Power Consumption
To test power consumption, we monitor the overall power of the system through a plug-in electricity usage monitor at an idle and load state. This allows us to show the fluctuation between how much power draw the system takes at idle and at load. By monitoring the overall usage of the whole system, it gives an easy comparison if you wish to do the same yourself as opposed to buying very expensive individual testing equipment.
Whilst the Z77-A is an entry level board with a low number of power phases, it does consume a little more power than expected, idling at 90W at stock and using 325W at full load. When overclocked the idle power raises to over 130W, whilst at full load it pushed right through the 300W barrier.
After working with so many so called high end boards one tend to become jaded, simple boards like these are a breath of fresh air, they’re easy to work with, overclock surprisingly well and do exactly what they’re supposed to. To my way of thinking, simple is better.
The chipset heatsink is the exact same one which I had on the south bridge of my old Asus X58 board.
good motherboard for beginners like me..
eteknix can you please tell me if it can SLI.?
it can 2 way sli or crossfire and it comes with sli bridge