MSI Z87I motherboard review - Power Consumption

Power Consumption

We slowly startup the testing part of this review, starting off with power consumption. Keep in mind that we measure the ENTIRE PC, not just the processor's power consumption. When we place load on the CPU and we see the power draw rise. 

Now more interesting is to remove the graphics card and to see how it behaves then. As shown in the chart above only the embedded IGP is used, the power consumption is great. In IDLE we measured ~40 Watts and, with processor load, 108 Watts for the entire PC. 

So I want to make it very clear that power consumption measurements will differ per PC and setup. Your attached components use power but your motherboard can also have additional ICs installed like an audio controller, LUCID chips, network controllers, extra SATA controllers, extra USB controllers, and so on. These parts all consume power, so this is an indication.

Next to that, we stress all CPU cores 100% and thus show a PEAK power consumption. Unless you transcode video with the right software your overall/average power consumption will be much lower.
 

At stock clock frequencies these are pretty high temperatures, considering we are using a heavy duty Noctua D14 dual-fan cooler.