Best Energy-Saving Processor: Intel Atom or Via Nano?

Currently, there are two legitimate players competing for the Low-Power Energy Saving platform: the Intel Atom (with the Intel 945G chipset) and the Via Nano (with the Via CN896 chipset).

Tom's Hardware compared the Atom and Nano, and mixed a non-production AMD Athlon 64 2000+ (with the AMD 780G chipset) as well.

"Intel's Atom has one definite advantage over the two other solutions-the power requirement stays within very controllable boundaries, which means that the delta between idle power and peak power is very small. If you know your performance requirements then you can be sure that Atom will be the lowest power solution, although not necessarily the most efficient one when more performance is required. The VIA device benefits from its integrated random number generator and hardware encryption support, which is both favorable for networking and security appliances." [Tom's Hardware | Atom, Athlon, or Nano? Energy-Savers Compared]

For best performance and best features, the VIA platform was the clear winner, but unfortunately, has a significantly higher peak power.

Tom's Hardware suggests that desktop users should look at other options, such as a mainstream chipset paired with a low-end dual-core processor. Going this route could probably give you a compromise of low-power consumption, better efficiency, and some flexibility (you can change the processor since it is NOT soldered on to the motherboard).

Technorati : 780g, 945G, CN896, amd, athlon, atom, efficient, energy, intel, nano, via

Build an Energy Efficient PC

Tom's Hardware has a great guide on energy efficiency, discussing about ways to save power at different levels: technology, component, product, and user.

"Selecting the right components is important in building an energy efficient machine. If you go for an old Pentium D instead of the current Core 2 Duo processor, you will get two processing cores in both cases and even higher clock speeds with the Pentium D. The old Pentium generation is based on the NetBurst architecture, though, which is considerably slower than the Core 2 family (including the Pentium Dual Core, which is a stripped down version). Despite its deficient performance, the Pentium D will still consume much more power than a Core 2 processor under all possible conditions. Clearly, selecting the right technology is very important." [Tom's Hardware | Tom's Energy Efficiency Guide]

The guide also suggests some component choices for your next PC build.

AMD System:

• Gigabyte GA-MA78GM with AMD780G Chipset motherboard
• AMD Phenom X4 9100e processor

Intel System:

• ECS G33T with Intel G33 Chipset motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

Other components:

• Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ (1 TB) hard drive
• Western Digital WD10EACS hard drive
• Radeon HD 3870 graphics card
• GeForce 9600 GT graphics card
• Silverstone ST50EF Plus (500 W) power supply unit

It's interesting to see that Tom's Hardware chose an AMD780G Chipset motherboard for the AMD system. I'm sure that Nvidia fans may opt for a motherboard with the NVIDIA GeForce 8200 chipset, but unless we have the concrete numbers as to which chipset is more efficient, we may just have to go with subjectivity on this matter.

Other than that, I'm sure that the components mentioned in the article would be a good guideline for your next energy efficient PC build.

Technorati : amd, build, efficient, energy, intel, pc