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.


Power consumption with stock settings is a lot better than I expected. Idle power consumption is a bit high, but given these LEDs are driven by the 12V line, the slight increase in power draw is no surprise. Adjusting the brightness of these LEDs did affect power draw, so what is going on here is pretty evident.

Fan Control

*Fan speed is controlled by temperature, with set On and Off points.


Fan controls on the Biostar Racing Z170GT7 are pretty good. The BIOS offers tuning options for each fan, with calibration options for each of the five ports. Once calibrated, each fan can be set to either manual speeds or one of three predefined profiles. Fan controls within the OS via the provided software are not that great and could use some work, but that is just a matter of personal preference since the BIOS offers decent options.


The fan headers aren't optimally placed since the two CPU fan headers and a system fan header are just under the left MOSFET cooler, above the first PCIe slot, while the remaining two system fan headers are on the motherboard's bottom edge. I did not have any issues myself in connecting all five of my test system's fans, but I could see how in some cases, extension cables might be necessary if your fans have short power leads. That said, I use a Corsair H110 stuffed into a Corsair Carbide Air 540, and I had no problems plugging all five of my 140mm fans in to set them to quiet mode after calibration in the BIOS, which resulted in more than adequate cooling and very little fan noise.