Re: [coreboot] Well supported energy efficient HTPC motherboard

[Oliver Schinagl]

On 22-07-13 10:47, David Hubbard wrote:
> Hi Oliver,
>
> By "hold those the recommendations" -- did you mean, "do those hold the
> number one position as a recommendation" ? Can you clarify this question?
> "Get this board and it works really well!" ;)
>
> On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 2:07 AM, Oliver Schinagl
> <[e-mail] <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
>
> I see E-350 boards and F2A85 boards as being WiP/Supported but hold
>     those the recommendations?
>
> You should be able to use either the ASRock E350M1 or F2A85 for an HTPC
> board. I'm not personally familiar with the E350 status, but the only
> issue from the wiki is after a reboot, and an HTPC could just be powered
> off and back on. The F2A85 audio may have problems but only due to
> incomplete ACPI tables, which can be fixed easily enough.
> E350 boards seem to be a dying breed (but tend to be better supported 
> because they've been around for a while)
>
> Since you are looking for an HTPC it sounds like you are interested in
> power usage and noise levels. I put the F2A85 with an A10-5800K on a
> Kill-A-Watt and it idles at 52W when displaying text, or 35W after X11
> has started. Most likely, any socket FM2 chip from AMD will have a
> similar idle load. Peak load is 110W which is close enough to the rated
> TDP of 100W to make a power estimate easy for any CPU you choose.
> Ouch, those are pretty big numbers. I was acking towards the Asus F2A85 
> aswell but will probably look at a very power efficient APU variant. 
> Don't they come in 65W TDP's? Granted these tdp's are including a GPU.

I'm also leaning towards an external video card, due to the shared 
memory thing. Then again, it doesn't do a whole lot of heavy lifting so 
that shouldn't really be an issue.
> The stock heatsink/fan is nearly silent and does not get loud even under
> a full CPU load. If you actually want a fully silent PC you should
> probably get a larger heatsink/fan. My F2A85 system's power supply makes
> more noise than the CPU fan.

I have a fanless PSU in my HTPC box ;) So maybe i'll get a huge heatsink 
(2 very silent exhaust fans do exist) or keep my zalman that I currently 
use.
> Hope that helps,

It does indeed, but due to financial situation right now, may have to 
put this off for a few months anyway. It never hurts to look around and 
see what's ot there and what's supported.
> David

Well supported energy efficient HTPC motherboard

[David Hubbard]

Hi Oliver,

Ouch, those are pretty big numbers. I was acking towards the Asus F2A85
> aswell but will probably look at a very power efficient APU variant. Don't
> they come in 65W TDP's? Granted these tdp's are including a GPU.

Keep in mind I'm measuring at the wall. TDP is the rating just for the CPU.
For example, disabling AHCI by not loading the AHCI module drops the total
power by 2W. I tried everything I could think of to see how low I could get
the power but couldn't get below 33W for idle.

I'm also leaning towards an external video card, due to the shared memory
> thing. Then again, it doesn't do a whole lot of heavy lifting so that
> shouldn't really be an issue.

Even a low-end AMD APU should have no problem performing as an HTPC. What
would you use it for that would need the dedicated memory bandwidth?

Regards,
David