Suggestions for mobo upgrade to overclock 8600k due to current limit throttling.

[adc]

I purchased an i5 8600k a few weeks ago, along with a Z370-A Pro from MSI. For the most part, I've had no problems - however, the chip doesn't want to go above 4.8GHz@1.27V (and Prime95 large FFTs runs at 72C max) due to power delivery issues - I get power throttling in XTU's interface, and raising the power max to the CPU to 500w or whatever the max is runs into into current limit throttling in XTU's interface. At this point, I'm pretty sure the issue is the motherboard - which isn't surprising, it's not a great motherboard - and I'm looking to upgrade.

 

Currently I was looking at the Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X (and possibly the UD, as it's cheaper) or the Z370 Aorus Gaming 5; however, I don't fully understand how the power delivery systems compare and I don't know which would be better in terms of overclocking headroom motherboard-wise

 

I'm looking for a board that, mainly, can handle overclocking my 8600k. It needs to have support for 3200MHz DDR4 memory, 4x SATA ports as well as Intel RAID support, 6 USB slots, a USB 3.0 front header, a LAN port (preferably gigabit, but I'd take 100mb!), a PCI-E 16x slot, and the ability to hook up a power button from my case. I don't care about the wifi the Gaming 5 or anything like that.

 

I would appreciate if anyone could weigh in on this, or possibly give a better suggestion.

[Jurrunio]

I'd rather spend even more for something good for the 9900k... this way you can keep using the same board for at least 5 years, maybe a decade, just by upgrading the CPU.

[Streetguru]

12 minutes ago, adc said:

 

It would be a waste of money to replace your motherboard unless it's literally broken

 

1.27V is low, you can go higher, just put a fan over the VRM if the VRM is overheating.

[adc]

46 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

It would be a waste of money to replace your motherboard unless it's literally broken

 

1.27V is low, you can go higher, just put a fan over the VRM if the VRM is overheating.

Raising the voltage past 1.3V or so causes XTU to immediately output a current limit throttling warning and clock the CPU back to 4.4-4.5GHz, even though it's perfectly stable at 4.8GHz. Temperature-wise, nothing in HWMonitor goes above the temperature reported for the CPU cores, so unless this board doesn't report the VRM temperatures I don't think it's overheating there.

[Streetguru]

4 minutes ago, adc said:

Raising the voltage past 1.3V or so causes XTU to immediately output a current limit throttling warning and clock the CPU back to 4.4-4.5GHz, even though it's perfectly stable at 4.8GHz. Temperature-wise, nothing in HWMonitor goes above the temperature reported for the CPU cores, so unless this board doesn't report the VRM temperatures I don't think it's overheating there.

Jesus Christ is that a 3 phase VRM? why do they even make that board? Still a waste to change it out though, wait to see what Ryzen 3000 offers early next year. can probably upgrade to a 4.5ghz 8 core on the cheap then

If you can't turn any overcurrent protection off it's probably there to keep the VRM from blowing up if it's only a 3 phase, you'll know it's a 4 phase if the mosfet under the red circle heats up the area more than the rest of that top VRM.

 

Changing out your board MIGHT get you 5-10fps in CPU bottlenecked games.

Run a stress test and see if the heatsink about the chip circled gets warm/hot compared to the heatsink in green

[adc]

3 minutes ago, Streetguru said:

Jesus Christ is that a 3 phase VRM? why do they even make that board? Still a waste to change it out though, wait to see what Ryzen 3000 offers early next year. can probably upgrade to a 4.5ghz 8 core on the cheap then

If you can't turn any overcurrent protection off it's probably there to keep the VRM from blowing up if it's only a 3 phase, you'll know it's a 4 phase if the mosfet under the red circle heats up the area more than the rest of that top VRM.

 

Changing out your board MIGHT get you 5-10fps in CPU bottlenecked games.

Run a stress test and see if the heatsink about the chip circled gets warm/hot compared to the heatsink in green

There is an overcurrent option in the BIOS, but it isn't simply "overcurrent protection on/off", it wants me to input a number (I believe it's in amps?) and, from memory, doesn't give much more information than that.

 

I'll check out the temperature on that chip tomorrow.

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, adc said:

There is an overcurrent option in the BIOS, but it isn't simply "overcurrent protection on/off", it wants me to input a number (I believe it's in amps?) and, from memory, doesn't give much more information than that.

 

I'll check out the temperature on that chip tomorrow.

By check I mean literally just touch it and compare if you don't have a temp gun or something.

[adc]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

By check I mean literally just touch it and compare if you don't have a temp gun or something.

Yeah, I figured.