Foxconn G31MG-S
Foxconn’s G31 motherboard is called the G31MG-S. The second “G” stands for its “Green” series, which consists of three features that Foxconn refers to as 3G technology. GPS means Green Power Saving; GoD stands for Green on Demand; and GSM represents the Green System Mode. Green Power Saving refers to combining the motherboard with an efficient power supply to maximize power efficiency. Although we didn’t use a Foxconn PSU, we’re sure that our choice fits very well. Green on Demand is very much the same as implemented by other motherboard makers under different brands: voltage regulator phases are switched off when they’re not used, to increase efficiency per voltage regulator. Finally, Green System Mode refers to utilizing all power saving features that are available.
Motherboard Details
The board supports a FSB1600 setting, which we found to be absolutely reliable. However, this setting is not officially supported by the chipset. Foxconn uses only solid capacitors and a three-phase voltage regulator that we believe makes the most sense for a high efficiency system. The chipset components are passively cooled and there are only two memory sockets. While this isn’t upgrade-friendly, it ensures that you don’t install more memory modules than necessary. In addition, using two 2 GB DDR2-800 DIMMs will already take you to the G31 chipset’s 4 GB memory maximum anyway.
Upgrade Options
As with most other motherboards utilizing integrated graphics, the G31MG-S comes with an x16 PCI Express slot, which will host a discrete graphics card should you need serious 3D performance. An additional x1 PCIe slot and two 32-bit PCI slots accept other add-on cards. Foxconn implemented one of the two possible UltraATA/100 channels, which should still be sufficient. All four SATA/300 ports are available, but RAID is not supported.
The board clearly was designed for low-cost desktop applications, as it only features an analog D-SUB15 display output. We believe that at least a DVI port is mandatory, as the analog output decreases visual quality on high-resolution displays. All other interfaces are very much standard.
Power and Performance
The performance of the Foxconn G31MG-S was very much in line with what we saw from Gigabyte’s board, so the benchmark differences are not worth mentioning. Idle power, however, was amazingly low on this board. While Gigabyte’s solution required a minimum of 38 W at all times, the Foxconn G31MG-S runs with as little as 31 W on idle—this represents 18% less idle power needed for Foxconn. Power required to finish the SYSmark 2007 Preview was smaller as well, hence this board won the battle for performance per watt. The only stain was the slightly higher peak power of 61 W as opposed to 60 W with the Gigabyte board.
Voltage power doesn’t seem to change between idle and max power: in both cases, CPU-Z reported 1.215 V. Foxconn still showed much better power efficiency with its product.
Nice article. I'd like to see the team now take this budget system and tweak it into a gaming machine. New power supply, overclock it, 4870 GPU and see what this budget platform can do when pushed. Compare it to a stock clock E8600, X48 motherboard, 8 GB of RAM and a 4870. Although low power systems may be the rage right now, when i turn a 1,500w electric heater on in the bathroom when i take a shower in the morning it's not a huge concern for me if one mobo is 31w at idle and the other is 38w.
You don't leave your heater on 24/7 in the bathroom - 8 watts here 8 watts there, it adds up (if you keep your PC on all the time)
Or you can get a 4X50E with a 740g or 780g, that is cheaper and equal energy efficient and has all the futures like HDMI, 3D performance.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article859-page5.html
As far as turning this machine into a mean, green gaming machine, I would suggest an e2140-bsel pin modded to 1333 fsb, a hitachi 500GB sataII drive-4w/8.3 idle/max, and a hd 4670 videocard-no external power plug required. This would make a very potent rig. I know this because that's what I have on the foxconn board used in this article One last thing, with case, p/w supply and 2Gb ram the total cost (including shipping) was less than $300.
Sounds like a nice build!
Yes, from the silentpcreview article, it seems like 740g or 780g could be a better choice.
Yes, from the silentpcreview article, it seems like 740g or 780g could be a better choice.
Ya most people would do just fine with an amd system. But TOM's got new free computers, car's, spaceships from INTEL and NVIDA so nowadays tom's are a EPIC bias.
I don't get it? These mobo/cpu combos are so lame. The atom on a desktop mobo is also very lame. How far should people go to save a few watts of power. These machines are in my opinion totally useless.
