I have the opportunity to get the Intel DH77KC cheap so I was wondering if someone could post the power consumption for this board (along with relevant peripherals such as PSU, RAM, CPU, GPU cards that their build has). I know that Intel boards are very efficient but most of the power consumption stats I've seen for these boards are mini ITX or micro ATX boards. This board is a full ATX so I'm wondering how that affects power consumption. Thanks!

Don't have the board, so I can't help with exact figures. I highly doubt that being ATX would necessarily make it consume more power than an mATX or mITX board. More "features"/chips/IO on a motherboard generally means higher power consumption. There are very few aftermarket chips on that Intel motherboard, with most of the I/O run straight from the H77 chipset. I'd expect it to be pretty power efficient, and being an Intel board, you could probably drop off another few watts.

This motherboard roundup doesn't include any H77 boards, but it is pretty comprehensive for Z77. It demonstrates the effect of adding extra features to a motherbard, and how that tends to raise power consumption: http://uk.hardware.info/reviews/2858/28 ... onsumption

You might search this forum as well: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=64718

@flemeister

Just thought I'd post an update. I ordered a DH77KC. Also, I had a DH77DF on hand from my HTPC. I tested both these boards head to head using the following hardware...


Intel i7 3770K
8 GB (2 4gb sticks) Corsair Vengence DDR3 1333 RAM
SeaSonic S12-500 500W ATX12V PSU
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB HDD
Rosewill Dual band wifi adapter N600UBE
Running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit


The test were measured using my killawatt meter. Video and wifi were both on. I did two measurments, one with the motherboard and OS at their default settings, the other with the low power settings enabled ( low power mode enabled in the BIOS and low power settings tweaked in the powertop application). The killawatt meter jumped around so the numbers are my best estimate after letting the OS idle for a few minutes after booting.

The results were....

DH77DF
30.2 watts idle (default)
26.3 watts idle (low power settings)

DH77KC
31.5 watts idle (default)
28.1 watts idle (low power settings)

So you were correct they are very similar. This results are pretty close. I'll bet that with a more efficient power supply they would go lower. The PSU in my HTPC can get the DH77DF down to 13 watts with wifi and video out. I guess I have to go hunting for the most efficient standard sized power supply I can find. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Seasonic G-360: the Seasonic SS-300TGW should be even better, but it's TFX.

Another one to check out: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cool ... 50S/6.html

Check out those low load efficiency figures! Note that they did their testing at 230V, compared to SPCR's 120V, but even taking that into account, it's as good as or even better than the little Seasonic TFX unit.

Well. very good find, flemeister: probably the smaller VS450 could be even better (at least, price-wise).
I hope SPCR may test that VS-series, and let us find out how their fan crank up in an hot box.

In/out temps and more fan speed measurements on the previous page. Techpowerup's testing was indeed done in a hot box, as described in the first paragraph.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cool ... 50S/5.html

The fan stays at low RPM's to a bit past 200W load.

Indeed, but I'd rather to see that testing not with an around 29dB noise floor.

Thanks for the links everyone. During my research I found these...

Kingwin LZP 550
45 PSU tested at low load

I was leaning toward the Kingwin, but that Cooler Master tops the Kingwin in terms of efficiency. In fact, I don't think I've seen numbers that good. As you pointed out, that is at 230V. Do you think that efficiency is comparable at 120V (I'm in the States). Also, I've never bought a Kingwin or a Cooler Master power supply. Are they quality brands? I've always gone with Antec or Seasonic.

EDIT:
I can't seem to get a price on the Cooler Master V450S. I don't think it's available in the US yet.

Current Kingwin lineup is made by SuperFlower, and currently there's nothing really better in the OEM market.
Cooler Master Vanguard-series (V) is made by Seasonic (V1000, V850, V700 models) - and you know Seasonic -, and then Enhance (the V650S, V550S, V450S models), which usually make PSUs also for some serious brands like Silverstone.




