Gigabyte Z77M-D3H Motherboard Sandy Bridge 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.

Using well under 90W at idle, the board is a great energy saver, and throughout most of its use rarely went over 16ow, only when we really pushed it did it hit 225w.