Thanks to the Intel SB chipset fiasco, I like many others am sitting on parts deciding whether to build now and RMA later in April or send in the whole shebang to newegg for a refund and then wait for the new/improved mobos.
Primary uses for new build:
1) MS Office
2) light Photoshop
3) light audio and video file editing
4) burning cds and dvds for large archiving project
On hand:
Asus P8p67 Pro mobo + Core i2400s (the "green" cpu), Antec P150 case, Corsair 520W PSU (3 years old), XFX Radeon 4770 (dual head 2 x dvi)
I bought this combination with a goal of doing a quiet, relatively low power consumption build.
After making the purchase, I did more research and learned that the H67 boards -- even when running with a discrete graphics card -- consume less energy than the P67 boards (which, I now know, have all kinds of cool features that I will never use).
Now that I have the opportunity to immediately RMA both mobo and CPU (thanks to newegg) and given thatoverclocking and crossfire/sli aren't important, I'm wondering about switching to an H67 board when they are re-released in April.
Specifically, I'm looking at these full size atx boards: Intel DH67CL mobo, AUSUS P8H67 and Gigabyte GA-H67A-UD3H.
I would appreciate your comments on the wisdom of switching from P67 to H67 mobo to save power. Also which board is the best in terms of price/performance.
Finally, with the uses I listed above, is there any reason to swap the "green" iCore 2400s for a
straight 2500 (no oc) cpu?
The best info on power consumption that I could find after much research is shown in the charts below taken from (where else) silentpcreview. Sorry for all the charts. But in posing this question in other forums, I noticed a lack of data-based analysis. Because I'm particularly interested in understanding the potential energy savings of H67 vs P67 mobos over the expected 3-4 life of the new build (when there's a lot of sytem-on idle time), I thought some actual test data would be useful for those who take the time to post.
Your thoughts and advice are most appreciated!
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POWER CONSUMPTION
The Intel DP67BG and Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD4 were pitted against each other with a Core i5-2500K processor at stock settings, with Gigabyte's DES energy saving feature enabled, and overclocked. As P67 requires a discrete graphics card, we used an AMD Radeon HD 5450, which has a fairly low power draw.
We normally do not include power consumption figures for boards when they are turned off or in S3 sleep as these figures are usually not worth mentioning (typically 1W and 2W respectively measured from the wall). However, both boards were unusual power hungry in this regard. Our P67A-UD4 test system pulled 3W AC when off and 3~4W when asleep. The DP67BG used only 1W when off but 4W during sleep.W AC when off and 3~4W when asleep. The DP67BG used only 1W when off but 4W during sleep.
Like many other Intel boards, the DP67BG has excellent energy efficiency, using about 4W less on average compared to the P67A-UD4. Gigabyte's DES feature made a minor adjustment to CPU voltage resulting in very little difference.
The P67 chipset seems to use more power than H67 as well. Compared to the DH67BL, the DP67BG used approximately 5W more when idle and playing video, though the tables turned on load with the P67 board posting a 3W advantage.
Core i5-2500K Test Results
The tests were repeated with a Core i5-2500K, to see how the boards handle a more powerful processor. Often energy efficiency varies between boards depending on how high a load is pressed upon them.
This last chart is from the P67 motherboard roundup at tomshardware.