Power Consumption

Idle power is significantly lower on the hardcore BigBang Xpower motherboard, requiring only 85W. That includes the Radeon HD 5850 card we used for this article. In contrast, the X58 Pro-E needs 98W to operate and idle.

Peak power was almost identical on both motherboards.
Power Efficiency

Performance was marginally higher on the X58 Pro-E, as our workload finished quicker. Keep in mind that this applies to the motherboard's default settings.

Average power consumption was a bit lower on the mainstream X58 Pro-E.


The efficiency in performance per watt-hour is slightly better on the X58 Pro-E, although the difference is relatively small.
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Summary
- Purchasing A Motherboard Isn’t Always Easy
- Mainstream: MSI X58 Pro-E
- Hardcore Enthusiast: MSI BigBang Xpower
- BigBang Xpower Features
- Direct Comparison
- Overclocking And Feature Comparison
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Benchmark Results: PCMark Vantage, 3DMark Vantage
- Benchmark Results: Applications
- Benchmark Results: Audio/Video
- Benchmark Results: Power Consumption And Efficiency
- Conclusion