Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H (Z77) Motherboard Ivy Bridge Review

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.

Power consumption was an interesting test, as we all assumed that the new Ivybridge processors would show some serious weight in this area but instead, saw the Sandybridge i7 2700k giving similar, if not better results in terms of lower power consumption at stock. The i7 3770k did manage to redeem itself slightly when overclocked though.