Efficiency: Core 2 Nukes Atom On The Desktop

Power Consumption With Different PSUs

Having introduced four entirely different power supply units, it’s now time to look at the power consumption results each of them produced. We used the Foxconn G31MG-S and the Core 2 Duo E7200 for this test. Clearly, the OCZ and Cooler Master power supplies don’t do our low-power systems any service, as they lead to an increase in system power when idle by almost 45%:

While the small FSP220 power supply from Fortron reduces the system idle power of the G31 platform to only 29 W (we achieved this by using only one 2 GB DIM module!), any of the other units would have this value increase to 38 W (with the Etasis) and over 40 W (with the Cooler Master or OCZ).

The results are similar when the processor is running at peak power using the FSP220–system peak power is limited to 64 W. The 300 W power supply unit from Etasis increased the result to 72 W; Cooler Master had this number increase to 78 W; and the most powerful OCZ power supply drove peak power all the way up to 78 W, which is almost 22% higher than the ideal result taken with the Fortron 220 W power supply unit.

The difference is smaller at peak power, as the more powerful power supply units operate at more efficient power levels, which helps to close the gap.