Power measurements and overclocking
| Power consumption - idle | |
|---|---|
| Intel DS58X0 (Smackover) X58 | Foxconn Bloodrage X58 |
| 147 | 179 |
| Power consumption - load (2D) | |
|---|---|
| Intel DS58X0 (Smackover) X58 | Foxconn Bloodrage X58 |
| 255 | 259 |
Here's something interesting, as the Smackover idles at almost 30W below the Foxconn Bloodrage. Double-checking the BIOS to ensure that elevated voltages weren't in play, which they weren't, we can only surmise that Intel's Extreme mainboard adopts some funky idle power-saving technology, or that the Foxconn's 14-phase PWM takes additional (unnecessary) juice when idling.
Load figures, though, are very similar.
Overclocking
You wouldn't be contemplating buying an enthusiast-orientated motherboard if running at stock speeds was the primary purpose. The Bloodrage just screams 'overclock me', so who are we to deny wishes during the festive period.
Dropping the 920's multiplier to 14x to eliminate CPU-related problems, pertinent voltages - IOH, CPU, SB, etc - were raised by around 10 per cent, which is well within the range offered in the BIOS.
The CPU's uncore speed and QPI link (dropped from auto) were also dropped and the reference clock nudged up. We judge (very) basic stability as the ability to run wPrime 1024 without failure.
After a few minutes in the BIOS and a couple of choice words that cannot be repeated, a 200MHz reference clock was achieved. 210MHz booted in Windows but would fail wPrime more often than not.
The 200MHz clock would take a Core i7 920 right up to 4GHz, if run at its native multiplier of 20x.
We undertook overclocking with the passive cooling shipped with the board, and have little doubt that it could be raised to 220MHz+ with extensive tweaking and better cooling.
| Highest stable (Core i7) reference clock | |
|---|---|
| Intel DS58X0 (Smackover) X58 | Foxconn Bloodrage X58 |
| 188 | 200 |
And it compares favourably against the Smackover.
