 MX that I think had no heatsink. Probably one of the latest cards I've ever seen without one on the gpu.
By the way yes, some low demanding cards still modern enough to accelerate gui and multimedia. Newer cards were already quiet hot imho and fact is many low end still had big heatsinks (HD3450) or big fan on thin heatsink. With a 9W cpu and some low power gpu, I could end up building some nice 25/30W total system.

I have 2 geforce2 mx cards without heatsink, an agp (msi) and a pci version (creative). They are the first mx's with 32mb, the later ones became the mx400 and had 64mb and sometimes a bit higher clocks.

Most i have seen from both series have heatsinks.

meljor wrote:

I have 2 geforce2 mx cards without heatsink, an agp (msi) and a pci version (creative). They are the first mx's with 32mb, the later ones became the mx400 and had 64mb and sometimes a bit higher clocks.

Most i have seen from both series have heatsinks.

386SX wrote:

Maybe I'm wrong but if I remember there was a nice looking Creative early Geforce2 MX that I think had no heatsink. Probably one of the latest cards I've ever seen without one on the gpu.
By the way yes, some low demanding cards still modern enough to accelerate gui and multimedia. Newer cards were already quiet hot imho and fact is many low end still had big heatsinks (HD3450) or big fan on thin heatsink. With a 9W cpu and some low power gpu, I could end up building some nice 25/30W total system.

Seems you were correct 386SX 😀

In that case I'd suggest you use one of those, since even the GF2MX 200 is probably a lot faster than any Vanta 😜

Seems like it's very difficult to find a board with BIOS and voltage support for a Geode:

http://www.olino.org/us/articles/2006/07/16/b … suming-server-2

Or you could get a 1.5V desktop 1700+ that will work in all boards: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon%2 … A1700DLT3C.html

I have one of these in my Athlon rig and it's great, runs cool and still faster than any non-XP Athlon. 45W TDP

bjt wrote:

Seems like it's very difficult to find a board with BIOS and voltage support for a Geode: […]
Show full quote

Seems like it's very difficult to find a board with BIOS and voltage support for a Geode:

http://www.olino.org/us/articles/2006/07/16/b … suming-server-2

Or you could get a 1.5V desktop 1700+ that will work in all boards: http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/K7/AMD-Athlon%2 … A1700DLT3C.html

I have one of these in my Athlon rig and it's great, runs cool and still faster than any non-XP Athlon. 45W TDP

I am not sure but I think the K7Upgrade-600 should support with latest bios the Geode cpu. One thing I don't understand is how the Geode socket 462 can require 9W of power with the same 0,13u process of the others XP mobile. Which is the difference?