Why not just buy a laptop? I have a Dell M1330 with Nvidia card graphics fast dual core processor that easily runs Vista w/Aero, runs Photoshop CS3 I use to edit field RAW photography, and plays HalfLife 2 at full res with ease. It draws around 30W at full load and 20W in idle, and has HDMI out for watching movies, not to mention how small it is. It dual boots both Vista/WinXP.
Now that we have desktop systems that approach laptop-level power requirements, I would say that in a year that we should have some really good choices on the market for low-power-consumption desktops.
That is... if the world still exists as we know it in a year...
warezme you are a retard.
Where I work there are currently 120 desktops between 4 levels. Each desktop is on 24/7. If i can save 10 watts on each of those desktops im saving thousands of dollars per year. Get it now? Just because you are a gaming scrub with no clue doesnt mean that all technology should appeal to you.
Skythra your apparently nothing but an A hole of major proportions and if you honestly thing your users will get by on the measly performance offered by these equally tarded setups as you are, to save "10 wats" than go for it because it sounds like your deserve them....
Calm down folks. Warezme, there are people interested in these setups, they just need to run internets and word. While the components are indeed weak it is not lame to write about them, esp for business perspective.
Skythra, no need to call someone retard for expressing an opinion which I agree with by the way. These desktops are really nerfed and a laptop would fit nicely as prices have dropped a lot.
Carry on now.
Warezme:
Get serious. This machine has ample power for the standard office productivity applications, which probably represents 90% of the use of computers in the world, including in the corporate sector. The difference between these builds and a stacked $2000 machine is almost totally invisible to such users. Indeed, the only people that would really notice the difference are the people writing check to the utility companies.
I like AMD but I am no AMD fan boy. The only AMD X2 chips that come close to E7200 is 6000+ and 6400+ and they use a lot more power. In addition, if for some reason, I need more power than 2.53 GHz I can just OC to 3.0 GHz without voltage increase. Find an X2 that can achieve 3.8 GHz with reasonable voltage.
At work I had a choice between an HP laptop or desktop, I took the laptop for work at home, but If i did not go on road, a g31/e7200 setup would demolish my t7300 laptop with 2gig ram on a 800 bus with ddr2 667.
I dont play a single game on this laptop but i do watch a movie here and there...and its fine...so the g31 would be more than enough....
I just have one more comment regarding recent toms articles....how is a 1,500$ system a budget system...I dont have the money to buy that when i'm gaming once in a blue moon.
I built a system for about 400$ and comes close to some of these things....an e2160 chip at 2.6ghz, 2 gig ram, asus p35 board, and asus 8600gt, an 80g sata drive for the os and an older sata 200g for some tunes and pics....and i bought a cm 690 case with cm5500 extreme power ps....the only thing in their i wish i could change at the mobo(settings dont allow for good overclock) and the power supply is loud...but that system is close to what i can afford....spending 1500$ to me is not budget, not when your putting a quad core and other stuff, a budget system should be that, on a budget, shopping for deals....etc...oh and if ya wanna save power...shut the mofo down....if your woried on how much a small system will cost on electricity you should have bought the system....just like the idiots that buy a dodge ram v8 and have never put more than a few pieces of wood in it and cant afford the 150$ gas bill each week.....
GMA 3100 is NOT based on GMA 3000 - this is totally different. It is based on the older GMA 950 (pretty much 100% identical in fact).
I would like to see a amd comparison, such as the AMD Athlon 4850e 2.3GHz paired with a FoxConn A7GM-S. This is a $135 pairing as opposed to the Intel reviewed which is $175.
Warezme, i don't think you have a very good understanding of how some people use cmoputers. Not everyone uses their comps for gaming and not everyone can use a laptop to meet their needs. I personally run a X2 4450e on a 780g chipset to house my raid array. This setup runs quieter, cooler and draws less power than my previous P4 setup.
Just because you cannot see a use for this technology does not mean the rest of the world cannot. Some of us care about how much power we use.
HTPC
Why not just get a laptop??? You would also save power with its LCD screen versus a separate monitor.
Isn't this what many people requiring a non-gaming machine are doing these days??