Some interesting Motherboard Tests of VRM Stages

Alsone

Alsone

Alsone

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Some interesting motherboard tests of the VRM power stages here.

Looks as if you really get what you pay for:



and at the cheaper end:

 
The only thing I would say is a lot of the reviewers test on open benches where the air flow is non existent so some of the temps are a tad high compared with in a half decent case with air flow.
 
Alsone said:
Some interesting motherboard tests of the VRM power stages here.

Looks as if you really get what you pay for:



and at the cheaper end:

Click to expand...

yeah you do get what you pay for, worth keeping in mind that you can only test what is in front of you all these boards are mid-tier boards or in case of godlike mid-tier with bells, there are no OC class boards in this test from Asus, MSI or Asrock.
 
eeii said:
The only thing I would say is a lot of the reviewers test on open benches where the air flow is non existent so some of the temps are a tad high compared with in a half decent case with air flow.
Click to expand...

Fair point although the room was at a known temp.

Besty said:
yeah you do get what you pay for, worth keeping in mind that you can only test what is in front of you all these boards are mid-tier boards or in case of godlike mid-tier with bells, there are no OC class boards in this test from Asus, MSI or Asrock.
Click to expand...

The Asus Tuf is a £200 board, so reasonable budget for an X570. The Hero Vii is definitely what I regard as mid range, I didn't notice but isn't that AS Rock? Personally I won't be overclocking although I don't see any issues with the boards I mentioned.

Board choice has to be careful atm as there are issues with boost clock with many motherboards atm. There are vids on YT about this. I guess choice depends on where your priorities lie. However, in my experience, the item that fails on most MB's is the power caps. Unless you're going SLI, there's plenty of power on those boards for running even a gaming rig + 2080ti.
 
First thing I've done was replacing the VRM's thermal pads from my Asus X570-f to some decent ones. The temperature drop more than justified the 7 quid spent.
Annoying is the fact that most of the motherboards, regardless if it's a rat's-foot version or the bee's knees version, will have some cheapo thermal pad.
Once removing the heatsink from the chipset and from the VRM, both of them left some pieces/crumbles behind.
 
EsaT said:
Little airflow won't make those 100C running VRMs good.
Click to expand...

I agree. If anything an open bench with fans will be cooler as the room temp is a constant (which is why they test on an open bench), whereas in a case the temps can be hotter than ambient room temp and will potentially climb over time until the point at which the cooling and ventilation stabilise the case temp.

Michael, There's nothing wrong with replacing VRM thermal pads, but 1; who wants to do this on their brand new mb potentially voiding the warranty and damaging it if you get the seating and heat transfer wrong with the new thermal pads / paste, especially if it's an expensive one and 2. why would you do it when you can simply buy a better model in the 1st place? Another mid range board choice that didn't come out as well as the 2 I mentioned above is the Taichi. Cheaper than the Hero VII but more expensive and than the TUF. There are choices without modding boards and personally the last action I want to be making on a brand new motherboard is modifications.
 
Michael Marini said:
First thing I've done was replacing the VRM's thermal pads from my Asus X570-f to some decent ones. The temperature drop more than justified the 7 quid spent.
Annoying is the fact that most of the motherboards, regardless if it's a rat's-foot version or the bee's knees version, will have some cheapo thermal pad.
Click to expand...
And that's the big problem in lots of more expensive supposedly better consumer products:
You pay high prices and get mostly more fashion gimmicks and other crud, while actual features/functions and real quality don't really improve that much.

Also X570-F uses same DrMOS power stages as lower Asus X570 boards.
While at that price level something like IR3555 with also integrated current/temperature monitoring would be more fitting.
On top of that its VRM cooling is sabotaged by that retarded IO-shroud causing useless double cost:
First that fashion trash and then bigger heatsink to compensate it.

And then there's what seems to be "trademark problem" of Asus AM4 boards: Only single USB3 header!
X570-P is only sense making Asus X570 board with two USB3 headers.
If I need to buy also USB controller card on top of expensive motherboard to have all front USB ports working at full speed that's not good product!
 
Although a wide range of boards can be used alongside, for example, a high-end part like the 3900X, I'm still leaning towards something which would appear to be more of a logical fit, e.g. an X570 £300 one. I like the idea of pairing it with a solid entry level one such as the B450 Tommahawk max, obviously to save cash, but I'm still not sure.
 
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What worries me is that i have a msi gaming plus mobo, although its only paired with a 3700X so will be running colder. I assume mine shares the same VRMS with that board, is 100 degrees bad on VRMS, i'd of thought they'd be able to take it.
 
theone8181 said:
What worries me is that i have a msi gaming plus mobo, although its only paired with a 3700X so will be running colder. I assume mine shares the same VRMS with that board, is 100 degrees bad on VRMS, i'd of thought they'd be able to take it.
Click to expand...
Install hardware info to check VRM temps. I suspect under normal use and in a well vented case you will be fine.
 
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