Intel Core i7-6700K And Z170 Chipset Review: Skylake For Enthusiasts

Name: Intel Core i7-6700K and Z170 Chipset Review: Skylake For Enthusiasts
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Sunday, November 22, 2015, 08:00 AM EDT

Throughout all of our benchmarking and testing, we also 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

power

The Intel Core i7-6700K was relatively power efficient. At idle, the platform used significantly less power than the Haswell-based Core i7-4790K. Under load, however, the Core i7-6700K used slightly more power than its predecessor. We haven't had the chance to experiment with many Z170-based motherboards, however, so we're unclear whether the delta we see here is strictly because of the CPU, which no longer has FIVR, or the platform as a whole.

We should also note that we monitored power consumption while overclocked to 4.6GHz as well, and saw only a marginal increase in power consumption. While overclocked, the platform's power peaked at only 152W.

Tags: Intel, core i7, CPU, processor, Chipset, Skylake, z170, motherboar

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