Noise and Power Benchmarks

In case you skipped the last page, let us again reiterate that this is not a fair comparison in many ways. The AMD Athlon 64 system is provided merely as a baseline measurement, and represents a more "typical" PC.

System Power Draw - Idle

System Power Draw - Load (3DMark05)

System Power Draw - DVD Playback

Noise Levels - Idle

Noise Levels - Load (3D and DVD)

What the M1000 lacks in performance, though, it makes up in power requirements. Even under full load (running 3DMark05), the system consumed a maximum of 100 Watts at a noise level of 37 dB. The Venice system consumed as much as 170W in the same test, though obviously the faster GPU is contributing a lot to the power requirement. The power draw for the M1000 also includes the two TV tuners, which are each contributing around 10W each, so this isn't strictly an apples-to-apples comparison. What most people will find more useful is that during DVD playback, the noise from the DVDR drive was actually as loud as the rest of the system! Unless you're in an extremely quiet room, 37 dB will not usually be noticed over other background noise.

Performance Benchmarks Closing Thoughts
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  • glennpratt - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link

    Coming back from S3 on a modern computer is very fast. Plenty fast for most people on XP (I'll have to time my MCE machine which is an old AXP 1700+) and the Media Center remote will wake the computer from S3 (along with the keyboard I presume). It can also wake from S3 to record and Wake On LAN for the MCE Extenders.
  • anandtechrocks - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link

    Thanks for the great read. I've been interested in building my own HTPC and this article was exactly what I needed. I have an old P4 2.26 (Northwood) I want to use, but maybe I'll hold off until this area becomes more mature.

    Thanks Anand.
  • anandtechrocks - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link

    Well... actually, thanks Jarred Walton. My bad, it's really early here.
  • JarredWalton - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link

    You should be in bed (as should I!). 5:30 AM PST is far too late... or early, depending on whether you've been to sleep or not. Anyway, thanks. I can't begin to convey how frustrated I am with the lack of HDTV tuners for PCs. This article allowed me to sort of discuss the topic, but I've been wanting to build a nice HDTV capable PC for a while now - that's HDTV with cablecard or something similar, as terretrial HDTV doesn't work for me.
  • JarredWalton - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link

    FWIW, I *love* hooking up a PC to my HDTV. TV-Out from PCs is just aweful in comparison, and suddenly HDTV makes it not just feasible but enjoyable to use a PC to play games, DVDs, movies, etc. from your couch on a large display. That's a topic for another article, though.

    It's bed time now. We'll see what people have to say once more people are awake and have time to digest this piece. Opinions expressed in the article may not reflect the opinions of other AnandTech members. :)

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