MSI B85M ECO Review: Aiming Green at $73
by Ian Cutress on November 26, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- MSI
- B85
- ECO
MSI B85M ECO Conclusion
Striving for better power efficiency is a goal we should all aim towards. A lot of people can do what they do at the same rate but consume less energy if they had access to more efficient components. Given the global climate, MSI has produced a range of motherboards to cater to businesses with a green mindset from the ground up.
Unfortunately the best plans of mice and men 'gang aft agley’ (often go awry), and in the world of electronics and business, money is the big talker. Few businesses will spend $20 to save $1 a year, so the concept also has to make financial sense to the end user. In order to launch a product that would sell to more than those with the best intentions, MSI had to create the motherboards to save significant power each year and fit within an upgrade cycle. That can be difficult when the gains are small and the cycles are short.
We used MSI’s base numbers (which in the world of marketing usually show the product in the best light possible), and calculated that in comparison to a standard range motherboard the MSI ECO can make financial sense to users with a 4-5 year upgrade cycle. Any shorter and it won’t make sense, though arguably our own numbers showed that the more the system is used in terms of loading, the better the financial outcome. If businesses are sticking to a 3 year upgrade cycle, this might not be enough of a saving to make sense.
By using the B85 chipset, the B85M ECO is aiming at Intel’s Small Business Advantage market. These can be medium volume customers purchasing for businesses making under-the-desk PCs for offices but still have a level of control or need vPro style management. This allows MSI to build the motherboard with office usage in mind – fewer power phases, smaller heatsinks, few PCIe slots but plenty of DRAM or storage if needed (as long as the locking cables don’t get in the way). At the end of the day, compared to all the previous Haswell-capable motherboards we have reviewed, the MSI B85M ECO uses the least power in long idle, idle and OCCT load, including against mini-ITX motherboards.
MSI is keen to point out its TÜV certification, and currently this motherboard is available from Newegg for $73. While the white/green PCBs from the initial Computex showing have not made it through to this model, the white and green matching across the board, box, BIOS and software maintain that mentality of ‘green is good for everyone’.
The BIOS does feel light compared to the overclocking BIOSes we have used on MSI motherboards in the past, and there are a couple of superfluous BIOS options, but it works as it should and we still get good fan controls in there. The software revolves around ECO Center Pro which is an update of previous ECO Center software we have seen but a little more extreme. One thing I would like to see in the future is MSI add in a testing mode that deals with CPU loading and fan loading. By testing enough permutations, the system could figure out the most power efficient fan curve for the system at every point.
One of the points in the review was the inability to select a lower CPU voltage. Both voltage and frequency have a role in total system power consumption, but when full performance is still needed, voltage is the only variable left to modify. I posed this question to MSI, and received the following response:
“We actually did try to do some testing with lower CPU voltage settings. The reason why we didn’t include it into the current BIOS is because we think Intel’s current FIVR architecture puts too many limits inside their design and we [would] rather use Intel’s integrated power saving features like C-State (Up to C7) and also SVID power. But it’s still a good suggestion that we can request our R&D to do more testing and check if we can fine tune better settings to enhance the power saving ability.”
The final question should be ‘well, does it work?’. Over a standard motherboard, the power savings are clear from both MSI’s numbers and our own. The biggest hurdle MSI will have to overcome is the price difference to a standard motherboard that takes 4-5 years to break even financially in ‘light’ office use, or the added cost of efficient 300W power supplies. Depending on the company refresh cycle, it might not make sense, but they might see another added benefit of being able to promote a ‘green’ computing strategy.
I believe this is a market MSI should pursue, and it will be interesting to see how it develops from both a hardware and software standpoint. If MSI were to publish the exact differences in PCB component selection, that we be golden, but I would assume that is part of their secret sauce and not up for sharing.
MSI is still interested in taking comments on the ECO line, so if you see something you like/dislike or have a few ideas on what you want to see, please leave a comment in this review. Personally I like the color scheme, and it might be interesting to see it on an ATX sized model. A dual GPU system might not exactly be green (unless it’s NVIDIA), but it might be worth trying to make it an efficient rig with a pair of Maxwells and DDR3L.
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Cygni - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
A Mini-ITX ECO would be right in my wheelhouse.I have an HTPC/NAS/Steam Mini-ITX thats on 24/7 and is several years old. It's next replacement cycle would likely last 5+ years, and the lowered power draw (plus lower heat) would be a no brainer over that lifetime. Could also see a market for personal servers and the like in Mini-ITX.
I would echo the request for undervolting access, even if its rarely worth it. The option would be appreciated to tinker with, if nothing else.
