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.
We’ve seen from overclocking orientated boards in the past that they can be very power hungry all round, but the MPower at stock speeds is quite an efficient board, drawing only 82W from the wall. At full load however we do see a different story with total system draw of 279W. Overclocking saw the idle power draw rise by quite a margin in respect to stock power draw, but thankfully this percentage gain was not seen at full load with a total overclocked power draw of 295W.
It’s a nice board, I like it but if I intended upgrading I’d rather wait a short time for the Z87 chipset and Hasslewell chips.