value in undervolting/underclocking for me?

[leiff]

The main purpose of undervolting/underclocking is less heat & electricity right? I have a PC I keep on all the time for bittorrent. It has E-8400 3ghz duo cpu. I have a P5qu-em ASUS MB that I know is overclocking friendly but I havn't tried yet. Would I save much electricity in undervolting? This would prolong life of CPU? I've been running SETI on my PC. It keeps my cpu at %100 nearly all the time causing my CPU to hover around 55c as reported by realtemp. Should I consider and or undervolting/underclocking? seti program wont run as fast if processor is underclocked but maybe my older cpu isn't so efficient anyhow and just a waste of electricity?

SETI- search for xtra terrestrial Intelligence

 

[undermined]

underclocking/undervolting is mainly only useful for getting better battery life out laptops and helps them keep cool so their fans don't have to spin up.

On a desktop setup it might save a slight bit of heat but having good airflow and a decent PSU that is 80plus gold or platinum would do more for heat and power usage overall that under-clocking would.

Overall having a newer CPU would save more because it would be more efficient on it's power usage and it's heat output.

Undervolting/underclocking makes a big difference for some users because they aren't stressing the system much so all the extra MHZ and voltage is just wasted heat and power but if you have the system pegged at 100% it cannot really help much.

Also at stock voltage you'll likely never see electro-migration or some other chip failure taht would cause it to fail.

Heat is about the only thing that would kill a chip faster than normal at reasonable voltages and that isn't even likely because of throttling and internal safeguards.

 

[leiff]

underclocking/undervolting is mainly only useful for getting better battery life out laptops and helps them keep cool so their fans don't have to spin up.

On a desktop setup it might save a slight bit of heat but having good airflow and a decent PSU that is 80plus gold or platinum would do more for heat and power usage overall that under-clocking would.

Overall having a newer CPU would save more because it would be more efficient on it's power usage and it's heat output.

Undervolting/underclocking makes a big difference for some users because they aren't stressing the system much so all the extra MHZ and voltage is just wasted heat and power but if you have the system pegged at 100% it cannot really help much.

Also at stock voltage you'll likely never see electro-migration or some other chip failure taht would cause it to fail.

Heat is about the only thing that would kill a chip faster than normal at reasonable voltages and that isn't even likely because of throttling and internal safeguards.

Thanks for the input! So your saying there is no value to undervolting for me since I'm running at %100 cpu all the time? I was concerned keeping my system at 60c 24/7 was not a good idea and undervolting will lower temps? I also neglected to mention that in my custom rig the only exhast is out my PSU, so in addition to my CPU, my enermax mod 82 + PSU also idles at 60c. Is this bad for my PSU? Are you suggesting that even after a successful undervolt and lower temps, my components since undervolted will be more susceptible to failure by electro-migration or some other chip failure? Plus my temps wouldn't go down much anyways since I'm always at %100? Is that right?

 

[ZodaEX]

Thanks for the input! So your saying there is no value to undervolting for me since I'm running at %100 cpu all the time? I was concerned keeping my system at 60c 24/7 was not a good idea and undervolting will lower temps? I also neglected to mention that in my custom rig the only exhast is out my PSU, so in addition to my CPU, my enermax mod 82 + PSU also idles at 60c. Is this bad for my PSU? Are you suggesting that even after a successful undervolt and lower temps, my components since undervolted will be more susceptible to failure by electro-migration or some other chip failure? Plus my temps wouldn't go down much anyways since I'm always at %100? Is that right?

No, undervolting will dramatically lower your temps. If you go low enough you wont need a CPU fan at all even under load. Another option to consider is upgrading to a better CPU cooler but 55c under load is an alright temp anyway. My CPU comes undervolted from the factory so it does put out significantly less heat than the 95w 620e X4. (Mine is 45w tdp)

 

[leiff]

thanks for input. I interperted previous poster as saying there was negligible benefit for me to undervolt and in fact would be putting my components at risk of shorter lifespan but it seems you are in disagreement? Or do you believe keeping my CPU/PSU at 24/7 60c temp is not a problem? And then there's the less electricity benefit? Negligible? If it is advisable for me to undervolt, can someone give me the simple guide? Or pherhaps I can go to a forrum where someone knows exactly how to undervolt my MB so I can just follow directions without having to do the dirtywork of actually learning it myself? I've never over/underclocked before. Hopefully running SETI on my torrent PC 24/7 isn't a waste of CPU

 

[bigted]

since you are running it at 100% 24/7, you will see a benefit to undervolting. as far as how to undervolt, you will need to go to your BIOS settings and look for "VCORE" and lower it until you find a voltage that is stable while running SETI. it's that easy.

