Question Power consumption of Motherboards.

[chuffedas]

Just the motherboard, nothing else attached to it.
Do they vary very much?

I see some generalizations about ATX using more than mATX etc.
I have seen numbers that vary quite a lot.
I have seen ranges from 25-80W.

It is often stated that the power usage of the mobo is negligible.
I have gone with a low power CPU and almost fanless. (I am not a gamer)
So, according to my Wattmeter, not running very much, it is sat at 25W for my whole pc.

I am pondering looking at another mobo with two M.2 slots.
I don't seem able to find the power consumption figures for the boards.
It would be a shame to accidentally get a high usage board if there is an option.
I have a micro ATX mobo.

 

[Lafong]

I've never read there was a significant difference in power used among standard consumer level motherboards.

Are you in a situation where it might matter if the board used 80 watts rather than 30? I wouldn't think you would be if you had any decent or better power supply, considering your hardware. Drive power consumption is under 10 watts as far as I know.

I assume you use a Kill-O-Watt or similar device to measure power consumption?

In 2012, when I had an Intel i5-2500 in a basic setup (no video card, 3 spinning HDDs, one monitor, 2 sticks of RAM), I ran a bunch of Kill O Watt tests. This was with an ordinary Gigabyte ATX motherboard. The CPU had a TDP of 95 watts. I think this was with a 330 watt Seasonic power supply.

Results:

Idling, 2 minutes after a boot; total watts used by entire system including monitor: 80 watts.

Under severe load; simultaneously running Prime 95, Malwarebytes virus scan, Passmark benchmark, and playing a random video clip: 164 watts peak reading for the entire system.

I haven't used my Kill O Watt since, but I don't think I've ever owned a system that would use over 200 watts.

Hard to imagine you'd have any problems if you have a good quality PSU of maybe 400 watts.

 

[chuffedas]

Ah, I see where you are coming from.

Sorry, I shall be clearer.
I am not worried about my PSU, I have a TX550M which I have from new and haven't stressed it. I am now using less power than I was, so that side is all good.

It is more just that I am enjoying cutting my power usage generally all around the house. It is all adding up.
As my Kill O watt shows my monitor down at 12W and PC at 20W, if there is a motherboard that uses 80W and one that uses 20W,
would be a shame to use one that is 80W if everything else is equal.

Hence I was wondering if they were all pretty similar.
All the figures I see seem to be kind of guesses etc. Plus there are statements or caveats in there which make it unsure what the measurement was etc.
Perhaps it is just that they are all so similar it doesn't matter. Or perhaps it is difficult to measure it.

I mean, I have seen the range of 25-80W. Well, I know that can't be right as my whole PC is only using 20W.

 

[Lafong]

Yeah, it would be uncommon for the typical PC review site to isolate motherboard ONLY power usage.

If there was a 20 watt net difference between 2 motherboards and you had to pay 200 dollars to switch, would you switch? At 15 cents per KWH and 10 hours a day of operation, you would save 1 KWH every 5 days. That's 90 cents a month, 11 dollars a year.

Maybe.

I assume you've done all the usual stuff like going to LEDs, planning hours for cooking, living with less air conditioning and heating, reducing hot water heater temp, etc.

"I mean, I have seen the range of 25-80W. Well, I know that can't be right as my whole PC is only using 20W."

That 25 to 80W would be either rank guesswork or when under a heavy load.

You might be able to make some decent savings with current motherboard by fiddling with BIOS settings and Windows power plan settings.

 

[chuffedas]

If there was a 20 watt net difference between 2 motherboards and you had to pay 200 dollars to switch, would you switch?

Nope. But this is what I am trying to find out. If the information is available (which, by the sounds of things, it is not).
What if the cost was exactly the same but one was 80W more. Then of course i would do that.
The reason I am asking is that i am pondering a new (well, second hand) mobo with dual M.2.
So I thought I would find out this info to add into the calculations if it was available.

At 15 cents per KWH and 10 hours a day of operation, you would save 1 KWH every 5 days. That's 90 cents a month, 11 dollars a year.

I absolutely hear what you are saying. I am pretty realistic with all of this.
I am not one to spend £150 to save a tenner a year just for the sake of it.
I bought my current board at an ok price, and the sale proceeds would go towards the next mobo.

Your figures are worked on an extra 20W. I am just trying to make sure that the difference is not 60W. That becomes a bit more noticeable eh?
Just to make the numbers right though, I am in the UK. Currently I am at 20p /KWh (24 cents?) and my tarriff ends this year.
The cap is currently set at 34p/KWh. Although I haven't yet worked out whether that can go up again this year.
So, I am not sure what my tariff might be when it comes to switching. I am not sure how the cap affects longer term fixed rates.
There is quite a lot of uncertainty about it.

I assume you've done all the usual stuff like going to LEDs, planning hours for cooking, living with less air conditioning and heating, reducing hot water heater temp, etc.

Yup.
Over the last 5-10 years, gradually adjusted as things break.

You might be able to make some decent savings with current motherboard by fiddling with BIOS settings and Windows power plan settings.

Agreed. I shall dabble with the BIOS settings. I have still to update the BIOS as you suggested in another thread
I don't use Windows.