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TEST RESULTS
Our test system is basic, featuring a notebook hard drive and Blu-ray drive.
The CPU is a Core 2 Duo E6400, an older processor with modest power requirements
(65W). It is cooled by an Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro CPU cooler connected to
a variable DC fan controller (so the fan's power draw does not come into play).
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Test Results: Zotac NF610i-ITX
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Test State
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CPU Usage
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System Power (AC)
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Mean
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Peak
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SS-400ET
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SS-SFD300
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Off
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N/A
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2W
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2W
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Sleep (S1)
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N/A
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48W
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44W
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Idle
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1%
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2%
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50W
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45W
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Rush Hour
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33%
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54%
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~61W
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~57W
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Coral Reef
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28%
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40%
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~58W
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~55W
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Flight Sim.
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46%
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60%
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~70W
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~65W
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Drag Race
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55%
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67%
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~65W
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~62W
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Prime95
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100%
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102W
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95W
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Prime95 + ATITool
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100%
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103W
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97W
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As board can utilize the same processors as an equivalent mATX board, we thought
it fitting to test the system with both the ATX power supply we typically use
for mATX motherboards (Seasonic SS-400ET), as well as a SFX power supply (Seasonic
SS-300SFD), one that might be more likely to be used in a mini-ITX case. Both
are 80 Plus units, though the SFD300 is obviously more efficient at lower power
levels. With the SFD300, the system consumed 3-5W less with light load, and
5-6W less with heavy load. The lack of power saved using Sleep mode was striking
— suspend-to-RAM makes Vista's Sleep mode all but worthless.
Video playback was excellent on the NF610i-ITX. As we have seen in the past,
nVidia GPUs are no slouches, and despite the fact that the board is powered
by the rather dated Geforce 7050 chip, it passed our playback suite with no
problems. CPU usage remained relatively low throughout and no anomalies presented
themselves during playback.
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Zotac NF610i-ITX vs. Asus P5E-VM HDMI (SS-400ET)
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Test State
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Zotac NF610i-ITX
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Asus P5E-VM HDMI
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
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Off
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N/A
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2W
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N/A
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3W
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Sleep
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N/A
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48W
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N/A
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4W
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Idle
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1%
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50W
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1%
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56W
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Rush Hour
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33%
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~61W
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36%
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~65W
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Coral Reef
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28%
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~58W
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29%
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~64W
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Flight Sim.
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46%
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~70W
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47%
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~71W
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Drag Race
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55%
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~65W
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54%
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~69W
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Prime95
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100%
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102W
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100%
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96W
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Prime95 + ATITool
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100%
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103W
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100%
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97W
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Compared head to head with the Intel G35 powered Asus P5E-VM HDMI, video playback
efficiency was very similar — CPU usage was almost identical. Power efficiency
however was better with light load — the Zotac board registered a full 6W
less when idle, and bested its opponent in varying degrees during video playback.
When pushed to full load however, the results flipped in favor of the P5E-VM.
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Zotac NF610i-ITX vs. Albatron KI690-AM2 (SS-300SFD)
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Test State
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Zotac NF610i-ITX
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Albatron KI690-AM2
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
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Mean CPU Usage
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System Power
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Off
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N/A
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2W
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N/A
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2W
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Sleep
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N/A
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44W
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N/A
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4W
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Idle
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1%
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45W
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1%
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32W
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Rush Hour
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33%
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~57W
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35%
|
~53W
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Coral Reef
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28%
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~55W
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50%
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~57W
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Flight Sim.
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46%
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~65W
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88%
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~68W
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CPU Load*
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100%
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95W
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100%
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85W
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| *Prime95 was used for the NF610i-ITX and CPUBurn K7 was
used for the KI690-AM2 (CPUBurn generates higher power consumption on K8
systems) |
For a mini-ITX comparison, there was really only one board that has passed
through our labs we could pit the Zotac against — the Albatron KI690-AM2.
It's not a completely fair fight as our testing procedure is somewhat different
now than it was then (most notably, we use PowerDVD instead of WMP to play back
video). Also, the Albatron board was paired with a X2 3800+, a much slower processor
than we normally use — generally a Core 2 Duo performs roughly equivalent
to a X2 clocked 500-600Mhz higher.
Despite being at a disadvantage, the KI690-AM2 continues to impress us, even
though a year has passed since we reviewed it. The Zotac board uses a lot more
power when idle, though makes up for it somewhat with good efficiency playing
HD video. Getting the power consumption down on a Core 2 system to AM2 levels,
no matter what form factor, seems daunting.
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