Ultimate DIY Performance PC: EVGA & Intel Infused

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.

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).