Asus Maximus VI Extreme (Z87) Motherboard Review

We measured the power consumption with the system resting at the Windows 7 desktop, representing idle values.

The power consumption of our entire test system is measured at the wall while loading only the CPU using Prime95's Small FFTs setting. The rest of the system's components were operating in their idle states, hence the increased power consumption values (in comparison to the idle figures) are largely related to the load on the CPU and motherboard power delivery components.

The power consumption figures show good efficiency for Asus' Maximus VI Extreme when compared to those for MSI's and ASRock's equally feature-heavy Z87 XPower and Z87 Extreme9/ac. Load power usage in both clock speed scenarios is around 10-15 Watts less than MSI's Z87 XPower. The numbers are also slightly lower than those obtained from the ASRock Z87 Extreme9/ac.

The reasons behind the lower power consumption for Asus' Maximus VI Extreme motherboard could be related to the efficiency of the board's Extreme Engine Digi+ III power delivery components, as claimed by Asus. The M6E's built-in 4-way optimisation – a technology that is also found on many of Asus' other Z87 motherboards – could be reducing power consumption by shutting off unused components such as add-on SATA or USB 3.0 controllers.

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