Basics Case CPU DDR-RAM Motherboard Practice Reviews System

[Update] Big real-world test with three X570 motherboards in a closed PC – the truth about voltage regulators, fans, temperatures and the onboard sound

The largest possible CPU on the smallest possible motherboard, best still remove all the heat sinks of the voltage regulators and that's the basis for the next YouTube orgy. Of course, I couldn't completely escape my curiosity about the possible limits, but in the end one should also be aware of his responsibility as a medium and not panic the readers (and thus also buyers) unjustifiably or let them doubt your own decisions.

Asus TUF X570-Plus

The voltage regulator assembly, which consistently relies on PowerStages from Vishay, does not suggest any problems. The PCB feels quite light and thin, but that’s a rather subjective feeling. It’s a fact that Asus can definitely take the lead as far as temperatures are concerned due to the complex assembly of powerstages.  However, the differences to the second placed board aren’t as big as marketing might suggest.

Of course, you shouldn’t talk small about this performance, because it’s actually the only board on which I’d set a Ryzen 9 3950X in good conscience if you had to buy a board from this price segment. Of course, that’s always a question of one’s own demands regarding the remaining features. Whereby with a simple rendering machine the sentence comes to my mind that nothing can break, which wasn’t built in at all.

The values on the back are free of any puzzles and correspond to those on the front.

With the 130-watt setting, of course, this equipment really shows its strengths.

And the back is also significantly cooler than that of its competitors.

Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite

The effort to divide the CPU phases widely and also to equip them with PowerStages was worth it. The almost 59 °C in full load operation of GPU and CPU with the 90 Watt standard settings is definitely profitable. The fact that we hardly see any hotspots here is, of course, due to the equalization of the thermal load by as many voltage regulators as possible, on the one hand, and to their clearly visible efficiency, on the other. The PowerStages from Vishay combine all components of the voltage converters like high and low side, as well as Schottky diode and driver in one package.

There are certainly reserves here, also of a financial nature, because you can of course save some money on the heat sinks, which have to dissipate less. In the end there is always the question which savings lead to which cooler costs with the VRM and vice versa. The Aorus Elite is here a quite good compromise, which in comparison to the Asus TUF relies on somewhat smaller models from Vishay and the SoC phase is discreet. The single 8-pin EPS is sufficient for what the board can (and must) achieve in the end.

The backside is much cooler, which is due to the massive PCB and the heat sinks of the VRM, which still perform very well in this power range. There is a lot more work to be done with the MSI board.

The overclocking to a full 130 watts, i.e. the increase of 40 watts, is noticeable at the front, but in the end these are rather peanuts. The real heat is different and the user can sleep more than just calmly at night. So you can easily leave that as it leaves a lot of room for more.

The backside is now a bit warmer than the front, which is a little bit astonishing, but this circumstance is also a proof for a thermally quite evenly saturated board without real hotspots, which is no flaw. On the contrary.

MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge WiFi

In some review, the voltage regulators of this motherboard have been brought to the boil with great audience appeal. The practical value of such show interludes (which nevertheless didn’t break anything) is of course far below zero, because who takes the VRM coolers and puts a Ryzen 9 3900X on them at the same time, which is cheerfully beaten through the village with levered out BIOS limits and AVX? Nobody with any sense. But you shouldn’t gloss over the somewhat cheap VRM configuration either, because the fact that MSI saved a lot of money and didn’t use very cost-intensive MOSFETs is a fact.

With only real four phases you can of course easily achieve your goal, but efficiency and high performance OC potential will go a little to your knees if you really sound out the extremes. However, all this is still whining on a quite high level, because with the small graphics cards around 130 watts TDP, strangely enough, nobody gets excited about four or five phases. But somewhere you have to get the money for WiFi and Bluetooth back. MSI is just as little Mother Theresa as all the others. The calculation of such motherboards is similarly scarce with all manufacturers.

As long as one moves within the specifications, this part is however almost to be neglected, but OC is now times explained people’s sport number one. Let’s therefore first look at the front and back of the board with 90 watts of supplied power (BIOS default settings). The hotspots and the somewhat higher waste heat result from the somewhat less favorable power distribution on fewer MOSFETs, which in addition do not combine high and low side as PowerStage in one package, but are discreetly realized and the somewhat lower efficiency of this built-in voltage converter solution. However, the maximum measured 67 °C after approx. 30 minutes full load of CPU and GPU in the closed case is nothing to criticize, especially since the average of all converters is approx. 62 °C (VRM sensor in HWInfo approx. 61 °C).

 

The backside is significantly cooler, which is due to the rather thick and massive PCB. At least MSI hasn’t saved here, after all. The Doublers / Gate Drivers are still the hottest here, but nothing gets even close to areas to worry about. But the PCB is warmer than the other two competitors. Whereby it remains complaining on a high level.

But what happens if you overclock and the 130 watts are almost 45% above the AMD CPU norm and 25 watts above the 105 watt CPU power of the board? The peak value of one phase rises as a hotspot to almost 84 °C, whereby the average is a good 75 °C (sensor value via HWInfo64 76 °C). But even this is still justifiable, if you consider that even now there is still more than 20 degrees left until the throttling and that the board material only starts to gas out above approx. 100 °C. The temperature of the throttling is about 100 °C. You won’t find any bending problems either.

The backside is clearly cooler with 77 °C and it is actually almost comparatively cool if you take the front side as a comparison.

Interim Conclusion

You have to be honest and point out the disadvantages of the rather simple voltage transformer solution on the MSI board. This is not a limitation of the CPU performance, functionality, stability or lifetime, but only a certain thermal disadvantage, which might lead to inevitable throttling with a Ryzen 9 3900X and permanent wattage of more than 200 watts and a fully loaded graphics card. It’s up to the user to decide how relevant this is for him.

So with all three boards you are far away from any sensation when it comes to operation within or slightly above the specifications. If you’re looking for the extreme OC of the big CPUs, you’ll prefer other hardware that was designed for it anyway. But it’s not quite so coincidental that these boards are much more expensive. Surprised?

 

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About the author

Igor Wallossek

Editor-in-chief and name-giver of igor'sLAB as the content successor of Tom's Hardware Germany, whose license was returned in June 2019 in order to better meet the qualitative demands of web content and challenges of new media such as YouTube with its own channel.

Computer nerd since 1983, audio freak since 1979 and pretty much open to anything with a plug or battery for over 50 years.

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