Low CPU Usage? (1 Viewer)

[SteveC-MM]

For reasons I can't always track, MP makes my CPU work extra-hard, so the (loud) CPU fan whines. I want to minimize this, what steps can I take to make my MP experience easy on the CPU? I do not do TV, just play mp3s and mpg and avi/divx video.

The Christmas 2006 theme, while awesome, made the CPU fan wind up all by itself.

If the above is not possible, then any recommendations on CPU cooling (or case cooling so I can unplug my CPU fan) would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Noelix]

What kind of a cpu fan do you have? If you get one that says "silent" on it or is 20 decibels or lower, it shouldn't ever get too loud.

 

[SteveC-MM]

Fan

The machine is a Compaq DeskPro SFF, it's got the stock CPU fan. It's a PIII 933MHz, so I guess it is a Socket 370 thing.

I looked around a bit on the CoolerGuys web site and didn't see anything that caught my eye. Maybe I should cut a hole in the side of the case and put in an exhaust fan?

 

[SciDoctor]

MP is very heavy on the GPU. the xmas theme is even more so because of the extra animations and scene changes.

A dx9 spec GPU is required for low cpu usage otherwise the GUI is rendered using software via the CPU (depending on how good the drivers are)

For example.

A dual p3 500 with a dx9 spec Radeon 9500 gives a cpu usage of less than 5% for just the GUI (ie no tv or video or visulisations)

The same with a dx8.1 Radeon spec card and the cpu usage is up to over 50%.

 

[Noelix]

PIII 933MHz? Yeah it sounds like it's time for an upgrade, my friend. No wonder the fan speed is going nuts. You won't likely be able to find a silent fan for that processor on sale as it's a bit old. I just upgraded my pvr for $120 USD. I got an Athlon64 3000 processor with motherboard (biostar), and a silent processor fan, all at Newegg. You will likely have to buy ram as well if you upgrade, which I recommend. MediaPortal takes a lot to run but it's worth it.

In the meantime you can try spraying some compressed air into the fan (make sure the pc is off) to clean out dust and to try and make it quieter. Otherwise I'd try to keep your setup as minimal as possible (use a theme without animations) and not run any programs at all in the background.

 

[SciDoctor]

If you are happy with your pc then just look at upgrading the GPU to an old top of the range dx9 card or a new mid range dx9 card.

Second hand 9500/9700/9800 cost next to nothing and would reduce the GUI cpu overhead compared to non dx9 spec cards.

Not everyone wants that never ending upgrade path of Mb/cpu's etc and the increased running costs of these more powerful parts.

An optimum memory config would be 512- 1gig, this also cand epend on the OS overheads (what other apps you have running) and disk subsystem efficiency for paging.

 

[Efros]

PIII 933MHz? Yeah it sounds like it's time for an upgrade, my friend. No wonder the fan speed is going nuts. You won't likely be able to find a silent fan for that processor on sale as it's a bit old. I just upgraded my pvr for $120 USD. I got an Athlon64 3000 processor with motherboard (biostar), and a silent processor fan, all at Newegg. You will likely have to buy ram as well if you upgrade, which I recommend. MediaPortal takes a lot to run but it's worth it.

In the meantime you can try spraying some compressed air into the fan (make sure the pc is off) to clean out dust and to try and make it quieter. Otherwise I'd try to keep your setup as minimal as possible (use a theme without animations) and not run any programs at all in the background.

Is that the BIOSTAR K8M80 combo? If it is watch out for audio failure, bought two of these from Newegg some6 months ago and have had to install PCI sound cards due mobo audio failure. Apart from that the boards are working fine.