Intel i7 3960X EE / Asus Rampage IV Extreme / Corsair GTX8 (2400mhz) / Quad GTX590 Review

Power consumption is a hot topic of conversation in recent months as people are paying more attention to their electricity bills and overall energy footprint.

We used a calibrated meter to measure the power at the wall.

Firstly we analysed the power drain when all systems were at reference clock speeds (Core i7 3960X EE @ 3.3ghz, Core i5 2500k @ 3.3ghz, Core i7 2600k @ 3.4ghz, Core i7 2700k @ 3.5ghz and FX 8150 @ 3.6ghz).

All systems were loaded with Cinebench R11.5 64 bit.

Next we overclocked the processors, increasing voltage settings.

Next we tried loading the Core i7 3960X system in the final test of 3DMark 11 @ 4.8ghz with GTX 580 SLI and GTX 590 Quad SLI recording power consumption.

Be prepared to pay for an expensive power supply if you want to overclock this system with multiple, high end graphics cards. The system was taking 801 Watts with two GTX 580's in SLI and 929 Watts with two GTX 590's in Quad Sli. Nvidia or Intel won't care if your electricity bill is much higher after gaming with this system for a few months, but you might.

We used an Enermax Platimax 1200W for all our reviews today, we highly recommend it.

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