VRM Overview

The board uses a 22+1+2+1 power phase design for vCore, iGPU, VCCSA and VNNAON respectively and the VRMs are cooled by two large heatsinks linked with a heatpipe as well as a small vertical fan. The VRMs peaked at 57°C according to our data logger and thermal probes, which is reasonable, but not spectacular given they're actively cooled.


Taking a closer look at the VRM cooling, the small fan is attached to the side of one of the heatsinks and draws air in through the rear I/O panel vent. This is powered by a non-standard connector on the PCB. There's also a small thermal pad that aids cooling of the Wi-Fi module.


If you're worried about the VRM fan noise, it was inaudible throughout testing and only really becomes so once the speed hits 5,000 rpm, which equates to a VRM temperature of nearly 70°C, and it didn't get remotely close to that. Thankfully the fan is fully controllable in both the EFI and software, although both seem to have different default configurations, with the software favoring higher speeds at all temperatures. Still, it's good to see you can limit its speed if you're concerned about noise as this isn't always possible on competing motherboards.


As well as the topside cooling the VRMs are also cooled using thermal pads attached to the large backplate. This is easy to remove if you'll be dabbling in extreme overclocking and need to insulate the motherboard. In fact, it was surprising to see one, as many extreme overclocking-focused boards don't include backplates deliberately for that reason.


The 22 vCore stages come via Renesas R2209004 110 A smart power stages, which we've seen on plenty of other boards including the ASRock Phantom Gaming B850I Lightning Wi-Fi and MSI MPG X870E Carbon Wi-Fi, just more plentiful here. Meanwhile, three of the four stages that deal with iGPU, VCCSA and VNNAON sit next to the more powerful 110 A stages and are Renesas RAA 220075R0 75 A stages.


The final Renesas RAA 220075R0 75 A stage sits on its own, while the RAA229131 also from Renesas is the PWM controller of choice.