Intel Core i5, Core i7 800 Processors and P55 Express

Name: Intel Core i5, Core i7 800 Processors and P55 Express - Page 17
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Monday, September 07, 2009, 11:59 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

Intel claimed vastly superior idle power consumption characteristics with Lynnfield, which we were able to prove out in our testing. Both the Core i5 750 and Core i7 870 offered significantly lower power consumption while idling than all of the other platforms we tested. Under load, power consumption was somewhat higher than the Core 2 / X48 combo, but keep in mind, these new chips typically offer superior performance than the Core 2, which bodes well in terms of their overall power efficiency.

Tags: Intel, core i7, memory, CPU, Motherboard, processor, Lynnfield, Core i5, Socket 1156, Coolers

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