You selected the GB Aorus B450 M instead of what you intended.
You selected the GB Aorus B450 M instead of what you intended.
Many of them are misleading. Most use doubles, just doubling parts or components. Both my ASRock Z370 Extreme4 and Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 advertise 10 or 12 phase VRMS, but they're essentially doubled units. My 8700k has worked well for three years at 5ghz and 1.38v.
I previously purchased this B450-I model used months ago through an OCF thread and found it at a reasonable price. I was hesitant to share the offer. It doesn’t have any duplicate units; likely a 6x IR3553 variant. It delivers solid power output. The voltage drop issue doesn’t appear frequently. About half of the motherboard boards maintain good power delivery, though they’re still suitable for 65W chips even with boosters. There’s a slight risk of voltage sag or drop, but it’s not a major concern for most users who install it in stock. The system handles startup automatically and works well enough.
Many folks focus too much on motherboard VRM specs. For those into firearms, it's like fixating on barrel quality—unless you're using a high-end chrome-lined barrel, a cheap nitride 4140 would work just fine. A good case to see the VRM mantra broken is here: this board has low phase counts, doublers, doubled components, no heatsinks, and an inferior chipset, yet it still runs the 3600 perfectly.
Getting into firearms lately, especially engines, seems to be the focus. The VRM concern isn't about their design or application—it's more about heat dissipation. I've used 4+1 VRMs above 2.0V in the past (AM3/+). It was a limitation, but definitely achievable.
I have a 1400 in my A320 chipset. It operates extremely efficiently. A 3600 with improved cooling would be ideal. I prefer not to use the small Spire type that comes with low-power chips. I've been using older Phenom II and Opteron heat pipe coolers instead.
Thanks for the video! I'm wondering if I'll have to skip selling it altogether.
I used the spire that came with my 1600, and it worked well even with my custom build. It was a bit noisy at first. My friend upgraded his i5-7600k to a Ryzen 7 3800x and paired it with a Noctua NH-D15, giving me the Wraith Prism. This cooler looks great and handles my 1600 nicely after optimization. It stays in the mid-70s during testing. I also had a mistake about my fan setup—just one 120mm front fan was enough. I’m replacing those inexpensive white fans since they were just sitting there.
Consider each situation individually. Tweaktown offers thorough motherboard evaluations; checking their assessments can give you useful insight. I selected the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 5 based on their review here: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8460/g...w/amp.html They cover detailed aspects like VRM performance, thermal management, and overclocking potential. If you go through the review, your gaming 5 scores around a 4 phase rating (three for iGPU, but limited by component quality) with only doubled parts. It's been reliable for about three years at high voltage and overclock settings.