Need help at underclocking my new PC

[emp]

Ok... so I just put together a new rig and I need to underclock it, reason? Because the area to where I moved has no cable and I still want to watch my TV shows :lol: After a few months looking at my bills I saw a constant bump of $40-60 because I was using my Gaming rig to download, so I put together a new rig from old spares.

The original plan was to use a P3, but the mobo for that is dead, so i'm taking a 2ghz P4 and hopefully underclocking it with your help, since I don't need performance but just something that will save some cash from the bills.

I will post the specs later (installing XP now and then running CPU-Z), but if it's possible I'd like an introduction, list of possible risks, and guidance through my new underclocking experience (I've done only mild overclocks in the past on some celerons/P4s but never got to increase the voltage.)

To my understanding after raising FSB (to overclock) to a certain point if one is trying to for wild overclocks one needs to increase the voltage to allow more overclocking room.

Now if the above is true (please i'd like confirmation on it), then most likely the same principle can be applied backwards to underclock a CPU, decreasing voltage as one decreases FSB to keep the CPU working properly. Please i'd like confirmation on this aswell.

**New** Specs:

P4 2.0A Ghz Northwood 400FSB (Socket 478)
MSI MS-6540
Onboard Video
1x Supertalent 512mb DDR400

EDIT: I put another PC together with spares, this BIOS looks easy to raise FSB (however that is not what I need), but can't find anything about voltage. Will try to get mobo model as soon as I have it up and running.

 

[fracturechris]

hey, you might be able to use a program which i smeantfor laptops, but i know that you can half the power usage of your processor with it

its called speedswitch XP

if im wrong im sure someone can add extra.

 

[Pinoy]

I myself am also curious about this, I've tried to underclock my 2.8e before and lowest I could go was about 2.6. Any lower and it would fail to post.

Anybody got an answer? :?:

 

[chuckshissle]

$40-$60 a month, for you rig? What? Where do you live?

I got a rig runs 12hours weekdays and 24 hours weekends and I got about $20 of bill a month on the pc alone.

How much wattage is your psu running?

 

[chuckshissle]

Here's a good site to calculate your appliances operating cost. Only for U.S.

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html

 

[emp]

about 430W, it's a cheap PSU. ill try out speedswitch XP, right now installing Service packs first.

 

[Pinoy]

Bump :!:

 

[kaver]

...

 

[kaver]

Actually you can try getting a good PSU for energy efficiency cheap ones heat to much and burn/use unnecessary energy also, don’t think that if you gat a lower Watt PSU you will save energy the PC will only use what it needs

So if you get a 550W PSU and the PC needs only 230W (example) ill just consume that not the 550w

Plus ill run less hot and smother

So actually getting a good PSU lower power consumption and when I say good I mean a good brand not a hi wattage cheap one

Hope this helps!!

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[Pinoy]

Actually I wasn't worried about saving $$ on electricity. I've got a prescott :lol: I was toying with the idea of building a new system and throwing the pressie into a htpc but I'm worried about heat and quiet more than performance. Like I said I've gotten down to 2.6(from 2.8) but I seem to hit a wall there.