Where are the mosfets located on this board?

[kdmasmkda]

So, I'm not highly educated on motherboards and their components but I was looking to add some aftermarket heatsinks for the VRM on this board to allow better overclocking! If someone could circle every mosfet on the board it would be a huge help/learning experience for me. 

[kdmasmkda]

From my current limited understanding, these are all the mosfets for the CPU.

Is this correct?

[Kevinator]

I believe so... This is one of those questions where you might have too look for a video or two.

[kdmasmkda]

1 minute ago, Kevinator said:

I believe so... This is one of those questions where you might have too look for a video or two.

Honestly, I couldn't find any! I believe that the ones on the bottom may be unrelated to the CPU so I will avoid them. I'd assume it's safe to stick with what looks like the mosfets next to the CPU

[Kevinator]

Or you could just put heatsinks on all of them that look remotely close lol

[KarathKasun]

CPU mosfets are around the CPU socket.  The memory mosfets are next to the memory.

 

That board likely has a 3+2 phase VRM from the layout, and its load capacity is likely very low (it would have trouble with high end i5/i7 CPUs).  There are beefier 3+2 layouts, but they have 4 mosfets per phase instead of two.

[WereCatf]

16 minutes ago, kdmasmkda said:

From my current limited understanding, these are all the mosfets for the CPU.

Is this correct?

I don't believe the ones of the bottom-right are for the CPU, but otherwise, sure.

[kdmasmkda]

7 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

I don't believe the ones of the bottom-right are for the CPU, but otherwise, sure.

As I expected! Do you think these would provide adequate cooling for a delidded/overclocked 8700k? As you can tell, it's a micro-atx board with no stock heatsinks. I'm not sure if there's a better option than those heatsinks in the link provided but I'm hoping it will stop some throttling!

[KarathKasun]

No.  Maybe for an overclocked i3.

[kdmasmkda]

1 minute ago, KarathKasun said:

No.

Care to ELI5 further than? It supports 8th gen i7 with overclocking.

[KarathKasun]

4 minutes ago, kdmasmkda said:

Care to ELI5 further than? It supports 8th gen i7 with overclocking.

I would say its primarily aimed at i3 overclocking, and by virtue of having those settings it can "overclock" an i7.  The VRM is much too weak to push an i5/i7 very far without throttling.

 

Also, if the VRM is throttling, you are at temps that will reduce the lifetime of the board significantly.  If the VRM fails catastrophically at some point it could very well take the CPU with it.

[kdmasmkda]

2 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

I would say its primarily aimed at i3 overclocking, and by virtue of having those settings it can "overclock" an i7.  The VRM is much too weak to push an i5/i7 very fasr without throttling.

 

Also, if the VRM is throttling, you are at temps that will reduce the lifetime of the board significantly.

So what would you say is an adequate 8th gen micro atx/mini itx board with VRM capable of overclocking a 8700k to 5+ghz

[KarathKasun]

Something like these...

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157793

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144108

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813119042

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP6YZ6090

[kdmasmkda]

5 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

Something like these...

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157793

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813144108

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813119042

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA6ZP6YZ6090

Wow, I don't really know why I missed those, which one would you say is best? I was thinking of going for the ASRock Z370M Pro4

[KarathKasun]

The AsRock one looks to have lots of RMAs., but it is the cheapest board with a decent VRM.

 

The MSI and ASUS boards also have dual band WiFi, which is worth ~$50 if they use a good chipset and its something you need.

[KarathKasun]

For any of these boards, make sure you have good airflow around the CPU socket (super important if you use an AIO because they remove all normal MB airflow).  The VRMs may be decent, but they are quite a bit worse than the full ATX boards, so they will likely run pretty hot still.

[kdmasmkda]

2 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

For any of these boards, make sure you have good airflow around the CPU socket.  The VRMs may be decent, but they are quite a bit worse than the full ATX boards, so they will likely run pretty hot still.

Current setup will be 3 ll120 fans pushing out (1 on the side 2 on top) with a 240mm rad blowing in from the front and a 120mm below the gpu (the 120mm is a very tight fit as far as airflow between the gpu and rad.)

[kdmasmkda]

12 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

For any of these boards, make sure you have good airflow around the CPU socket (super important if you use an AIO because they remove all normal MB airflow).  The VRMs may be decent, but they are quite a bit worse than the full ATX boards, so they will likely run pretty hot still.

Yes, I use the Kraken x52, any advice?

[KarathKasun]

Find a way to get at least one fan mounted so that it blows directly across the socket/VRM area of the board.

[kdmasmkda]

9 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

Find a way to get at least one fan mounted so that it blows directly across the socket/VRM area of the board.

Thank you so much for all of your help, I'm sure in the end I'll be better off with a different board like you said. I also came across this one which looked like a good deal from what I could tell, will this one be capable?

[KarathKasun]

No.  Its a 3+3 or 4+2.

[kdmasmkda]

2 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

No.  Its a 3+3 or 4+2.

Can you explain a little on what that means?

[KarathKasun]

7 minutes ago, kdmasmkda said:

Can you explain a little on what that means?

Very few components in the CPU power circuit.  The Asrock is something like an 8+2 or more likely its a 4x2+2, but it can handle significantly more current than the Gigabyte or thar low end MSI.

 

The more expensive MSI is probably a fairly robust 3x2+2x2 while the Asus looks like a true 8+2.  This is just conjecture though as I have not seen the boards naked.

 

For reference, an 8 phase switches something like this like this, with ~10 amps for each pulse...

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

 

A 4x2 does this instead, pulling ~20 amps for each pulse...

1&2-3&4-5&6-7&8

 

The 8 phase can provide more stable voltage because its pulling half the current for each step.  The 4x2 setup can handle similar levels of power, but its output has more fluctuation.

[KarathKasun]

Sorry for long edit above.

[kdmasmkda]

7 minutes ago, KarathKasun said:

Very few components in the CPU power circuit.  The Asrock is something like an 8+2 or more likely its a 4x2+2, but it can handle significantly more current than the Gigabyte or thar low end MSI.

 

The more expensive MSI is probably a fairly robust 3x2+2x2 while the Asus looks like a true 8+2.  This is just conjecture though as I have not seen the boards naked.

 

For reference, an 8 phase switches something like this like this, with ~10 amps for each pulse...

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8

 

A 4x2 does this instead, pulling ~20 amps for each pulse...

1&2-3&4-5&6-7&8

 

The 8 phase can provide more stable voltage because its pulling half the current for each step.  The 4x2 setup can handle similar levels of power, but its output has more fluctuation.

I guess I have a difficult time understanding how to differentiate this between boards. Would this board be better than all the ones you listed? (It's also ridiculously priced)