5 P35 mainboards tested - Asus with high power consumption

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:17 pm

Recent issue (14/07) of the german printed magazine c't tested the following P35 mainboards:

Asus P5K Deluxe/WIFI-AP: automatic fan control down to 50 %
Asus P5K3 Deluxe/WIFI-AP: like P5K
Gigabyte P35-DS4: automatic fan control down to 25 %, 3/4-pin compatible
Foxconn P35A: automatic fan control down to 50 %
MSI P35 Neo: automatic fan control down to 50 %, no automatic case fan control

system:
Core 2 Duo E6700
Seagate ST3250620AS
2x1 GiByte RAM
Geforce 7600 GT
PSU not specified, but presumably Sharkoon Silentstorm SHA480-9A as in recent tests

Code: Select all

whole system power consumption at standby/idle/full CPU/full CPU+GPU with EIST enabled 
P5K:      8.5/125/161/184 W
P5K3:     8.5/136/173/192 W
Foxconn:  4.2/93/138/159 W
Gigabyte: 5.8/87/126/150 W
MSI:      4.6/91/135/157 W

Comment: Compared to the last test, the CPU has changed. The boards show a power consumption comparable to the P965. The Asus should be avoided at all costs. DDR3 in the P5K3 adds another 10 W. The Gigabyte is very efficient and comparable to a P945 board from the same manufacturer. That's funny, since in the old days, Gigabyte was the one with the highest power consumption.

Bookmark: mainstream boards for C2D tested: 650i, P965, 975X, 945P

[F]bernZ · Post by **[F]bernZ** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 4:23 pm

Don't forget the ASUS ones are both equipped with wireless which undoubtedly adds at least SOME power consumption to the figures.

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:13 pm

Gigabyte has a wide series of motherboards. Would the power consumption be similar (within a few watts) among them?

There is DS4, DS3P, DS3R and more. I assume they should all be within only a few watts of each other. That's good as I've been considering the DS3R.

kakazza · Post by **kakazza** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:11 am

Yeah, I am very interested in the DS3R since it can run both, DDR2 and DDR3.

Not planning to wait for 45nm CPUs, cause with the DS3R I can still upgrade to them later~

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 4:22 am

http://www.hardware.info/en-UK/productd ... e_P35DS3R/

I've never heard of this site before, but I started googling these things when the P35s were released and it's one of the first sites I found that dealed with wattage.

If you look in the top right of the page, you can compare the specs to other models. All the P35 boards are being tested with identical setups. Wattage figure is on the bottom.

That Gigabyte board is also the one I'm eying. Was gonna build a cheap e4300/P65 board last month. Then I said, "It's so close, I'll wait for the P35s in case I wanna later upgrade to quad core Penryn." Then these boards were released and I saw articles stating the G0 cores in the new 6x50 models (July 22) run at lower voltage/temperatures. So I'm waiting again.

I'm beginning to build my wacky case, however, and it's either gonna be brilliant or a disaster.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:09 am

One more example for the high power consumption. This case is settled for me by now.

http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hard ... gsaufnahme

Leistungsaufnahme = power draw
Last = load
Hinweis = information
mit = with

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:08 am

Code: Select all

whole system power consumption at standby/idle/full CPU/full CPU+GPU with EIST enabled 
P5K:      8.5/125/161/184 W
P5K3:     8.5/136/173/192 W
Foxconn:  4.2/93/138/159 W
Gigabyte: 5.8/87/126/150 W
MSI:      4.6/91/135/157 W

It's looking like the reason behind why the P35 looked like it consumed more power than the P965 is because of the design of certain mobos such as the Asus boards. I'm definitely going for the Gigabyte DS3R at this point, it's designed for lower power waste and has a great layout (thank you 8 sata ports).

HueyCobra · Post by **HueyCobra** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:09 pm

jojo4u wrote:http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/hard ... gsaufnahme

(Google translation)

The Tech Report recently compared five P35 motherboards (Abit IP35 Pro, ASUS P5K3 Deluxe, ASUS P5K Deluxe, Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 & MSI P35 Platinum), with power consumption results similar to those already discussed:

Geoff Gasior wrote:The P5K and P5K3 Deluxe consume considerably more power than the other P35 boards, particularly at idle. The Gigabyte and Abit boards prove the most frugal when it comes to power consumption, with each taking a turn at the front of the pack ... Note also that DDR3's potential power saving attributes don't show up in the P5K3 Deluxe. Despite the new memory type's lower operating voltage, the P5K3 consumes more power at idle and under load than the P5K.

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 7:27 pm

As an Asus P5K-E owner, these discussions got me thinking about replacing my P5K-E with a Gigabyte DS3R for a free drop in power consumption.

So I returned the P5K-E and got a DS3R. In idle, the DS3R is 25 watts lower.

But as I started to use the thing, some issues came up.

