Skylake i5 Power Consumption Tests

Put together a new machine today, and ran a quick power consumption test to see what to expect from the total draw.

System specs: i5-6500, Asrock H170M-ITX/ac, 2x4GB DDR4, 1x240GB SSD, Corsair CX-430, Coolermaster Elite 110. Power measurements were made from the wall (240V AC) with a PowerMate Lite.

Machine State	Consumption (W)	VA	PFC
Off	0.75 W	33.5	0.02
Idle	17 W	42	0.4
Prime 95 (Large FFTs, 4 threads)	71 W	86	0.825

In Prime95 the power fluctuated a little, the above entry is a typical value. Peak recorded draw was 73.5W. Maximum temperature hit was 58°C. HwMon recorded individual cores at 3.6GHz, but under Prime95 load they all stuck around 3.3GHz.

You could happily run this machine on a 90-100W power supply. The smallest commonly available PSUs retail tend to bottom out at 350W, which is massive overkill in a system without a dedicated GPU.

_{(Also, the PFC of the CX-430 — ouch!)}