PaulJeff - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
I think the point of these "eco" boards is determined by the economy of scale. For a real world example, you would need to replace dozens if not hundreds of workstations/desktops in an office to realize the true savings potential. If one workstations nets a few dollars a year in savings on power costs, multiply that by the number of workstations that will be replaced, multiply that by the # of years between hardware refresh cycles and that will add up the potential power savings.MSI should be selling this "ECO" brand to OEMs like Dell, HP, etc. and then the savings can be distributed on a mass market scale.
The cost delta between a non-ECO branded board and an ECO board is not worth it for SMB's and home users.
ultimatexbmc.com - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
Good priceDaiz - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
The price of electricity does not take into account the true cost of it's generation.It might be good to also consider the amount of fuel that is required or carbon output
for example 1kWh of electricity requires ~0.5kg of coal and produces ?? kg of carbon dioxide.
so assuming a 5 year upgrade cycle is going to happen no matter what, you are still stopping ~27.5kg of coal from being burned each year or 137.5kg over the life of the mobo. multiple by the number of machines in an office and every little bit helps.
Conficio - Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - link
Should the energy savings and cost savings not also include the cost for air conditioning/cooling? I know that server rooms care about that. So there should be at least some back of the envelope numbers which should increase the amount of savings somewhat.I'm just curious.
Lerianis - Thursday, November 27, 2014 - link
One thing I wanted to point out: 300 Watt power supply? Eh eh...... even a bargain basement, non-gaming intended dicrete graphics card needs 400 Watts minimum, unless it is the REALLY cheap ones sold to HP/Dell/Gateway for their office PC's.A regular person cannot even order one of those unless they go online and 'lie' to the HP parts person telling them "Yeah, my video card died and I want to replace it myself, can I order one of your replacement discrete graphics cards?"
400 Watts is a more realistic minimum for a system with a discrete graphics card, though with the new integrated graphics from Intel being able to push HD 1080p and 1920*1080 resolution other content without a stutter while using less than 2% of the CPU's power on an i5..... they might have an argument that no one needs a discrete graphics card who is not an uber-gamer anymore.
KAlmquist - Friday, November 28, 2014 - link
Actually, a 300 watt power supply should be enough to power a single GTX 980. However, Ian was presumably thinking about the standard business PC, which uses integrated graphics these days. As you correctly note in your last paragraph, the primary market for discrete graphics cards is now gamers.jtd871 - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
Ian,Thanks for reviewing a non-flagship board. Like others who have commented here, I could see something like this finding a home in a future personal build for productivity, light engineering and moderate gaming. And it's $25 to $50 less than the Z-series boards. Please, more like this in the uATX and mITX form factors!
Some feedback for MSI (and other board OEMs): ditch the (non-express) PCI already, please? Any business willing to buy enough of these isn't going to stick PCI add-in boards inside (assuming they can still find drivers for use with their modern operating systems). I would suggest eliminating the PCI slot altogether and keeping the x16 slot separated from the other 2 PCIe slots, as a lot of even low-end GPU cards (for business multi-monitor, say) are at least a double-slot width - rendering the 2nd slot unusable in those situations anyway, and make at least 1 of the remaining slots at least physically x8.
azazel1024 - Thursday, December 11, 2014 - link
This seems like a really stupid test of the power efficiency since that is the main focus. A REAL PSU, like a bronze or higher rated PSU in the 350-500w range should have been used. Either a standard B85, or H85/7 or something should have been compared to it. you have a board with an over abundance of features versus one bereft.Otherwise it is apples to oranges.
Also, if MSI's claims are accurate, the ECO frankly sucks. My Sever with a G1610 in it, H67, 8GB (2x4GB) G.Skill Sniper@1.2v, SSD, 2 HDDs plugged in and a pair of Intel Gigabit CT NICs and Antec Earth Watts 380 burned 21w at idle, drives spun down. The ENTIRE system uses less than what MSI claims a typical uATX boards uses at idle. Based on Intel's numbers for some things like the NICs, I have to assume that the board is using at MOST 15w and probably closer to 12w.
Seems like at most we are talking 2-3w of power savings MAYBE comapred to a VAGUELY similar board.
know of fence - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Being an enthusiast site AT always played down power consumption numbers. But just making assumptions and low balling 4 different variables (price, hours, efficiency, years of operation) is both cumbersome and somewhat disingenuous.A more elegant way would be to create a realistic range for those variables and combine them into coefficients for min, max and typical scenarios. You could even do typical US, typical EU, UK, India or whatever.
For me every 1 W saved 24/7 equals 2 EUR/annum, also 66 cent per Watt per year assuming 8 hours a day operation. Not to mention that PCs actually last anywhere from 5 to 10 years, though they are much less frequently used, once they are handed down to relatives.