1) reboot into BIOS
2) lower VCORE by one setting (usually you have to change it to manual, and then lower the number)
3) save and exit
4) let OS boot, and make sure SETI starts, leave on for several hours (or overnight)
....if blue screen
.........reboot to bios
.........raise VCORE to previous setting
.........finish
....else
.........restart at step 1)

 

[leiff]

ok great! No math or sycing or learning curve. So I lower Vcore by one setting at a time; test at full CPU load several hours and keep lowering like this until I crash and then go back 1 or 2 values is that right? When you say 1 value at a time do you mean fractionally value? Is it safe to make a first big jump for my first lowering? Pherhaps someone familiar with my P5qu-em ASUS MB e8400 cpu can advise? Are there any other tweaks to my bios I should make? Thanks in advance guys!!

 

[ZodaEX]

thanks for input. I interperted previous poster as saying there was negligible benefit for me to undervolt and in fact would be putting my components at risk of shorter lifespan but it seems you are in disagreement? Or do you believe keeping my CPU/PSU at 24/7 60c temp is not a problem? And then there's the less electricity benefit? Negligible? If it is advisable for me to undervolt, can someone give me the simple guide? Or pherhaps I can go to a forrum where someone knows exactly how to undervolt my MB so I can just follow directions without having to do the dirtywork of actually learning it myself? I've never over/underclocked before. Hopefully running SETI on my torrent PC 24/7 isn't a waste of CPU

Overvolting is what shortens the lifespan of components. Undervolting does the opposite. If you have a 3000RPM case fan, and you undervolt it down to 5v spining at 1000 RPMs it should last much longer. The same is true with other stuff. CPUs, lightbulbs, ect. So undervolting would extend the life of your CPU. Not that it matters. When is the last time you've seen a post about someone wearing out their CPU from use? By the time you wear a CPU out it would be pathetically outdated - even by my standards. As far as the electricity angle, theres a lot to consider.

If you really are super hardcore serious about finding extra terrestrial life then there's merit in letting the frequency run as high as you can for getting the most amount of work done for Seti. If your more concerned with saving power, often times moving to an 80+ Gold power supply with make a much much bigger difference than just a CPU undervolt alone would do. If I were you, I would just undervolt as much as you need to in order to keep your load temps more reasonable. (I would try and get it down to 55C if it were me. Another option that would be perhaps more easy, is limit Seti to only using one CPU core. That way your Processor will only be 50-55% loaded at most times which should also keep your temps under control. However the most ideal way in my opinion is to do a moderate undervolt and underclock so multitasking will still be smooth.

Remember too underclocking is like overclocking but in reverse. One of the best things about underclocking though is your can always lower the cpu multiplier - even on a locked processor!

 

[leiff]

lowering cpu multiplier = lower performance right? In that case I'm hoping won't be necessary and undervolting alone will reduce temps enough for me; Thxx!

 

[ZodaEX]

lowering cpu multiplier = lower performance right? In that case I'm hoping won't be necessary and undervolting alone will reduce temps enough for me; Thxx!

Right, lowering the multiplier will in turn lower your CPU frequency. And you might be able to undervolt enough as is without lowering the multiplier.

 

[leiff]

Sorry guy's, went into bios--- very intimidating
I think I need someone who's familiar with my bios congig- P5qu-em ASUS MB
Any sugguestions or links to sites before I start trolling ASUS forums?

 

[ZodaEX]

If it intimidates you then I would just set Seti's affinity to only use one core and call it a day. And I can tell you right now, there is life out there.