According to the north american Cooler Master website, it would seem that currently V650S and V450S are not sold in the USA.
And it seems there are a few reputable sources for the V550S also: after a quick googling I found just TigerDirect.

Ah, that explains it. I was searching for the V450S only. Thanks for the link.

Hi
Just wanted to share my new build low idle power record
After playing around with 3 mATX boards for sk 1155 : Asus Z77M , Asrock H67M-GE, Asrock H77M and hoovering around 19 - 20 W idle I finally struck gold with a moderate cost mATX Intel Board 11.2W AC measured at the wall in the same conditions .
All builds where using the same components listed under
Intel® Desktop Board DB75EN with Intel I5 3470
Samsung 830 64GB SSD with Win 7 Prof 64 bit with Soft prot service disabled to be able to mount it on different mobos
2 x 4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz DDR3 @ 1333 Mhz undervoloted to 1.25V
Scythe Grand Kama Cross witout fan ( passive ) - it's huge enough to cool all I7 Ivy in passive mode on open stand as I have my test system
FSP 300GHS with custom Nexus 80x80 fan - I'm amazed by the incredible efficency of this PSU at this very low load . ( I guess 78- 80% at 15W AC )

I guess there should be an error.

So be it . But if I estimate an average efficiency of 70% for this 15 W range , that would mean that for every 10W AC ( 220 V - Europe ) it the PSU eats 3W as heat , so for 11.5W at least 4W is waste . So if your guess is right about my overoptimistic efficiency and we have around 70% that would mean the whole build (wo monitor ) is using as DC 7.5W . How can a desktop mobo chalenge the NUC power or the mobile power range.
I have four ( 4 ) of these PSU's ( FSP 300 GHS ) , but only this one has the lowest power consumption.
I forgot to mention that for achieving this level of 11.2W with image on monitor I disabled LAN and sound on board . With this 2 enabled
I get a reading of 12.8 W
Thanks for reading , and feel free to ask .
One mention though, this Intel® Desktop Board DB75EN was not able to lower it's power at idle under 15.4 W UNLESS I changed the way the 3 fan interacts in BIOS . I know it sounds incredible but yes , after this it touches the 11W range . After 2 min , when according with my desired power plan and the monitor turns off , it sits at 9.9 - 10.2 W

I guess that measure may not be trustworthy/reliable.
Just to know, which are the relevant readings using the other three (supposedly identical) PSUs? Have you performed any "long run" test?

On a very related note, here is someone who got incredibly low power figures on the Intel H55 / LGA1156 platform: http://ssj3gohan.tweakblogs.net/blog/61 ... sh%29.html

It's a very detailed article. A highly informative and interesting read.

New data to be compared to my record low 11.2W AC measured at the wall in the same conditions (AC 220 V - 50Hz ) .
Intel® Desktop Board DB75EN with Intel I3 3240 , I had the chance to also test this cpu.
Samsung 830 64GB SSD with Win 7 Prof 64 bit with Soft prot service disabled to be able to mount it on different mobos
2 x 4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz DDR3 @ 1333 Mhz undervoloted to 1.25V
Scythe Grand Kama Cross witout fan ( passive ) on open stand
So as stated above 11.2W idle for FSP 300 GHS display on , 9.9 - 10.2 W display off - the fan has separate power to not interfere with the mobo power consumption
Second test with Seasonic MII 12 620 W - ( certified 80 plus Bronze ) 12.5 W with ADDA fan on , 11,9 with the fan stopped - display on
Third test with Winmate DD-24AX DC-DC Module and FSP NBQ90Plus AC-DC 90 W brick 13.3W display on , 10.7 display off
Winmate was reviewed by Mike Chin http://www.silentpcreview.com/article989-page1.html

Have you considered using only one DIMM?

