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 MSI Z170A GAMING PRO did fairly well in terms of power consumption because of its limited overclock and limited number of VRM phases.

Fan Control

*Actual fan minimum dependent on installed fan


Fan control on MSI boards is a bit lacking. CPU and memory options in BIOS are great so long as you take the time to set everything manually, but the software options offered for system fans don't actually give the fan ports full functionality. Going from 50% to 75% to 100% only, rather than by single percentages like in the BIOS, is weird, but then again, I'm drawn back to the idea of who might really need the board and what options they would want. As such, what is offered here is adequate, moderate even. I believe we have our theme.


Running the included "fan-tune" option actually went better than I had hoped as the software's native options produced very respectable noise levels.