Low Energy PC Testing Investigating PC Power Consumption Information Technology Taree TAFE

Low Energy PC Testing Objective: Test the power consumption and performance of a personal computer based on a low energy motherboard. Low Power System: Based on Via MM3500 (Microprocessor on Motherboard) system using Via C7-D 1.5GHz Processor.

Low Energy PC Testing Test Parameters: Tests carried out on the low energy PC and a standard desktop PC of equivalent power. Both machines loaded with the same software. Performance testing carried out using benchmarking software to measure performance and to load the machine for power consumption readings. Power consumption measured using a mains power meter.

Low Energy PC Testing Via MM3500Compaq EVO D500 CPUVIA C7-D 1.5GHzIntel Pentium GHz Chipset VIA CN896 + VT8237A Intel 845 RAM1GB DDRII256MB PC133 Video VIA Chrome9 HC DX9 IGP nVidia Vanta 16MB 3D AGP4x Disk20GB IDE CD DriveCD/DVD ROMCD-ROM Test Systems (Hardware): Common Equipment: IBM ThinkVision 17 inch Flat screen monitor 4GB Memory Stick (Dick Smith Electronics)

Low Energy PC Testing Test Systems (Software): Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2) OpenOffice.org Office Suite PassMark Performance Test 6.1 Power Monitoring: MS6115 LCD Main Power Monitor (Jaycar Electronics)

Low Energy PC Testing Configuration 1 Win XP USB/CD Configuration 2 Win XP HDD/CD Configuration 3 Win XP HDD Hard DiskNoYes CD DriveYes *YesNo Memory StickYes **No VIA MM3500 Test Configurations: Notes: * Windows XP would not boot correctly from the USB memory stick without the CD drive connected (further study required) ** USB memory stick formatted with NTFS and full Windows XP SP2 loaded using standard installation from CD

Low Energy PC Testing Power Consumption (System Unit): Configuration 1 - Win XP USB/CD: Notes: ‘HDD Off’ and ‘Hibernate’ do not apply to the VIA system (no hard disk present)

Low Energy PC Testing Power Consumption (System Unit): Configuration 2 - Win XP HDD/CD:

Low Energy PC Testing Power Consumption (System Unit): Configuration 3 - Win XP HDD: Notes: ‘Running CD’ Tests does not apply to the VIA system (no CD Drive present)

Low Energy PC Testing Power Consumption (Full System): Configuration 3 - Win XP HDD (IBM ThinkVision 17in monitor)

Low Energy PC Testing Power Consumption (System Unit): Comparison – Via Configurations

Low Energy PC Testing Performance (PassMark): Configuration 1 - Win XP USB/CD:

Low Energy PC Testing Performance (PassMark): Configuration 2 - Win XP HDD/CD:

Low Energy PC Testing Performance (Subjective Measures): The VIA system was loaded with OpenOffice.org office suite and tested on typical office tasks such as word processing and Internet browsing. The system performed adequately doing these tasks, with the only noticeable delay occurring when running using the USB memory only. In this case the system was much slower with disk operations, as would be expected. System boot times were also noticeably longer when using the USB memory only.

Low Energy PC Testing Monitor Power Consumption: IBM ThinkVision 17in Flat Screen Diamond View 17in CRT Monitor HP in Flat Screen Off (Front Panel Switch) 707 On - Standby777 On - Operating Note that the flat screen monitors still used the same amount of power when turned off as they do in standby mode.

Low Energy PC Testing Conclusions: All configurations of the VIA MM3500 based system achieved significant power savings over a ‘conventional’ machine configuration of approximately equal power. The power saving was between 30 and 50 percent for the system as a whole, and between 40 and 60 percent for the system unit. While using a USB memory stick to boot and run Windows XP Pro allowed the removal of the hard disk, the amount of power saved was not sufficient (approx 3-4 watts) to make this option practical due to the extremely slow disk performance of the USB memory. The CD drive required more power to operate than the hard disk and could be more easily replaced with other devices such as external CD drives or USB devices. The most effective configuration would be with a low power hard disk and no CD drive. Attention should also be paid to the power consumption of the monitor as this was a major contributor to the overall system power requirements.

Low Energy PC Testing Resources: The steps for installing Windows XP Pro onto a USB memory stick are given here A useful utility for formatting USB memory as NTFS is this one from HP Other useful tools for manipulating the USB boot sectors are ‘TestDisk‘ and ‘mkbt’ The performance benchmarking software used was PassMark Performance Test 6.1 (trial version) Contact: Terry Wade, Taree TAFE,