Power Consumption
To test power consumption we monitor the overall power consumption of the system through a socket plug-in electricity usage monitor (aka Killawatt meter). Power consumption is measured at an idle system state whereby the system is allowed to stabilise at the desktop with as few applications running as possible for 5 minutes. The load power consumption is measured during the combined load test of 3DMark11 to simulate a realistic load being placed on all parts of the system. Monitoring system power usage at the wall through a usage meter is the easiest way for us to determine differences in power consumption between different motherboards as we do not have access to the complex and expensive equipment required to measure the motherboards individual power consumption.
Everybody (well almost everybody) would rather have top of the range mobo’s, smartphones, GFX cards etc. but products like these are the volume sellers. Without products like this, companies wouldn’t exist. If I had to pay for my computer stuff, this would be the kind of board I’d buy. There’s nothing wrong with it.
So true, I’m actually seriously considering this. The run-of-the-mill boards are what makes a manufacturer’s success. Sure we’d all love to get all the shenanigans, but money is not growing on trees yet, so we make do.
“Built around MSI’s tried-and-tested Military Class 4 components” What a joke this is, there is no ML STD anymore and there sure isn’t any “class 4” The electronics manufacturing world follows IPC standards. Military falls under class 3 requirements. “Whereas Class 3 products demand continued high performance or performance-on-demand is critical and equipment downtime cannot be tolerated, the end use environment may be uncommonly harsh, and the equipment must function when required, such as life support or other critical systems” I am a certified IPC specialist, and can tell you that it does likely meet the class 3 military spec, BUT so does almost every other manufacturer. I wish guys doing reviews would start to take note of this “class 4” BS. It’s false and should be noted.
I appreciate your feedback. I’d be interested to read more and question our MSI representatives on it. Could you provide the relative links to the IPC standard descriptions?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_(electronics) best I can do, I cant find any free link that details the standards. basically class 1 is it just has to work, class 2 is where continued performance and extended life are required and for which uninterrupted service is desired, but not critical. I already posted class 3. Here you can see the IPC cert on MSI’s web page. http://www.msi.com/html/product/ipc/DMS/index.html Click manufacture tab and bottom of page.
you don’t know what you’re taking about
expert, can you provide us with the criteria and source for a military class 4 designation ? It seems made up 🙂