Gigabyte Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard Review

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.

As this is a budget board, a really good perk of it, is the power consumption. On both stock and overclocked results, with a GTX 580 SOC and 2700k installed, it still managed to pull under 300 Watts on load, showing that you can save money on your electricity bills too.