ASRock H370M-ITX/ac Motherboard Review

Power

We leave the system to idle on the Windows 10 desktop for 5 minutes before taking a reading. For CPU load results we run AIDA64 CPU, FPU, Cache and Memory stress tests and take a reading after 5 minutes. The power consumption of our entire test system (at the wall) is shown in the chart.

The UEFI settings that limit the CPU current and frequency by default result in less overall power consumption. A fairly sizeable reduction of 20-40 Watts, depending on the comparison motherboard, takes place.

When unlocking those power limits from the default settings, using the UEFI settings outlined in the UEFI section of this review, power consumption does jump to the 145-160w region under load.

We ran a system stability test twice, once at Stock UEFI settings (left) and once with the power limit removed manually (right) using various UEFI settings. There was no notable increase in any of the temperature sensors, aside from the CPU, but it isn't clear if any of the temperature sensors are for the VRM, none were labelled as such.

Sensors AUXTIN1, AUXTIN2 and AUXTIN3 appear to be unused or misconfigured on the Nuvoton NCT6793D since they show irregular temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Celsius even from a cold start.

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