undervolting sandybridge

[newboy]

Hi only my 2nd post on the forum please can someone tell me if my question is in the right forum or should i have posted in the overclocking section
I need to buy a gigabyte motherboard 1155 socket but want sata 6gb and a bios that will allow me to undervolt the cpu Vcore manualy i have no intention of overclocking
pc will be on 24/7 so any reduction in power consumption would be great am using i3 2120 in the cheapest motherboard i could find any suggestions for a gigabyte board with this function would be most helpfull
Did have a gigabyte M56S S3 board a while back and found the bios easy to use
Thanks

[Lsdmeasap]

If you do not want to overclock that's fine, but you shouldn't undervolt as it can cause similar damage that overvolting can cause.  I'm sure a little bit of undervolting would probably be OK, but if you take it too low damage can occur for sure.

Link us to your favorite stores and we can look around for cheap models for you if you want

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

Whilst the idea is admirable the reality of underclocking is a different matter. If you actually work out how much energy and money you can save from such a project you will find it is negligable. That is the reason I don't even use the sleep functions etc as you are not really helping at all.

[newboy]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post i am not looking at underclocking what i am wanting is a some suggestions for a motherboard that has the provision in bios to allow me to manualy  undervolt my cpu at stock speeds would also be good if the board would allow me to undervolt NB and Memory
The reason i want to do this is to keep noise and temps down as much as possible but it is also something to experiment with if i dont find something to do i will just  want to upgrade or alter my pc in some way
Have done the overclocking thing balancing fsb with multi and volts ect but only ever used AMD cpu before this is my first INTEL cpu and am not upto date with modern motherboards so please any pointers in choosing a gigabyte board that allows me to do this plus would prefer it has sata 6gb ports as have just bought an ssd but could do without sata 6gb if it means getting a board with better undervolting capability i am at a loss trying to choose a board myself as there are boards with lots of overclocking functions i may not need and do not know if any of the non overclocking boards will give me what i need   

[ex58]

Just set in BIOS "Optimized Defaults" and all power saving "Enable" (C1E,EIST and C3/C6).

[Aussie Allan]

                  Just an opinion

 
   Under-Volting CPUs is becoming a popular thing from what I see across the forum/s ...... but what is the reason behind  people going down this path ..... is it the belief it'll save you a fortune in a given year ..... or is it .... "Mine can go lower than yours".........

  It's widely excepted applying too much voltage to any electrical Item is not a good thing (overvoltage) and will reduce the life of any given electrical item ...... but did you know "Under-volting" is about 5 times more damaging...... even the hardwired safety features built into near on all electrical items are geared towards protection of over-voltage because of how the power is regulated and supplied  off the grid to your house.

  If it's a cost saving "Save the Whale" attitude ...... your talking in the pence per year and at the cost of longevity of the component ...... and..... it'll cost you £250 pounds to replace the the CPU you "UnderCooked" .........Here's another little bit from awhile back on cost of running the PC...http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,6991.0.html

  And here is a UK cost calculator for the juice you use if you want to check yourself.......Enjoy!

  http://www.ukpower.co.uk/tools/running_costs_electricity/

  Aussie Allan 

[Lsdmeasap]

The Intel Specifications PDF's for Sandybridge will show you the absolute electrical maximums and minimums before damage occurs, if you need a link to these let me know.

[Aussie Allan]

  yehhhh!  bump me the link when you have time Lsdmeasap  .... Can't hurt to add to the skull-drive.

  Aussie Allan

[Lsdmeasap]

Here ya go!

CPU's (Page 80 for Absolute Maximums and Minimums) - Intel has not listed Max/Min for Vcore (VCC) this time around, VID is not Vcore, but since Min VID is 0.25 that's very confusing, I doubt any CPU will function that low.   Sadly Intel robbed us of much needed information on these processors!
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/datasheets/2nd-gen-core-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.pdf

Many users get confused by that, here's more details on how Intel is withholding this information from us this time around, and as you can see those CPU's VID minimum is lower than Vcore (Vcc) min as wel (0.8 VID and 0.3 Vcc)l, so that means the 0.25 VID has nothing to do with minimum Vcore before damage in 1155 CPU's
http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1036790684&postcount=23


