At Computex 2014, MSI was showing off their latest motherboard innovation: a new Eco series which gives you full control over what features on the board are enabled. If you're running a home server or another system where power consumption is key, you can turn off stuff you're not using, such as audio, USB, PCI slots, LEDs, fans and more.
The Eco series motherboards only feature the essential components, which is why you'll find them using H97, B85 and H81 chipsets rather than Intel's newest and most feature-packed Z97 chipset. Packaging materials have also been cut down in order to keep costs down and be more environmentally friendly.
At MSI's booth I saw a live demonstration of the Eco boards in action, where you could select which features on the board were enabled through a software application. Turning off pretty much all the features can save up to 7W compared to a similar, non-Eco board, according to someone from MSI. This may not sound like a lot, but it adds up when you're running a system 24/7.
