Power Distribution within Six PCs

@ 2005/09/16
Under this extreme load, the total power draw peaked at about 220W. Neither the +5V nor the +3.3V lines drew appreciably more power during the test. About 90% of the power was drawn though the +12V line.

Although the overall power draw was much higher than the original CPUBurn test, it is interesting to note that the CPU seemed to consume slightly less power when 3DMark05 was added to the mix. Since CPUBurn should have been using all idle processor cycles, it is possible that the CPU operations demanded by 3DMark05 do not require as much power as the ones used by CPUBurn.

The total power draw of the Aeolus 6800GT at load can be estimated at about six amperes on the +12V line, or around 70W. At first glance, this seems considerably higher than the 55W measured for the 6800GT by X-bit Labs. However, our loads and measuring tools are different from the ones used by X-bit Labs. In addition, our measurement also includes efficiency losses that may occur in the power circuitry in the motherboard.

Comment from Sidney @ 2005/09/16
I read the article two weeks ago and never posted it until now, excellent detail or insight of how much wattage is needed.