Power Consumption and Temperature
We tested power consumption and VRM temperature at default BIOS speed and voltage settings, with all power savings features enabled.
Asus has the most efficient board at idle, while several boards tied under full load. Gigabyte’s X48-DQ6 appears to fall in the middle, but that only happens when its Dynamic Energy Saver utility is manually enabled. Disabling DES caused the X48-DQ6 to fall into sixth place at 108W idle, 155W load. Furthermore, DES couldn’t be enabled when the system was overclocked.
Gigabyte does have a great VRM cooler, and we’re certain its 12-phase voltage regulator was also the least loaded. That puts the X48-DQ6 in the lead when it comes to temperature control.