Testing (continued):

Thermal Testing:

The onboard sensors being read through programs like CPUID's Hardware Monitor weren't reporting very believable numbers, so I used an infrared non-contact thermometer to sweep across the board looking for hot spots while at idle and under a load. In order to have access to the motherboard, the case's top cover was left off, and the hard drive mount was laid off to the side of the case.

For the idle condition, the system was allowed to sit at the Windows 7 desktop with nothing running for a period of 30 minutes. For the load condition, 3DMark06 was run two times back to back, in order to get all of the system components stressed and warmed up.

The main areas of interest were the CPU heatsink, all the exposed chips on the motherboard, and the power regulating transistors located around the processor.

I found that the CPU really never got that warm, whether at idle or load. I swept around the whole heatsink area and found 38C to be the maximum at idle and 43C to be the maximum under a load.

Of all the other chips found on the board, the exposed Intel NM10 Express chipset was the only one that seemed like it could use some extra cooling. It registered at 52C at idle and got up to 54C under a load. I dug out a small heatsink with a self-adhesive pad to pop on there to help with that situation.

And as for the transistors, they were the only other items that got warm. Idle and load temperatures were about 49C. I stuck a few smaller heatsinks on to these just because I happened to have a bag full of them.

For being 100% passively cooled, I was surprised at just how cool the system stayed. The components obviously draw minimal power, and we'll check on just how little in the next section.



Power Consumption Testing:

In order to analyze the system's power consumption, a Seasonic Power Angel was plugged in between the power supply and the AC wall outlet. The maximum power readings were then recorded from the Power Angel display with the system at idle and under a load.

For the idle condition, the system was allowed to sit at the Windows 7 desktop with nothing running for a period of 30 minutes. For the load condition, 3DMark06 was run two times back to back, in order to get all of the system components stressed and warmed up.

At idle, the system described in the configuration portion of the review (plus a USB keyboard, USB mouse, and USB Bluetooth adapter) drew just 19W. Under a load, the maximum value registered by the Power Angel was just 29W!

Considering the performance of the system, it would be quite practical for an office environment to replace their traditional desktops with systems based on this motherboard. They take up far less space, generate zero noise, and you might be able to power four or five systems with the electricity it takes to power one traditional desktop.