Mini-ITX: Two Cases And Four Motherboards Compared

Benchmark Results: Power Consumption And Efficiency

Intel’s solution consumes the least power at idle, reaching a very low 35W. This includes the platform, Core 2 Duo E8600 processor, memory, WD VelociRaptor hard drive, and an optical drive. iBase, which provides the highest performance, requires 5W more at idle. AMD’s Phenom II X2 platform is less efficient. We used the same Enermax Pro 82+ 425W power supply for these tests.

Peak power is again higher on the AMD solution, but between 82W and 86W for the three Intel-powered systems. Intel’s board and the Zotac GeForce 9300 ITX WiFi are lowest at peak power.

PCMark Vantage Efficiency

We used PCMark Vantage to look at system efficiency. In this first test, we looked at the average power consumption of the test systems during a full benchmark run.

We also looked at the total power used (in watt-hours).

Once we relate the PCMark Vantage performance score to the total power used, we get efficiency scores, in which Intel emerges as the victor. iBase and Zotac follow closely, and Zotac’s AMD solution falls behind due to the fact that the AMD Phenom II X2 processor is slower and more power-hungry than the Core 2 Duo.