phases ?

acepro71 · September 30, 2013

ok first of all i am complete noob i didn't know about phases at all until i bought this pc .... so some one told me with fx8350 or an i5 u need a motherboard with high phases like 8+4 etc

so is it true how do u figure out how many phases are needed for a cpu like i5 etc ?

also many motherboards does not tell u how many phases they have on the info page so how u know how many there are in the board for eg ~

also is it true if ur not overclocking u can buy any motherboard like with phase 4+1 ?

helping · September 30, 2013

it's indicative of VRM power delivery. More phases is better but does not necessarily equate to quality. You will have to look, but pretty much every credible motherboard manufacturer on a popular (or at least quality oriented) board will state phase design of any given board. You should not expect more than 4+1 on something low end and cheap. Phase count alone is not something you should use to determine which board to buy.

You don't really need more phases, you need quality VRM. If a board is suitable for overclocking an FX 8 core chip it will 95% of the time have an 8+1 phase design. Intel works a bit differently. VRM cooling is also a large issue, if the cooling is poorly designed or (even worse) has no cooling at all, you're not going to be overclocking on that. VRM may not be as big of an issue with Intel due to innately lower power requirements and less stress. (I don't know much about Intel board platforms)

There are exceptions to this, notably one such as the 990FX Biostar board which has a 4 phase analogue design instead of digital which clears it to handle loads similar if not higher to 8 phase digital (with adequate cooling.)

Anyone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

see:

http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=938062

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=661821

http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=81468

No don't skim any of it, read all of it.

acepro71 · September 30, 2013

it's indicative of VRM power delivery. More phases is better but does not necessarily equate to quality. You will have to look, but pretty much every credible motherboard manufacturer on a popular (or at least quality oriented) board will state phase design of any given board. You should not expect more than 4+1 on something low end and cheap.

You don't really need more phases, you need quality VRM. If a board is suitable for overclocking an FX 8 core chip it will 95% of the time have an 8+1 phase design. Intel works a bit differently. VRM cooling is also a large issue, if the cooling is poorly designed or (even worse) has no cooling at all, you're not going to be overclocking on that.

There are exceptions to this, notably one such as the 990FX Biostar board which has a 4 phase analogue design instead of digital which clears it to handle loads similar to 8 phase digital.

Anyone can feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

i know i can not overclcok with this bnoard as it will put it on fire .. but is this board ok if i do not overclock also u didn't answer how do u select phase for a intel or amd cpu

slasher0161 · September 30, 2013

i know i can not overclcok with this bnoard as it will put it on fire .. but is this board ok if i do not overclock also u didn't answer how do u select phase for a intel or amd cpu

The phases basicly effect voltage regulation, the more phases (Cap quality comes into it as well but gold caps are fairly well standard now so it isn't such a big deal with that) the cleaner the power delivery.

It really depends though, if you are looking at haswell it isn't so important and any z87 board by the major 4 will do the job just fine (you will hit thermal limits long before voltage regulation will be preventing your overclock), if you are looking at ivy it is sort of important but not a large amount (z77 boards are all fairly good but depends what kind of OC you want and features you are after [as far as i'm aware there isn't any boards that are an absolute do not touch on the z77 chipset]). For 8350 you will want an 990 board and you are best to make a post outlining your build plans and get a board recommended (boards have tdp limits and if you are overclocking it you will want a board with a decent tdp or else you will burn your board).

If you aren't overclocking just about any board will do but honestly get an OC chip and make use of it.

acepro71 · September 30, 2013

The phases basicly effect voltage regulation, the more phases (Cap quality comes into it as well but gold caps are fairly well standard now so it isn't such a big deal with that) the cleaner the power delivery.

It really depends though, if you are looking at haswell it isn't so important and any z87 board by the major 4 will do the job just fine (you will hit thermal limits long before voltage regulation will be preventing your overclock), if you are looking at ivy it is sort of important but not a large amount (z77 boards are all fairly good but depends what kind of OC you want and features you are after [as far as i'm aware there isn't any boards that are an absolute do not touch on the z77 chipset]). For 8350 you will want an 990 board and you are best to make a post outlining your build plans and get a board recommended (boards have tdp limits and if you are overclocking it you will want a board with a decent tdp or else you will burn your board).

If you aren't overclocking just about any board will do but honestly get an OC chip and make use of it.

thanks man