Power Consumption

The idle power consumption beats everything we've tested previously, and the DES Advanced seems to make a few additional Watts of difference - more than the older EP35-DS4 and it's a noticeable ~15W lower than the DS3R as well.

When loaded, the UD3R can't match the MSI P45 Platinum and it's a few Watts more power hungry than the DS3R and older EP35-DS4 here, but since the performance in general is that much better it's arguably very worthwhile.

Compared to other boards like the Maximus II Formula it is a single watt lower power, but it also features considerably less performance hardware - the same can be said for the Asus P5Q Deluxe too.