Chipset (Starting on Page 314 for Absolute Maximums and Minimums)
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/datasheet/6-chipset-c200-chipset-datasheet.pdf

I did some more reading on this, and find varying beliefs, but I can't find the old article detailing how this causes damage but I know I've read it more than a few times, it's caused because the CPU is designed to run within certain ranges and anything outside those ranges may cause damage due to the design of the circuits.   It was long ago I read about this though, so it could all be incorrect now?   I know it can cause instability for sure, and due to what I've read previously I know I wouldn't undervolt very far if you do it, just because it would be outside of spec and that article I can't find anymore  

I did find this though, but of course it's wiki so written by anyone

Below a certain limit the processor will not function correctly, or at all. Undervolting too far does not typically lead to hardware damage, though it is possible for files to be corrupted[

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_cooling#Undervolting

More brain gymnastics on the subject can be found here as well 
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?232269-Long-term-negative-effects-of-undervolting&p=3965616&viewfull=1#post3965616

[newboy]

Thanks for all the input everyone and i do read all the replies to my post have also read most of the articles pointed out in your posts shall read the rest shortly we all have our own opinions on most things in life not just undervolting a cpu but am still going to give it a go always had AMD until now this is my first INTEL setup so know nothing about the available boards hoping one of you Gigabyte gurus will point me in the direction of a board able to do what i want without paying for features i shall never use like SLI but still want a quality board have had a real good look on Gigabyte site but most descriptions just say something like CPU Vcore control,NB voltage control or Memory voltage control does not state if you can control voltages down as well as up.
Thanks
My pc specs below
I3 2120
Corsair force 3 ssd 120gb
Corsair XMS3 2gb x2 pair
Corsair VX450 psu
HD 6850 1gb
Ginger Monkey Tower case

[Lsdmeasap]

You still need help choosing a board, or did you pick one already?

If you still are looking, let everyone know your ideal price range and link to some of your favorite online stores and we'll have a look for you.

[newboy]

Still looking for a board and any help from you guys on this forum would be great have not posted back on here until now as being new to the forum did not want anyone to think i am just here for a quick fix without doing some research myself so been trawling the internet for a couple of days this is a project for me to keep me occupied for a while i reckon i need a P67 board does not have to be top spec as i wont be upping the voltages
But still want a good board thought about a GA P67-D3-B3 looks like it has the same VRMs as higher spec boards
Now i could be wrong with this next bit if so please jump in and tell me looks like the offset voltage function is the way to change voltage on the boards today the GA P67A-D3-B3 has an offset of 0.200v is there another gigabyte board with a larger positive/negative offset than this as i need to lower the voltages for all the Pstate also want to lower NB voltage,Memory voltage as well would this board do this or is another more suited to what i want also is there a program for Intel boards equivalent to K10STAT for AMD have not found one when searching the net
Budget is up to a £100 but if it is less then the left over can go towards an I5 later this year then pass the I3 to the wifes computer
I have no prefs for online buying but like to deal with someone with good customer service have only used Scan,Ebuyer and Dabs in the past.
Thanks

[Rolo42]

i reckon i need a P67 board does not have to be top spec as i wont be upping the voltages

But you will be lowering the voltages and attempting to run below tolerances, which makes the quality of components (chiefly power) more critical.

[newboy]

Taken that into account and although this board is not top end it does seem to have a decent power circuit for the cpu if you read the spec sheet on Gigabyte website you will see something called INTERSIL VRD12 i think what it does is allow the cpu and power circuit to talk to each other to ensure better power delivery? so is this board any good or not if not please suggest an alternative

[Rolo42]

I think all Gigabyte boards are good boards but, in the spectrum of boards, other boards will likely have a greater chance of succeeding at what you want to do.  

Undervolting isn't unlike overclocking: higher voltage allows for cleaner switching at higher frequencies; lowering the voltage but keeping the same frequencies has the same effect: both are more sensitive to input power stability.

Now, how much will all this matter between boards?  I doubt anyone who hasn't designed these boards can say without experimenting.  I would say, a more robust board that may allow you to undervolt a little more would likely end up using more power than the basic board simply because it is more complex with more parts.

We are splitting really fine hairs here, so if power conservation is your concern, I wouldn't get wrapped around the axle about it.  If you wanna just 'cos you wanna--I can understand that.