Power Consumption and Thermals
Power Consumption
To measure power consumption we use a killawatt meter and measure the total system power draw at the wall. We run three different use-case scenarios for 5 minutes and take the average reading.
Thermal Performance
To measure the thermal properties of each motherboard we take the temperature of three different locations using a Rosewill infrared thermometer. We measure the hottest point on the PCH (chipset) heatsink, the first VRM heatsink (which is closest to the rear I/O) and the second VRM heatsink (which is closest to the RAM lanes).
7 Comments on ASUS Republic of Gamers Maximus VII Ranger Z97 (LGA 1150) Motherboard Review
” Additionally there is the 8 “hybrid” phase VRM tucked underneath the heatsink to assist with overclocking.”
This is somewhat misleading. The Ranger has 4 phase with a doubler. Different from the true 8 phase present on the Gene and Hero.
Hence why it is a hybrid phase VRM not a true 8 phase.
Be specific.
Many would just think “hybrid” could mean the controller is a hybrid analog/digital type.
So which is better this or the asrock exteme6 or gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK
The Gigabyte by quite a margin. True 8 phase goodness there for some very hard i7 OCing.
Can anyone comment on the audio capabilities of this motherboard compared to entry/mid-range sound cards (like the Asus Xonar DX)?
Hi, The ASUS Xonar DX is much better in “electrical performance” terms but in terms of “real-world” listening I don’t think you’d be able to tell unless you have really high end speakers. The Xonar DX is better, but for £60 I don’t think it would be worth it. http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/05/asus-xonar-dx-pci-express-soundcard/2496.png