I finished testing (AC 220 V - 50Hz ) another 2 FSP 300 GHS according to quest_for_silence wish .
Intel® Desktop Board DB75EN with Intel I3 3240.
Samsung 830 64GB SSD , Win 7 Prof 64 bit
2 x 4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz DDR3 @ 1333 Mhz undervolted to 1.25V
Scythe Grand Kama Cross witout fan ( passive ) on open stand
FSP 300 GHS- champion 11.2W idle for display on , 9.9 - 10.2 W display off - the fan has separate power to not interfere with the mobo power consumption
Second test with Seasonic MII 12 620 W - ( certified 80 plus Bronze ) 12.5 W with ADDA fan on , 11,9 with the fan stopped - display on
Third test with Winmate DD-24AX DC-DC Module and FSP NBQ90Plus AC-DC 90 W brick 13.3W display on , 10.7 display off
Winmate was reviewed by Mike Chin http://www.silentpcreview.com/article989-page1.html
FSP 300 GHS No 2
12.2W idle for display on , 10.4 W display off - the fan has separate power to not interfere with the mobo power consumption
FSP 300 GHS No 3 has the original slim fan attached ,so one could deduct 0.4 to 0.5W for the fan power
13.2W idle for display on , 11.6 W display off
No fourth FSP 300 GHS soon as it is inside my wife's PC case , and the ATX power connector is hard to dettach from the mobo and soon I will break it if I go on switching PSU's

Thanks for sharing and to have given some answers to my wondering: very interesting data, indeed.

About your FSP units, if I'm not wrong in the ECOVA Plug certification it is measured for about 80% at 60W. Even if your one is a 220V AC line, I'm quite dubious that the relevant efficiency curve may stay flat from 10W to 60W. But if this guess were true, than you'd have a complete system idling at about 5-6W, and this fact would blow me away even more than an 80% efficiency at 10W in an ATX PSU.

Broadly speaking I am always puzzled when the measured idle power is approaching the standby level, as usually commercial power meters don't work well at those very low levels (IIRC the popular "Kill-a-watt" should not have an accuracy better than about 4W, so that an about 10W reading may really mean - at best - either 6W or 14W, as even anything in between), not to mention that they are usually calibrated against a resistive load, and they don't deal well with an (usually unknown) reactive PFC circuit.

This is also why I prefer long-term tests (to say, measuring for 24/48hrs the idling power draw), rather than instantaneous measurements (or so about).

Said that, more probably that not your measures are really accurate, but - please, forgive me - I remain wary about this kind of data (maybe because I'm currently not interested into obtaining the lowest possible power draw from my systems? Probably!). Thank You again.

About the Kill-A-Watt device , I have two of these kind , one is Voltcraft Energy Monitor 3000 , not so happy about this one - it adds it's own power consumption ( usually 1W ) to the reading , and one other no name , but big LCD .
Now about your fears about the reading accuracy , I was too at the beggining , but to test it I plugged and unplugged several keyboards and mice , just to observe a rise or a lowering in power , and it shows it ok .
My readings ( shared with U in my above posts ) where taken with a wireless combo A4Tech KB and mouse with a tiny receiver . The meter would show a decrease of 0.4W when unplugged .
Just to verify this reding I used my Lenovo Thinkpad T420 on battery only ,and using the power application from Lenovo I measured the difference on this new platform
And here it is :
Idle in Windows - screen on power used 5.76W no mouse
Idle in Windows - screen on power used 6.2 - 6.3 W with the same tiny A4Tech receiver plugged in .
Even if we are not accurate to the tenth of the W it still gives a clear reading about the order of power used .
One should know that the tine difference might be explained by the different ports used :
Intel PCH USB 3.0 for the desktop - and it draws very little current by not awakening the cpu from the C6 deep sleep state.
USB 2.0 for the T420 and when I plug ANYTHING into USB it just get busy for the cpu
Cristian