First, the audio is horribly noisy, especially with headphones. Hard drive access makes it worse. I have read about this issue on other Gigabyte P35 motherboards, but was hoping I'd get lucky with this model. Of course now I see a Newegg reviewer agrees too, but excuses it as typical motherboard audio.

Then I discovered with my combination of hardware and a clean install of Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit, the system won't recover from hibernation correctly, even with the newest BIOS installed. I did some Google searching and saw a few others with the same problem, but no solution.

A few other things bothered me about the Gigabyte board, but the audio issue alone was enough to make me hate the board and I didn't want to buy a sound card just because they couldn't get it right.

I briefly looked into Abit's board until I discovered it had PCI Gigabit instead of PCI Express.

So I'm back with the P5K-E and I think the extra 25 watts usage is worth it.

EDIT: After playing with the Gigabyte some more, I found my hibernation issues were caused by having the USB cable connected to my Dell 2407WFP monitor, which contains a hub and flash readers. Shutdown issues were resolved by disabling the Gigabyte SATA feature (non-Intel SATA). I found I still have a sound card handy, so I may give the Gigabyte another chance...

Max Slowik · Post by **Max Slowik** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 9:11 pm

I briefly looked into Abit's board until I discovered it had PCI Gigabit instead of PCI Express.

They all have one physical PCI Express x16 slot; forgive me, but WTH is PCI Gigabit? Gigabit ethernet, is, in any case, a good thing.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:23 am

Max Slowik wrote: WTH is PCI Gigabit?

Most likely a Gigabit ethernet controller which is attached via PCI and not via PCI Express. This makes the PCI bus overcrowded.

lplatypus · Post by **lplatypus** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 2:38 am

Max Slowik wrote:They all have one physical PCI Express x16 slot; forgive me, but WTH is PCI Gigabit?

I presume he means that the network chip supports gigabit ethernet and is connected to the rest of the system via the PCI bus rather than a PCI express link. The network chip is integrated onto the motherboard so it doesn't use a socket, but it still needs to be wired up to the chipset somehow.

A PCI network chip will never be able to attain the full speed supported by full duplex gigabit ethernet (1Gbit/sec in + 1Gbit/sec out) because PCI only supports 133Mbyte/sec=1066Mbit/sec shared across all PCI devices.

Edit: oops jojo4u beat me to it

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 4:13 am

lplatypus wrote: A PCI network chip will never be able to attain the full speed supported by full duplex gigabit ethernet (1Gbit/sec in + 1Gbit/sec out) because PCI only supports 133Mbyte/sec=1066Mbit/sec shared across all PCI devices.

Edit: oops jojo4u beat me to it

The limitations are noticeable in artificial benchmarks, but it's unlikely to be an issue in normal use, even with other devices sharing the PCI bus.

Unless you're constantly transferring large unfragmented files from one RAID-0 array to another across the network, the mechanical speed of your HDDs will still be the main limiting factor.

jojo4u · Post by **jojo4u** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:00 am

Burst speed isn't the problem. There might be problems when another device wants to transfer over the PCI bus. E.g. sound card, tv-tuner. It's just not a clear, performant solution.

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 7:25 pm

Okay, the Gigabyte board was one I was really considering but the issues sound pretty bad. Although, I am interested in adding music (cubase, sound creating programs, amps, digital recording etc.) and a sound card, the issues still create concern.

Could someone help me here? I was hoping someone could help me decide on a board.

I have a few articles and reviews featuring P35 boards. If you could do a quick read and then give me your opinion for what you would choose, that would be very helpful.

I think the motherboard choice is the hardest because I am trying to budget no more than $200 and there are few of the good boards for that price. I'm not considering the Asus boards because of the high power consumption and high prices (and don't want the vanilla boards when there are other alternatives which consume less power/have lower wattage). Imho, the last link is especially good for comparisons. I'm looking at the Abit and MSI boards in particular but the Gigabyte board might be sufficient. Maybe, I can make do and just buy a sound card.

http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/06/19/ ... _compared/

http://www.techreport.com/reviews/2007q ... dex.x?pg=1

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?p=3900661

http://www.hardware.info/

Max Slowik · Post by **Max Slowik** » Mon Jul 02, 2007 8:32 pm

Thanks all. Sometimes my brain doesn't work without the little diagram of features.

HueyCobra · Post by **HueyCobra** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:05 am

DriverHeaven.net has posted a P35 Motherboard Roundup comparing the Gigabyte P35-DQ6, Abit IP35 Pro Off Limits, Asus P5K Deluxe and MSI P35 Platinum.

florinp3 · Post by **florinp3** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:06 am

Regarding IP35 Pro, I just received confirmation from Abit that it doesn't support undervolting "due to the limitation of hardware".

So I guess I'm stuck with Gigabyte...

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 11:20 am

What about the MSI Platinum? The only thing that looks problematic on it is the Marvell controller. It isn't up to par compared to the Gigabyte but it's cheaper and doesn't produce as much heat (or runs at a much lower wattage anyway).

