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Thread: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

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    Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Just got my X4 620 from SCAN today, running naked

    CPU (AMD Athlon X4 620) -> £72.5
    Motherboard (GA-MA78GM-UD2H)-> £30
    PSU (OCZ 400W)-> £30
    OCZ DDR2-1000 2x2G -> £40
    Harddrive -> Spare Seagate 7200.9 drive lying around

    Total Cost -> £172.5!

    Undervolted from 1.4V default to 1.1V, prime95 @ 98.9W from the wall
    This is getting so close to beating my beloved T8400 laptop @ 43W in terms of power/watt, as well as twice the processing power at much lower than half the hardware cost.

    The stock AMD heatsink is doing an amazing job at 38'C full load with the included paste. Probably don't even need to bother with giving it some AS5. And it is extremely quiet even without the case. Most importantly it only took me 5 minutes to assemble

    Haven't been more excited going back to AMD.
    Workstation 1: Intel i7 950 @ 3.8Ghz / X58 / 12GB DDR3-1600 / HD4870 512MB / Antec P180
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    Workstation 3: Intel Xeon X3350 @ 3.2Ghz / P35 / 4GB DDR2-800 / HD4770 512MB / Shuttle SP35P2
    HTPC: AMD Athlon X4 620 @ 2.6Ghz / 780G / 4GB DDR2-1000 / Antec Mini P180 White
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    scaryjim (30-10-2009)

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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    good to hear you're having fun with it

    My Sempron 140 is in a tiny HTPC case and is running at 30 C with the stock cooler, at 1.1V - don't have a watt meter though so haven't been able to check the power draw yet It looks like the Athlon IIs can all run well below rated voltage though, which is great news for people after low power, cool running systems.

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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Good stuff Arthur.

    Am going for a similar spec.

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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    I just built a machine using an Antec NSK 1380, 785g Chipset and an Athlon II 240 and it's brilliant. I've recycled one of my other HDD's for it and that's by far the loudest part of it.
    It's only got 1 2GBstick of DDR3 1333 RAM in it that it shares with the Onboard GFX and it's fast enough to play left4dead with medium detail. By far the loudest part of this machine id the HDD in it.
    I love it. Total cost was less than £200.
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    YUKIKAZE arthurleung's Avatar
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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Wondering if anyone got the same board?

    I'm trying to optimize mem timing, and it kept resetting to SPD value
    Workstation 1: Intel i7 950 @ 3.8Ghz / X58 / 12GB DDR3-1600 / HD4870 512MB / Antec P180
    Workstation 2: Intel C2Q Q9550 @ 3.6Ghz / X38 / 4GB DDR2-800 / 8400GS 512MB / Open Air
    Workstation 3: Intel Xeon X3350 @ 3.2Ghz / P35 / 4GB DDR2-800 / HD4770 512MB / Shuttle SP35P2
    HTPC: AMD Athlon X4 620 @ 2.6Ghz / 780G / 4GB DDR2-1000 / Antec Mini P180 White
    Mobile Workstation: Intel C2D T8300 @ 2.4Ghz / GM965 / 3GB DDR2-667 / DELL Inspiron 1525 / 6+6+9 Cell Battery

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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Quote Originally Posted by badass View Post
    I just built a machine using an Antec NSK 1380, 785g Chipset and ...
    Talk about coincidence My case is the older (and IMNSHO better) precursor to the 1380, the Aria. Basically the same case but with a built in card reader and front firewire. The thing that's really impressed me with my Sempron is just how cool it stays considering the only airflow through the case is made by the PSUs 120mm fan running at just over 1k rpm. And given mine and arthur's experience of undervolting these processors, I think they have to become top recommendations for HTPC now - particularly with the 45W quads coming out soon - undervolt one of those by > 10% and you should be looking at a sub-35W draw from the processor...
    Last edited by scaryjim; 29-10-2009 at 02:13 PM. Reason: correction of typos!

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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Quote Originally Posted by badass View Post
    I just built a machine using an Antec NSK 1380...
    Got my Athlon II 240 in a Fusion, with the M3N78-VM the socket is nice and close to the dual 120mm fans (Scythe models, attached to Zalman fanmates and dialled down so I can't hear them above ambient) so I can run a Scythe Mini-Ninja without a fan on it, and my temps are LOW... can't actually recall CoreTemp going above 30... it probably does at some point, but not by much!

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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Hi Arthur

    Your success underclocking your X4 inspired me, so this evening I've played about with my Sempron a bit more. I've now got it running unlocked (as an Athlon II X2 4400e) @ 1.05v, stable through a wPrime 1024M. With just the stock cooler, in an Antec Aria, it was rock solid @ 36C throughout. Once I've got a plug-in power meter I'm going to take some readings at stock volts and undervolted, locked and unlocked, to see exactly how much it's costung / saving me, but I reckon it's going to be pretty impressive. Many thanks for the inspiration

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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    I got one of these and i have to say it is a wolf in sheeps clothing, as the saying goes, managed to get mine prime stable at 3.5ghz, and benchie stable at 3.7ghz, for sub £80 its a bargain. If you can't stretch to a 955 get one of these and clock the gonads off it.

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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    Talk about coincidence My case is the older (and IMNSHO better) precursor to the 1380, the Aria. Basically the same case but with a built in card reader and front firewire. The thing that's really impressed me with my Sempron is just how cool it stays considering the only airflow through the case is made by the PSUs 120mm fan running at just over 1k rpm. And given mine and arthur's experience of undervolting these processors, I think they have to become top recommendations for HTPC now - particularly with the 45W quads coming out soon - undervolt one of those by > 10% and you should be looking at a sub-35W draw from the processor...
    Just looked up the Aria. I'm slightly jealous.
    I'm likely off to my parents house for a week around Xmas but my P182 is too big to lug around and I can't be bothered. I'm just going to nick my 4870, stick it in this case and takes advantage of Steam's ability to have games on multiple PC's
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    Re: Athlon X4 620: Poorman's workhorse

    Quote Originally Posted by badass View Post
    Just looked up the Aria. I'm slightly jealous.
    Would it help it I told you it was ~ £12 cheaoer than the nsk1380 currently is

    Yeah, forget to mention in all my undervolting that I'm running my EVO on the 20-pin motherboard power plug that came with my Aria psu - never bothered upgrading or getting an adapter. Works perfectly. Makes you wonder why they changed it really...

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