[ZPOH][DIY] 8.5W Core i3 racunalo

So far for housekeeping. This blog will explain to you in quite intimate detail what I have done to achieve 8.5W AC power consumption in idle with an Intel Core i3-based (H55 chipset) desktop system without sacrificing performance - this is not the 9000th Atom or VIA based system, nor does it utilize laptop hardware (MoDT). I'll start from the beginning: why did I start this and what's so special? Then comes a whole slew of primarily hardware hacks: I of course did some undervolting,I reorganized a lot of power delivery on the motherboard, made quite a few dc-dc converters more efficient and removed all unnecessary components I could find. On the software side I chose Windows 7 as Linux doesn't quite support every power saving feature. In the meantime I stuck a multimeter in every nook and cranny of the computer to see where power is flowing, creating a very detailed picture of the power consumption of individual parts. In the end, I got laptop power consumption with desktop performance. But, let's start at the beginning.