I love the idea of undervolting. Until yesterday, I had a Pentium M Bania 1.7 and was able to undervolt it enough to give me about 25 more minutes of battery life. I also was able to drop my idle/load temps down to about 50C/70C respectively. Yesterday I replaced my Bania with a 2GHz Dothan. I was able to drop my idle/load temps even lower to about 45C/60C respectively.
The only problem I've seen with undervolting however is this:
It seems as though that dropping the voltage on the processor drops the overall system voltage below what is needed for everything to function properly. After testing different voltages, I was able to find my crash point. I then bumped the voltage up 10% of that number, or the nearest full digit up (i.e. crash point = 1.052, set voltage at 1.100) in order to give the processor room for minor voltage fluctuations.
What happens at this point is something I have not seen documented in anyones undervolting attempts. Average usage is fine. Internet usage, listening to music, playing video, etc. are all fine. However, when I get into a online game that is heavily 3D, it seems as though it takes a while for server lists to populate. It also seems as though my "ping" is much higher when undervolted. Video tends to get a bit choppy, but this is usually only during heavy traffic.
I had thought that maybe this problem would solve itself when I upgraded to the Dothan chip, but its still there. I do have my MR9600PT overclocked during gameplay and thought that maybe the power drain from the video card was pulling so much juice that it and the CPU were fighting for voltage. So I downclocked my card back to default settings and the problem was still there. A good example is when I fire up UT2004 with the CPU on default voltages. When I go to "Join Game" and click internet, the list populate almost immediately. If I'm undervolted, it takes the list 5 - 15 seconds to populate. And then when I choose a map that isnt already downloaded to my harddrive, it takes the game nearly 1 minute to even begin the download.
One problem I had intermittently is that, when undervolted, my wireless card would stop working for 2 or 3 minutes. This would happen 3 or 4 times daily. This is what led me to the thought that perhaps even the MiniPCI wireless card was fighting for voltage. Which brought me full cirlce back to the idea that all of this undervolting is causing my different pieces of hardware to fight for voltage on my system because there isnt enough to share.
All of this has kind of made me afraid to undervolt again for fear that things are going to shut down on me. Now that I have a Dothan, I really want to undervolt and get the maximum benefit from this processor, but this problem has shied me away from the idea.
I'm not quite sure why I posted this. Mainly just to share my undervolting experience with the rest of you tweak-o-philes. However, I would like to know if any one in here has had the same or close to the same experience.
The only problem I've seen with undervolting however is this:
It seems as though that dropping the voltage on the processor drops the overall system voltage below what is needed for everything to function properly. After testing different voltages, I was able to find my crash point. I then bumped the voltage up 10% of that number, or the nearest full digit up (i.e. crash point = 1.052, set voltage at 1.100) in order to give the processor room for minor voltage fluctuations.
What happens at this point is something I have not seen documented in anyones undervolting attempts. Average usage is fine. Internet usage, listening to music, playing video, etc. are all fine. However, when I get into a online game that is heavily 3D, it seems as though it takes a while for server lists to populate. It also seems as though my "ping" is much higher when undervolted. Video tends to get a bit choppy, but this is usually only during heavy traffic.
I had thought that maybe this problem would solve itself when I upgraded to the Dothan chip, but its still there. I do have my MR9600PT overclocked during gameplay and thought that maybe the power drain from the video card was pulling so much juice that it and the CPU were fighting for voltage. So I downclocked my card back to default settings and the problem was still there. A good example is when I fire up UT2004 with the CPU on default voltages. When I go to "Join Game" and click internet, the list populate almost immediately. If I'm undervolted, it takes the list 5 - 15 seconds to populate. And then when I choose a map that isnt already downloaded to my harddrive, it takes the game nearly 1 minute to even begin the download.
One problem I had intermittently is that, when undervolted, my wireless card would stop working for 2 or 3 minutes. This would happen 3 or 4 times daily. This is what led me to the thought that perhaps even the MiniPCI wireless card was fighting for voltage. Which brought me full cirlce back to the idea that all of this undervolting is causing my different pieces of hardware to fight for voltage on my system because there isnt enough to share.
All of this has kind of made me afraid to undervolt again for fear that things are going to shut down on me. Now that I have a Dothan, I really want to undervolt and get the maximum benefit from this processor, but this problem has shied me away from the idea.
I'm not quite sure why I posted this. Mainly just to share my undervolting experience with the rest of you tweak-o-philes. However, I would like to know if any one in here has had the same or close to the same experience.
