X99 Motherboards Are Failing Already

[RainfallWithin]

Original article from legitreviews.com and written by Nathan Kirsch on 6th September 2014

http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-x99-motherboard-goes-up-in-smoke-for-reasons-unknown_150008

 

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On Friday I spent the day wrapping up the benchmarks on the Kingston HyperX Predator DDR4 16GB (4x4GB) 3000MHz quad-channel memory kit (part number HX430C15PBK4/16) that runs at 1.5V. This morning I wanted to get another kit of DDR4 memory tested, so the system was powered down, the CMOS was reset and a G.Skill 16GB (4x4GB) 3000MHz memory kit (F4-3000C15Q-16GRR) and powered up the system.  It posted fine, so I went into the UEFI and set it to run at the only XMP profile on the kit. The UEFI changes were Saved and the system restarted. It was during the next seconds that both the board and the processor would be killed off in a rather unspectacular death. The system came up, hung for a very short time and then powered off with a audible click of the Corsair AX860i power supply. If you’ve ever heard the loud click of the Over Current Protection (OCP) shutting down the PSU you know exactly what click I heard. Now when I press power button on the motherboard the system clicks after being on for a split second.  I unplugged all the cables on the power supply and did the built-in self-check and it passed with flying colors. I still swapped out the PSU with a backup Corsair AX860i and the same click was to be heard. and it’s doing the same thing (Corsair AX860i). After clearing the CMOS, removing the memory, SSD and video card the system still wouldn’t post. At that point in time I switched to a non-digital power supply (Corsair AX1200) and it did the same thing although this time the OCP took a little longer to kick in. There was some audible crackling noises, followed by some smoke near the CPU VRM heatsink. So, the heart shattering smell of burnt electronics filled the room and I knew my day wasn’t going to be a good one.

 

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Looking at the board we can see that the failed component in question is part of the PQ1004, which is part of the VCCIN or basically the processor input voltage. Crap! On these Haswell-E processors, Intel has moved the voltage regulation on-CPU as part of the new Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator (FIVR). Previously there were five separate input voltages the motherboard handled: Vcore, Vgpu, VCCSA, VCCIO, and the PLL. On Intel Haswell-E processors all five internal power rails are pulled from the single VCCIN and the components on ours just had a nuclear melt down.

 

 

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LR isn’t the only site that has had a board go up in smoke as Michael Larabel over at Phoronix had an X99 board go up in smoke as well. He was not using the same brand of motherboard or power supply model, but to see X99 boards failing this early in the game is alarming.

 

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Personal Thoughts

It seems like an overheating of the CPU power delivery system, but I don't know enough about motherboards to form an opinion. I'll leave you guys to read the original article.

[MegaDave91]

And Asus to boot...I still like their boards despite going the MSI route with Z97.

[X1XNobleX1X]

Might want to add this h-aswell (Get it?) :

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=msi_x99_fail&num=2

 

 

Picture of the MSI Sli Plus. 

 

http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=msi_x99_failℑ=x99_fail_0_med

[Bloodyvalley]

Awesome. X*9 have always had problems.

[MegaDave91]

Awesome. X*9 have always had problems.

 

Maybe users are pushing these boards far beyond their capabilities?

[Bloodyvalley]

Maybe users are pushing these boards far beyond their capabilities?

No I remember X79 had problems too. It had something to do with the BIOS.

[Victorious Secret]

Brand new platform has teething issues, more at 11. 

 

Motherboard has voltage whoopsie, more at 11. 

 

Sample of 1 has an issue, better say all X99 boards have issues; brought to you by the School of Sensationalist Thread Titles.

[Techhog]

Lemons + people going to the absolute limit + early adopter blues

[That Norwegian Guy]

Low-end boards are going to be low-end boards, even when the low end costs what X99 costs. Not surprised.

[Faa]

Has completely nothing to do with X99, the mosfets just blowed up. They are IR3550's 60A version, theyre atm the best mosfets so yeah dude just had bad luck. Besides he's smart enough to know that an ax860i always clicks when it turns on or off - that's not an indication of OCP kicking in. OCP just removes power that's all.  

Intel has moved the voltage regulation on-CPU as part of the new Fully Integrated Voltage Regulator (FIVR). Previously there were five separate input voltages the motherboard handled: Vcore, Vgpu, VCCSA, VCCIO, and the PLL. On Intel Haswell-E processors all five internal power rails are pulled from the single VCCIN and the components on ours just had a nuclear melt down.

He fails to understand that mosfets aren't regulating voltages, it's the PWM controller doing it and it's never been removed for Haswell boards. The CPU does have a pwm controller in the die, but that's just filtering it once more. 

[Plasma]

my asus x99 delux has given me zero problems after updating the bios from the one that it shipped with

[Ren]

*Cough* Asus..

 

I'm waiting for Gigabyte X99 reviews to start popping up a lot.

[Faa]

Low-end boards are going to be low-end boards, even when the low end costs what X99 costs. Not surprised.

But this thing isn't a low-end board, find me boards that come with a native 8 phase pwm controller without doublers and this kind of mosfets then we'll talk.

[Whiskers]

Let's keep this on topic please. This thread is not about Intel versus AMD, or

for people to chastise another user for having a different  opinion on the topic

at hand.

[ChrisxIxCross]

Low-end boards are going to be low-end boards, even when the low end costs what X99 costs. Not surprised.

That board is 400$ how is that considered "low-end" ? 

[zacRupnow]

Just need to wait a bit for compatibility updates

[kuddlesworth9419]

I lost faith in Asus after my Xonar card died and because of such a stupid reason. I kind of stopped buying anything Asus from then on. And this just solidifies that reasoning. 

[Mooshi]

Always a good idea not to jump ship to a new product right away and wait for revisions.

[LukaP]

its an isolated incident. sensationalised.... good job OP

[Navin]

My asus z67 board failed (PCI slot stopped working), and my asus z77 board failed (burnt VRM). But i still bought a z87 asus board and its doing super fine for almost a year now. Its just that you are sometimes unlucky with electronics. Wait for revisions I am sure things will get stable with the platform.

[Navin]

its an isolated incident. sensationalised.... good job OP

Exactly! People have to go and see buyer reviews from sites such as Newegg etc there are thousands of people with problems like this.

[ofr057]

I wonder if the rampage has a different power delivery since the issue is too much on a single rail maybe the rog has more rails or just more beef.

 

I wonder what JJ has to say about this

[Exotath]

I've had many motherboards of various makes, socket types, and types of use die or burn up. 

 

It happens. 

[Jerakl]

Might want to add this h-aswell (Get it?) :

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=msi_x99_fail&num=2

 

 

Picture of the MSI Sli Plus. 

 

http://www.phoronix.net/image.php?id=msi_x99_failℑ=x99_fail_0_med

Been there, made that joke. IDK about you guys but I'll likely be picking up a 5820k/msi x99s SLI + and some ddr4 on Black Friday/Boxing Day/cyber Monday.

[Toddwjp]

brand new tech, of course were gonna have bumps in the road