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, the board lines up where we expected it to with its limited power phase delivery. Of course when overclocked, due to the extra voltages needed, we find the load power being pushed to 321 Watts, though idle power still remains fairly low at 112 Watts.
When I tested this board I was very impressed with it. So much so that I’ve decided to to use this one in my personal rig and the G1 Sniper 5 with my open bench test setup. It makes sense because all my overclocking & testing is done with the open bench setup & my personal gaming rig is boxed up, sitting next to me rocking stock speeds. I’m back to using my old Xonar DS soundcard because IMO it’s still far superior to the Realtek ALC898 and the UD3H incorporates a legacy PCI slot which the Xonar requires.
Yeah, the legacy PSI slot is very helpful for the users who owns older but great soundcards. One of my friends got a Xonar ST and users like him will need a legacy PCI slot in every motherboard they use.
Looks like it’s a fantastic board. And, very good review, Andy. :)
I should mention that the new interface of the BIOS is awesome. We should stop calling that BIOS, It’s not ‘basic’ anymore.