Choice between a few motherboards

Arucad · November 25, 2015

Hello guys,

some prehistory:

I am currently using FX-8320 with an ASRock 990FX Extreme3. But I am having VRM overheating issues:
- my motherboard VRMs ignited (smoked capacitors+burnt PCB, frying my CPU with it. I was having FPS drops every once in a while (and it was happening more frequently before shit got real) . I assume the fact that I am using CM 412s cooler helps that, because it's not blowing air over the VRMs.

However I got them both RMAd but I am getting those performance drops again (much less frequently though). I assume it's VRM throttling because under normal circumstances(GTA5 for example) CPU usage doesn't go over 45-50%. So what happens is that the VRMs are overheating>Throttling CPU voltages>bottlenecking GPU>FPS drops.

So It seems like this motherboard is not suitable for 8core CPUs. Finally the time has come that I have some cash to replace it.

tl;dr: I need to buy a motherboard with better VRM design than ASRock 990FX.

Please correct me if my thought process is wrong!

I have been reading and found this very very good AMD Motherboards - VRM info database.

I decided that I will buy either one of these:

*I will NOT be using SLI/XFire and I wouldn't like to pay more for stuff I will not be using. I just need to not have to deal with VRM BS Also consider that CPU cooler is not blowing air over the VRM, although I have a push/pull fan config in my case (CM N400).

GA-990FXA-UD5 - €163
GA-990FXA-UD3 - €130
GA-990XA-UD3 - €112
M5A99FX PRO R2.0 - €150
M5A99X EVO (R2.0) - €133
If you can propose anything better, I can check the prices at my available retailers.

Thank you for your time!