Are the Gigabytes below the DQ6 (DS3R etc.) produce similar benchmarks and offer sufficiently similar features? It appears the wattage and noise levels are slightly lower than the DQ6 but not by much. It's quite cheaper, though, $100 less.

HueyCobra · Post by **HueyCobra** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 1:23 pm

pputer wrote:What about the MSI Platinum? The only thing that looks problematic on it is the Marvell controller. It isn't up to par compared to the Gigabyte but it's cheaper and doesn't produce as much heat (or runs at a much lower wattage anyway).

According to The Tech Report, the Platinum's idle power consumption is about 8-9W higher than the GA-P35-DQ6 and Abit IP35 Pro with SpeedStep enabled and about 26W higher with SpeedStep disabled. Under load, the margin falls to about 2.4W more than the GA-P35-DQ6 and about 7.3W more than the IP35 Pro.

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 6:19 pm

How do all these guys do their tests? I think 'Hardware.Info' and TechReport have a wide difference in their totals. The only consistent score that I can see is that the Abit and Gigabyte produce the least amount of heat/wattage.

I don't know which board to favour now. The Gigabyte DS3R is reported to produce more wattage at load than those three (add in the Asus) according to hardware.info.

What does it mean that the Abit IP35 doesn't support undervolting? Is that a big deal. I think the Abit falls short in a lot of benchmarks but if the price is right, it is a poor man's Gigabyte DQ6 and is sufficient if you don't need all the bells and whistles?

Arvo · Post by **Arvo** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:58 am

Looking at some benchmarks, I think that Abit has BIOS problems (again) - their memory speed is abnormally low.

Remembering their previous fiasco (AB9 BIOS woes) I'd not buy another Abit Intel board - at least not before I have seen massive positive feedback on internet.

lm · Post by lm » Wed Jul 04, 2007 7:34 am

josephclemente wrote: A few other things bothered me about the Gigabyte board, but the audio issue alone was enough to make me hate the board and I didn't want to buy a sound card just because they couldn't get it right.

Please list these issues? I'm planning on using spdif sound anyway and if the hibernation thing was a no-issue after all, I'd like to hear the rest?

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:31 pm

lm wrote:
josephclemente wrote: A few other things bothered me about the Gigabyte board, but the audio issue alone was enough to make me hate the board and I didn't want to buy a sound card just because they couldn't get it right.
Please list these issues? I'm planning on using spdif sound anyway and if the hibernation thing was a no-issue after all, I'd like to hear the rest?

I just bought the gigabyte p35 myself, once I get it I'll give a report on how it works for me. (I use a seperate sound card so that issue is moot)

josephclemente · Post by **josephclemente** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 10:59 pm

lm wrote:Please list these issues? I'm planning on using spdif sound anyway and if the hibernation thing was a no-issue after all, I'd like to hear the rest?

The minor issues I didn't mention were not really worth mentioning since they were more personal preferences:

I didn't like the way the RAM slots were so close to the CPU, since I used an 80mm slim fan mounted on my four memory modules. My memory can get REALLY hot when stressed, and the fan running at really slow speed kept them cool. The ASUS board had the slots further away, plus they were positioned lower - this was perfect for my cooling method. I am still running the Gigabyte now, but I haven't stressed the memory. I have to see if possibly the memory does get cooled OK from being closer to the CPU fan, or if I need to do something different. Or possibly just leave it alone.

The front panel audio header was located in an odd location, I preferred the Asus header location on the bottom of the board. This allowed the front panel audio cable to run below the motherboard rather than over the video card. Of course this doesn't matter when using a sound card.

Unplugging the Dell monitor's USB functionality along with disabling the onboard non-Intel SATA controller really helped. The board has been perfectly stable since then.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:49 am

lm wrote:
josephclemente wrote: A few other things bothered me about the Gigabyte board, but the audio issue alone was enough to make me hate the board and I didn't want to buy a sound card just because they couldn't get it right.
Please list these issues? I'm planning on using spdif sound anyway and if the hibernation thing was a no-issue after all, I'd like to hear the rest?

Well I really like my Gigabyte P35 so far, great overclocking, great cpu undervolting, very nice layout (if you aren't using ide or mobo audio connectors). Seems to be pretty stable as well...but one day of testing is far too little to make such judgements.

jimmyzaas · Post by **jimmyzaas** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:31 am

I read the Techreport comparison. I see that they also claim P5K uses more power. Another thing I noticed is the Analog Devices integrated sound which they claimed to be better. Is this true?

Also, some P5K users have been having problems with using all 6 Sata ports. Anyone have similar problems?

5 P35 mainboards tested - Asus with high power consumption

5 P35 mainboards tested - Asus with high power consumption

Re: 5 P35 mainboards tested - Asus with high power consumpti