Does an Athlon XP mobile really need much less power than a "normal" Athlon XP ?

[Jason Stacy]

I heard that an Athlon XP mobile need much less power than a "normal" Athlon XP.
That would mean the cooling fan could be smaller resp. could run at a more silent speed.
Is this true?

How much power can be saved when using a mobile verion (on a desktop motherboard)
in comparison to an equivalent desktop version?

J.

 

[Kyle]

| I heard that an Athlon XP mobile need much less power than a
"normal" Athlon XP.
| That would mean the cooling fan could be smaller resp. could run at
a more silent speed.
| Is this true?
|
| How much power can be saved when using a mobile verion (on a desktop
motherboard)
| in comparison to an equivalent desktop version?
|
| J.
|

An estimate of power/heat savings is simple, if the Vcore is .2 volts
lower, and the current requirement for the CPU is 5 amps, then power
savings is (.2)*(5)= 1 watts, not that significant eh? Further, if
you are like others using a mobile, you'll probably overclock it to
run 200 FSB and multi of 11 to get 2200 MHz, and then, there are no
power savings. My mobiles (I have 2) require 1.625 and 1.65 Vcore to
run FSB of 200 and multi of 11 on air cooling. Default Vcore for
these devices is 1.45, I believe. For more quiet operation, get a HSF
with a large fan (90 or 100 CM fan). This is the best approach to
lower noise.

 

[Wes Newell]

I heard that an Athlon XP mobile need much less power than a "normal"
Athlon XP. That would mean the cooling fan could be smaller resp. could
run at a more silent speed. Is this true?

Kind of, but in reality, they are just the same cpu with different
defaults.

How much power can be saved when using a mobile verion (on a desktop
motherboard) in comparison to an equivalent desktop version?

That depends on how low the MB will let you set vcore. Most people buy
these adn then raise the vcore and the speed for more power.

 

[Brian Campbell]

An athlon XP mobile is not much different from a regular AMD Barton CPU.
The main difference is that you can lower the voltage of the mobile
Athlons and that will decrease the power consumption. You could do the
same with the regular CPU's, but you need a motherboard that can tweak the
low voltages. Most people use mobile athlons because they are much more
overclockable with standard voltage.

I could not really tell you the power saved sadly.

Jason Stacy ([email protected]) wrote:
: I heard that an Athlon XP mobile need much less power than a "normal" Athlon XP.
: That would mean the cooling fan could be smaller resp. could run at a more silent speed.
: Is this true?

: How much power can be saved when using a mobile verion (on a desktop motherboard)
: in comparison to an equivalent desktop version?

: J.

 

[Tony Hill]

I heard that an Athlon XP mobile need much less power than a "normal" Athlon XP.
That would mean the cooling fan could be smaller resp. could run at a more silent speed.
Is this true?
Yes.

How much power can be saved when using a mobile verion (on a desktop motherboard)
in comparison to an equivalent desktop version?

That's impossible to say. It might be 5% less power, it might be 75%
less power. Both desktop and laptop chips come at a variety of rated
power consumptions. Different speed chips at the same rated power
consumption will also have different real-world power consumption. In
fact, individual chips of the same rated power consumption, same speed
and even the same wafer will have different real-world power use. Also
there is a big difference between power use when the chip is idle vs.
when it's working at full load.


Then there is also the question of whether or not the desktop board
supports some of the more advanced power saving features of the mobile
chips. AthlonXP Mobile chips support a feature called PowerNow! This
lets them dynamically change the processor speed and voltage according
to system load. Very smart idea given that most computers are idle
about 99% of the time, even when they are being actively used (ie if
you're typing an e-mail the computer is spending most of it's time
sitting around and waiting for the next keystroke). Unfortunately
this feature was not supported on the desktop AthlonXP and therefore
not supported by most desktop motherboards. Without motherboard
support the power savings from the mobile chip are usually much less
than they ideally would be.