Yes, you can optimize your motherboard's energy usage by adjusting settings and ensuring it runs efficiently.
Yes, you can optimize your motherboard's energy usage by adjusting settings and ensuring it runs efficiently.
Also curiously I have had PCs (not sure about my current) that drew less power in sleep mode than off. I think it was something to do with it having USB charging in off mode but turned off USB completely when sleeping. So measuring at the wall to see whats actually happening is always key. That said, I have a B660M 12400 with 6xHDDs and 5xSSDs, a PoE network switch (with 4 devices at 10Gbit, three copper which can use a fair few watts each) also powering my router, some ambient house lights, three small monitors and a VoIP adapter and all together they pull about 180W average. Plus there's always a sweet spot for efficiency vs slowing your PC so much it becomes less efficient due to taking longer to get the job done. I'd certainly think any motherboard with RGB headers they are less likely to have been thinking about power efficiency too, given by its nature you're just wasting energy on lighting.
It's definitely a possibility, though I believe some systems exhibit unusual patterns. Starting the OS might actually use more power than when it's just in sleep, which isn't as straightforward as the energy-saving advice suggests. What surprises me is that my Cyberpower UPS fails to detect low loads, showing 0W even when my TV is in standby and my PS5 is in rest mode—should be around 1W. A UPS should have a more reliable monitoring system.