Do motherboards consume power?

[haris262]

I read a comment on youtube saying that motherboards actually consume power. Sounds a little weird to me since I thought motherboards were really just a piece of pcb. Can anyone confirm this? Also, I am building a pc right now, so I if they really do use up wattage, how much do they use? Is it something I should take into account when buying a power supply or is it negligible?

Thank you for your help!

 

[giantbucket]

ever see a chip on a mobo? that uses power! for example - all of the ram modules. the Z87 chipset. the marvell sata controller chipset. the PLX chip on some larger boards.

I usually assume 50W for the mobo stuff (which includes ram, but doesn't include CPU). it's not exact but it's "close enough for rock n roll"

 

[alexoiu]

Yes, they consume power. There are components installed on the motherboards.
http://www.buildcomputers.net/power-consumption-of-pc-components.html

 

[juanjostorreshernndez]

The CPU and GPU is what you should take into account when buying a power supply, cause they are the most demanding parts of PCs, related to mobos consuming power is just pure common sense( if it does not consumes power then why plugging an PSU to it?), so yes, they definatlely consume power. To be more specific they uses 12/5/and 3,3 voltages for the diferent mobo parts such as USBs,CPU socket,RAMS,etc..so there is power consumption.

 

[Xibyth]

On average, a gaming motherboard uses 45Watts. PC Parts Picker can help determine how much your power supply should be able to handle.

 

[jsmithepa]

Do motherboards consume power

Do people work for free? Is the Pope catholic?

But you are right, for the purpose of buying PSU, you can ignore what the Mobo, by itself, consumes.