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Power consumption is a hot topic of conversation in recent months as people are paying more attention to their electricity bills and overall energy footprint.
We used a calibrated meter to measure the power at the wall.
Firstly we analysed the power drain when all systems were at reference clock speeds (Core i7 3960X EE @ 3.3ghz, Core i5 2500k @ 3.3ghz, Core i7 2600k @ 3.4ghz, Core i7 2700k @ 3.5ghz and FX 8150 @ 3.6ghz).
All systems were loaded with Cinebench R11.5 64 bit.
Next we overclocked the processors, increasing voltage settings.
Next we tried loading the Core i7 3960X system in the final test of 3DMark 11 @ 4.8ghz with GTX 580 SLI and GTX 590 Quad SLI recording power consumption.
Be prepared to pay for an expensive power supply if you want to overclock this system with multiple, high end graphics cards. The system was taking 801 Watts with two GTX 580's in SLI and 929 Watts with two GTX 590's in Quad Sli. Nvidia or Intel won't care if your electricity bill is much higher after gaming with this system for a few months, but you might.
We used an Enermax Platimax 1200W for all our reviews today, we highly recommend it.
Great mobo ! but ouch on price (although expected for ROG).
That motherboard is friggin hardcore. 2400mhz memory?! awesome. probably cost £500 in the UK if they ever bring it out here however!
50GB of bandwidth with that Corsair GTX8 memory? I wet myself.
What beautiful memory too, stole the show for me today, never mind the 3960X… (which is good too I guess :p)
Great article, I would have liked to see the temperatures of that 2400mhz memory. I would say the oversized heatspreaders arent there for just show.
I cant believe the result of 50 GB/s of bandwidth with it, thats off the chart.
Great review, as always. One thing though, in the future will this CPU be used to bench new cards? Cause i think for gaming, from the small data i see in the review, it’s not the best performance/$ nor will it be affordable to 99% of gamers out there which would rather spend the cash on video cards.
No, I don’t think we will use it much for ‘general’ reviews in coming months. probably a 2600k system for those.
That Corsair memory is mindblowing. look at the design ! spectacular!
For video editing and 3d work, this is stunning. for the f irst time ive seen how high spec memory can make a difference. 2,400mhz is amazing, but can it overclock more?
Hey man, if you ever want a home for that 590 GTX QUAD SLI system, let me know.
almost 1kw from the socket. lol.
/jealous .
over 63k with 3dmark vantage? I seriously need a system upgrade, about to cry 🙁
Its a great setup, but its not mainstream or even for most enthusiast users. the price of the CPU alone means you could get a decent system, but in regards to technology its a bad sign for AMD, they are so far behind now its not even funny
Seems overkill for most users, if I played games at night and encoding video during the day, sure. but its a 2600k for me im afraid.
I love asus products. I bought one of their rampage boards a few years ago and its still working perfectly at a mad OC level.
LN2 switch is cool, wonder how many people at home would use thaT? any benefits for an ordinary user when ocing or just LN2?
Great review guys. love those high res images for board detail.
I am buying this setup when it is available. thanks for details. going to cost me 3k or so but I already have two GTX590s 🙂
I really do want to get hold of some of that memory from Corsair, that is insanely good.
How about WEI score? Can i7-3960x reach perfect 7.9? I have read many reviews that there is no processor that reach it without extreme overclocking.
Wei , the windows experience index?
Yes 7.9.
Anyone notice that Asus did not make the Rampage IV extreme with bluetooth V3.0… they are using the old 2.1 version, likely to continue the sells of they’re current Rampage III Black Edition.
Guess, they want me to wait until they come out with another black edition only for the Rampage IV?
Yeah thats weird, why would they do that?
Wow, this is cool, Intel Core i7-3960x EE is the first desktop processor capable of reaching the WEI (Windows Experience Index) perfect 7.9 at stock speed (3.30 GHz).
For the other components that have reached 7.9: DDR3 memory > 12 GB, HD 6970 or GTX 580 or faster, 200 GB or higher SATA 6 Gbps SSD.