[ale] cpu underclocking (silent pc in the makeing)

[John Mills]

Stephen, ALErs -

If we are thinking of the same example, it was a letter in the December,
2002 _Linux_Journal_, page 6, "Quiet Linux Box". Indeed it looks like a
good way to make a server of modest throughput. I did notice one thing
different than what you seem to have understood (in your earlier note):
underclocking reduces the processor throughput, it does not increase it.
She (the writer) also slowed the video activity and eliminated that
dedicated fan.

Power consumption and speed go together with internally generated heat,
but conversely your equipment can have more life margin if you can reduce
the stress level at which it's driven. You can't just arbitrarily reduce
the power-buss voltage and expect the system to work right, however.

On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, Stephen Turner wrote:

> actually im googling as i speek for information on this fun stuff, seems
> an interesting question is floating around the internet, if you take a 300
> wat ps and run it in a pc that only requires 75 wat max and take the fan
> out of this ps, will it die? some suggest it might be possible to get a
> few good years out of it. im also looking for information on underclocking
> cpu's i hear people under clock the mhz and voltage my question is, is
> there some relation that ties the reduction in voltage to the reduction in
> mhz? will it become unstable if you only remove voltage? i have no over
> clocking experience, i barely painted my case for a mod, so im new to this
> but i would seriously like to make a silent pc. i believe this would be a
> good learning experience and also make very usful tools :) like quiet
> tivos and such ;) can anyone verify if you can take a 300 wat ps and use
> it in a 75 wat environment without a fan? and how do you know how many
> watts your system needs?

Well, you could estimate from the installed equipment ratings. You could
naturally measure the power consumption directly.

I would expect a switching power supply to closely track the power demand
it faced, so you would achieve little or no power and/or heat reduction by
installing a supply of lower rating. If the smaller supply were quieter,
you would reduce noise (but it might be noisier if squeezed into a smaller
box). If you were producing a series of the units, you might save money.

 - John Mills

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