I forgot to share one of my last years exploits :
Does Seasonic SS-350TGM 80 Plus Gold TFX rang a bell ?
A specimen of this PSU was reviewed by one of the silentpcreview editors on http://www.silentpcreview.com/Seasonic_ ... M_Gold_TFX .
As soon as it was available on one of online stores here in Romania I bought one also ( Jan or Feb 2013 )
Then I only had Asus Z77M, and Asrock H67M-GE with I5 3550 , and I couldn't break lower the 19w barrier on idle ( measured at wall AC ) for the Asus and 17.9 - 18.1 W for the Asrock wirh EVERYTHING in BIOS lowered to the minimum stable .
I thought that my FSP 300 GHS was the culprit , so I rushed in , and bought a specimen of Seasonic SS-350TGM 80 Plus Gold TFX PSU .
After a quick swap of PSU , my reading was the SAME !! give or take 0.2W more than FSP 300 GHS .
I returned it a day after .
I'm not saying that all SS 350 TGM are bad , maybe mine was a bit less efficient.
But the conclusion draws for itself : I just have a pretty efficient PSU at these low loads.
And also the Intel Mobo power draw is impressive to say the least .

One last achievement in low power mobo:
Intel® Desktop Board DB75EN with Intel I3 3240.
Samsung 830 64GB SSD , Win 7 Prof 64 bit
2 x 4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance 1600 Mhz DDR3 @ 1333 Mhz undervolted to 1.25V
Scythe Grand Kama Cross witout fan ( passive ) on open stand
FSP 300 GHS- champion
Now updated with video card installed: a reasonable middle class performance video card bought for the lowest power consumption on idle , HD playback , and last criteria for power in games .
So I choose Gigabyte GTX 660 1GB DDR5 OC
I added this video card to my mobo described above and I have with the same hardware 19 W idle with screen on , sound disabled in BIOS and Intel disabled in windows ( no way to disable Intel LAN chip in BIOS ).
With LAN and internet connection on and Opera browser opened as I write this post ,the meter reads 22.4 W AC, with some 22.0 W lowest , and spikes at 23.1 W.
So this concludes my search and post for the lowest power in idle state ever for a desktop mobo & cpu .

I thought I would share post my power consumption numbers. I received the Cooler Master V550S PSU. Prior to this I had a Seasonic S12-500 PSU. My hardware is...

Intel DH77KC Mainboard
Intet i7 3770K CPU
16 GB (4x4GB) RAM
AMD 7750 GPU
Seagate 1TB HDD
Intel 320 240GB SSD
Crucial mSATA m4 240GB SSD
Pioneer Bluray drive
Rosewill Dual Band Wifi Network adapter
Three 120 mm antec fans (including cpu fan)
Running Ubuntu 13.10, 64bit, Catalyst drivers (13.2)
Also running Dual monitors (1680x1050, 1280x1024)

With the Seasonic S12-500 it idled at about 58 watts screens on, 54 watts screens off
With the Coolermaster V550S it idles at about 44 watts screens on, 41.5 watts screens off.

I think this is pretty good considering the hardware I'm using. I think the major power burner is the HD 7750 GPU. Nvidia cards are supposedly more power efficient when running two monitors. I wanted to see how low I could get this system and still have a functioning computer. I tested the following...

Intel DH77KC Mainboard
Intet i7 3770K CPU
8 GB (2x4GB) RAM
Intel 320 240GB SSD
Running Ubuntu 13.10, 64bit, Catalyst drivers (13.2)
Single monitor (1680x1050)
Cooler Master V550S

So I disabled all fans, removed the discrete GPU, removed wifi, removed two sticks of ram, removed two of my hard drives, and I disabled lan in the BIOS and undervolted my RAM to 1.2v. I fired up Ubuntu and installed powertop (power management utility) and turned all settings to enable power saving features. Using this I got the following readings....

15.2 watts idle screen on, 14.3 screen off

I can't match audigy32's numbers, but considering how different my build is (different CPU, PSU, full ATX mainboard), I'm pretty happy with these numbers.

@audigy32
How quiet is the FSP 300 GHS?

