Power Consumption & Temperatures
The above power consumption results are very interesting. All seven motherboards are working with SpeedStep and Turbo Mode enabled with all voltages set to auto.
Despite this, the power consumption numbers at both idle and under load are quite different amongst most of the boards. The MSI P55-GD65 was the "greenest" motherboard with a system idle consumption level of just 68 watts, which is incredible. Under load the MSI configuration consumed 160 watts which was again the lowest of any board tested.
At the opposite end of the scale we had the DFI LanParty DK P55-T3eH9 taking the place of a full-sized SUV, consuming the most power at both idle and under load. The DFI board used up 14% more power than the MSI board under load, and a whopping 43% more when at idle. The Asrock P55 Extreme was also power hungry using almost the same level of power as the DFI LanParty.
The average idle consumption level was around 84 watts where boards like the ECS P55H-A and Asus P7P55D Deluxe stood up. The EVGA P55 FTW and Gigabyte P55-UD6 consumption was below the average.
These results show a temperature reading from each motherboard using EVEREST Ultimate Edition, making note of the idle and load temperatures. Note these may not be entirely accurate as we relied on the readings from the motherboard themselves.
For the most part load temperatures hovered around the 66 - 71 degree mark. The Asrock P55 Extreme, our round-up's second cheapest motherboard reached 74 degrees, which was the second highest recorded result. The ECS P55H-A, which is the most affordable model we tested, produced our highest result at 81 degrees under load.
Even at idle the ECS P55H-A and Asrock P55 Extreme motherboards appeared to produce the highest CPU temps.