Power Consumption and Temperatures

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 which 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.

Fan Control

*Fan speed is controlled by temperature, actual minimums dependent on fan ability.


There are five 4-pin fan headers on the ECS Z170-LIGHTSABER. Four of these are PWM-controlled, while the fifth, the PWR fan, is a 4-pin with power and ground connectivity only.


Only the CPU fans and SYS Fan 1 are user-adjustable. No controls at all for two of the headers means you either have to deal with fan noise or carefully choose which fans you put into your case.