One more thing. The Cooler Master V550S is not as silent as my Seasonic S12-500. There is no coil whine that I can detect, however the fan make a low rumbling noise. It's not that bad though. I guess I could always replace the fan, it seems like it's a 120x120x25 mm fan. I'm guessing those are fairly common.

To necbot :

My alias should have been "nonoise32 " instead of "audigy32" , because I can not tolerate the sound made by PC components or clicking/rattling fans .
FSP 300 GHS is a SFX PSU fitted with a 80 x 80 x 10 mm fan , thermo controlled .
For the majority of people its sound would be fine to near silent , but as I stated in my short Prologue , and to add some new info , I live in a small house on a peacefull small street , the surround noise in my livingroom is close to ZERO or close the Holly Grail " anechoic room " of SPCREVIEW.COM . So I think I really can make a professional remark about anything that emits any kind of noise.
So the small fan of the FSP has a small bearing ball fan that can be heared at the minimum rpm the PSU makes it spin , from at least 4 to 5 m , and it is kind of disturbing , it clicks on top of the air rushing .
So I opened 3 of my 4 FSP 300 GHS PSU's , removed the little bugger, and atached from OUTSIDE on Nexus rubber pins , a 80 x 80 x 25 Nexus FAN , each thoroughly tested for the minimum motor noise . Its speed is left for idle use at around 680 -700 rpm , and I can not hear it at a distance greater than 1.5 m . If its rpm increases slightly, I can detect it even at this distance

Forgot to answer more clearly :
Except for the standard fan ( removed ) the PSU is DEAD silent when disabling the C6 and SpeedStep, I did some further testing by completely stopping the NEXUS fan , and I can confirm that there is no kind of sound . When the speedstates are enabled , as everyone has allready discovered , the mainboards VRM emits a faint sound like a little burger on a hot frying pan , but at a very moderate intensity . I can detect this noise from as far as 1.5 to 2.0 m if I concentrate enough .
This VRM noise has its replica inside the FSP 300 GHS about the same intensity and tonality.
This reciprocity is present in all my PSU desribed above , with the notable exception of the Winmate DC DC module , as it is in all states DEAD silent

Thanks for the info audigy32. How do you disable C6 and SpeedStep? Is there a link you can post? I googled for it but I didn't find anything. Thanks.

To necbot :
Your figures are nothing to be ashamed for .
For a standard ATX board the Intel DH77KC is a fabulous record !!
Now the answer :
For the Asus Z77 & Asrock H77 , Z77 in BIOS from the first column ( Asus = AI Tweaker ).
Scroll down to the CPU Power Management , enter , then scroll to Enhanced Intel SpeedStepTechnology and select disable .
Next go to Advanced column , scroll to CPU configuration ( usually the first row ) , enter, scroll to CPU Power Management Configuration and here you will find the whole bunch :
Enhanced Intel SpeedStepTechnology - select disabled
CPU C1E
CPU C3 Report
CPU C6 Report
Package C State Support - ALL of then diasbled
Now the idle Power will rise fron Asus Asrock 20 ,19 W to 31 , 30 W BUT no more burger frying noise.
For the following Mobo I own , I can state that AFTER this simple procedure , they are all silent .
Asus Z77M , Asrock H67M-GE, Asrock Z77Extreme4, Asrock H77M
For the Intel® Desktop Board DB75EN the procedure is different , and I choose not to further interfere with ANY BIOS setting , because after messing with it , the idle power rose to 15.5 W with all C6 and SpeedStep enabled .
After hopelessly changing almost every option from enable to disable , and then again to enebled with no succes , I
touched the fan settings and managed to recover the initial record settings for l11.2 - 11.4 W at idle . So me no touchy ever bios Intel Mobo !

Hera are some pics of the Intel B75 Mobo with Gigabyte GTX 660 2GB DDR5 .
The video card has the original plastic shard and 2 fans removed, and is now fitted with 2 x 80 fans , one Nexus , one Arctic Cooling
Notice the Nexus 80 x80 x 25 fan attached to the outside of the PSU, and also the standard slim fan