[mythtv-users] CPU performance governor vs disabling AMD Cool n Quiet

[faginbagin]

Many thanks to everyone who has responded. I'm learning a lot reading
your posts, like getting a video card might not have helped and a 
different CPU would help. But I'd like to work with the hardware I've 
got, so I think my solution will involve getting the CPU frequency right.

Let me make sure I understand correctly. It should be possible to take
advantage of Cool n Quiet. It should just be a matter of tuning the 
ondemand governor to get the PVR-150 and 8300 IGP to function properly. 
It should be sufficient to add:

echo 1800000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq

to /etc/rc.local, right?

What are the chances this would also allow use of the VDPAU Normal
profile with 1080i content and closed captions? Perhaps it's up to me to 
experiment?

FWIW, before I opened this can of worms by tweaking the BIOS and when
the computer was mine with two HVR-1600s and a 8400GS, it was drawing
about 60 watts at idle. I think it would be useful to see what the power
draw is now with Cool n Quiet, different tuners and no video card.

One thing I noticed is there isn't much difference in fan speeds
with the performance vs ondemand governors when the system is idle. The 
CPU fan runs maybe 100 rpm faster with the performance governor (high 
1600s vs high 1500s with ondemand). And the chassis fan seems to be 
about the same, a little over 800 rpm. Temps for CPU cores are 27 to 33C 
and MB temp is 35C (don't know about ondemand). Seems reasonable to me 
and which is why I'm wondering if it's worth the effort to do any fine 
tuning. It certainly would be easier to disable Cool n Quiet in the BIOS 
and be done with it. But before I take the easy route, I will compare 
power draw at the max (2.5GHz for the 4850e) and 1.8GHz frequencies. If 
there's a difference, I'll take the time to do some fine tuning.

Thanks,
Helen