Power Consumption

We measure CPU power consumption since one of our first tasks is to truly verify system stability. I isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, and total wattage passed through. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design. Total system power consumption is no longer reported as this figure can change depending on what VGA is installed. The sole board-only power measurements possible without physically modifying a motherboard are those taken via the 8-pin CPU connector, making it the only figure of value worth reporting. I use wPrime with eight threads selected in its options since it provides a consistently high workload throughout the full length of the test and runs long enough for the VRM and CPU to produce a fair bit of heat. Most average workloads will draw far less than that, although distributed computing applications are quite similar. This is not supposed to test stability since I use several other applications to do so, but merely serves to provide repeatable power draw numbers anyone can replicate. The meter used is an off-the-shelf Zalman unit that has been on the market for some time. In my test environment, it provides results similar to a FLUKE 337 clamp meter.


The ASRock X99 OC FORMULA/3.1 does provide quite excellent power consumption figures under stock clocks. You get a base experience right out of the box, but if you want more, it's at your fingertips.

Fan Control

With a total of six fan ports, the ASRock X99 OC FORMULA/3.1 might seem decently equipped, and I suppose in regards to their functionality and placement, I have no problems either, but I was not happy about the fact that only two of these were 4-pin headers, with one 4-pin at the bottom of the board to control a system fan while the other is used to control the main CPU header. This means the auxiliary CPU fan header is a simple 3-pin type; they should both be the same in my opinion.


Be that as it may, once in the BIOS, easy-to-use, simple options are available, with a secondary "Fan-Tastic Tuning" utility should you want to graphically plot fan curves for the CPU fan; you can at least force the CPU fan to 0%. The other fans have sensor-based options for their speed adjustments.