Ultimate DIY Performance PC: EVGA & Intel Infused

Name: Ultimate DIY Performance PC: EVGA & Intel Infused - Page 13
Brand: Ultimate

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, August 04, 2010, 02:29 PM EDT

We'd like to cover a few final data points before bringing this article to a close. Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we monitored how much power our test systems consumed using a power meter. Our goal was to give you all an idea as to how much power each configuration used while idling and while under a heavy workload. Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption at the outlet here, not just the power being drawn by the processors alone.

Total System Power Consumption

Tested at the Outlet

With two processor sockets loaded with a pair of Intel's best Xeons and double the number of memory sticks in the system, it should come as no surprise that the EVGA Classfied SR-2 / dual Xeon 5680 combo consumes a good amount of power. The results of our testing, however, aren't as extreme as you may think. While idling, the SR-2 setup consumed only 48 more watts than the Core i7 980X. Under load conditions, consumption jumped significantly though, and the EVGA Classified SR-2 / Dual Xeon 5680 combo used 141 more watts than the 980X. That's a lot of juice, relatively speaking; but we have to say, when paired with the right coolers, heat and noise are non-issues (we used a pair of Thermalright 120s).

Tags: Intel, Nehalem, evga, Power, Xeon, performance, Classified, SR2, 5680, ultimate

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com