Wattage requirement for Intel D945GCLF mobo with integrated intel atom 230

[manmath]

I have installed MM 09 on my newly built nettop. It's an Intel D945GCLF board with Atom 230 1.6 GHz procesor fitted to a generic 500 watt SMPS. Overall, I am happy with the performance, but the only disappointment is it consumes much more power than it should. Please somebody suggest what should be the wattage of SMPS for this motherboard.

Should I use a Cabinet with 150 watt SMPS? 220 watt? Or the generic 500 watt is OK?

[ThirdOfSix]

It has been a while since I read about that processor. So, I do not know for certain what its power requirements are.

But, I think the whole atom line of processors are very low power.

You say that you are disappointed with the power consumption.

How are you measuring it?

The truth is that your choice of optical drive, video card, and hard drive are probably going to have a lot more to do with the machines power consumption than that motherboard does.

If your goal is for a very quiet low power machine, you really need to determine the power needs of each portion of the machine before selecting a power supply. And, for that matter you should probably check the power needs before selecting the video card or optical drive.

Also, since many machines get a lot of external USB stuff added to it, you need to consider them also. The specification for USB requires either one or two amps per USB port. Sorry, I do not remember which it is.

Keep in mind that a switch mode power supply has to charge up some large capacitors on power up and the size of those capacitors and therefore the current surge on power up is going to be proportional to the overall capacity of the power supply.

Therefore, if you are trying to keep surge current low, you do not want to oversize that power supply.

Also, a large power supply will probably have two fans instead of just one. They draw power and make noise.

In general though, a switch mode power supply is very efficient. So, a good quality one is not going to draw a lot of quiescent current after initial start, no matter what its rated output.

If you are going for low power and noise, you might want to consider one of the power supplies that is made for that. They have no fan, just huge heat sinks.

[manmath]

Thanks ThirdOfSix! That makes a lot of sense. But I would be happy if somebody throws a straight answer. Can I save some power by replacing the generic 500w SMPS with a 200 or 150 Watt SMPS? The USB drives I use are: a USB modem and a webcam. That's all.

[ThirdOfSix]

Well, actually, that was a straight answer.

Without knowing whether you have one of the really high performance video cards or how many drives, it is the only answer that can be given.

If it were me, I would stick with the supply that you have. An undersized power supply can create a very unpredictable and confusing array of symptoms on a machine.

The power requirements of a good quality switch mode power supply is almost all due to the load applied to it.

In general, having a larger supply just gives you the added capacity if and when you need it with very little penalty if you don't.

If it has two fans with one that stays on all the time, you could reduce the power requirements by disconnecting that fan since the other will come on as needed.

EDIT:

Ok, about now, you are thinking "what an idiot!".

I just looked up that board and realized that the only available slot is PCI. So, you probably are not using an add on video card.

If you only have one new hard drive and one new optical drive, I doubt that you could find a power supply that fits your case that would be too small.

The reason that I stress "new" drives is because I have an old optical drive that draws about 6o watts all by its self.

[smcs_steve]

I have installed MM 09 on my newly built nettop....................................
Should I use a Cabinet with 150 watt SMPS? 220 watt? Or the generic 500 watt is OK?

Try power calculator here>
http://www.schrockinnovations.com/powercalc.php
and Atom CPU performance see>
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Intel-Atom-Efficient,1981.html

We tested the ECS 945GCT-D embedded board with a 1.60 GHz Atom 230 processor. The energy consumption of the overall system came in at just 40.5 watts, which sets a new record in our test lab. The speed of the Atom platform turns out to be sufficient for surfing the Internet and playing DVDs, but you need to employ the right software in order to use the unit sensibly. The use of Hyper-Threading technology means that the speed of the tiny Atom processor is effectively increased by up to 37%.

>Steve

[manmath]

Thanks Steve!
I am going to replace that 500 watt SMPS with one below 200watt.