Intel Skulltrail Unleashed: Core 2 Extreme QX9775 x 2

Name: Intel Skulltrail Unleashed: Core 2 Extreme QX9775 x 2 - Page 12
Brand: Intel

by Marco Chiappetta — Saturday, February 16, 2008, 12:01 PM EDT

We have a couple of final data points we'd like to cover before bringing this article to a close. Our goal was to give you all an idea as to how much power each of the system configurations we tested used while idling and running under load. And also speak a bit about Skulltrail's acoustic profile.

Power Characteristics

Processors and Platforms

Please keep in mind that we were testing total system power consumption here at the outlet, not just the power being drawn by the processors alone. In this test, we're showing you a ramp-up of power from idle on the desktop to full CPU load. We tested with a combination of Cinebench R10 and SANDRA XII running on the CPU.

Despite Intel's recommendation of a 1000W power supply for Skulltrail when using a single high-end graphics card and a 1400W PSU for multi-GPU configurations, our Skulltrail based test system did not consume an astronomical amount of power in our opinion. If you consider the Skulltrail rig has a second quad-core CPU, dual PCI Express switches, and AMBs on each FB-DIMM, its idle power of 262 watts is somewhat impressive in light of the competition. Under load, Skulltrail consumed almost 400W, but considering the amount of horsepower under the hood we don't think that is excessive either, especially in light of the pseudo quad-core QuadFX system.

As for Skulltrail's acoustic profile, we're only going to comment on the motherboard's active Southbridge / PCI Express switch cooler because the CPUs can be cooled using any LGA775 heatsink on the market. Unfortunately, even the quietest CPU coolers won't completely silence a Skulltrail system because the SB cooler's fan is just plain loud. Perhaps this will change with a future BIOS revision that will throttle the fan's speed (there is an option in the BIOS that didn't seem to do anything), but with the configuration we tested the SB fan was the loudest part of the system.

Tags: Intel, Core 2, Core, rail, Xtreme, extreme, skulltrail, XT, EA, eme, QX, AI, K

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