artur.artur.rom :
Hi guys,
I would like to ask you, what are differences in VRM(and cooling) in boards of these companies. I am willing to buy r5 1600 and do some OC. I've read that gigabyte boards are pretty hot(in touch).
So now i don't know which one to buy. Here is a list of all mobos I found interesting(only ATX).
1.MSI B350 Pro Carbon - 142$
2.MSI B350 Tomahawk - 110$
3.ASUS PRIME B350-PLUS - 117$
4.ASROCK FATAL1TY AB350 GAMING K4 - 120$
Here are the salient differences in the VRM arrangement of the aforementioned boards:
The
MSI B350 Pro Carbon uses
4x real phases (RT8894A 4+2 controller) for the
CPU, which is doubled to make it
8x, while it uses +2x phases coming from the same controller for the SoC (so, it's
10 phases or "8+2").
The
MSI B350 Tomahawk uses
4x real phases (RT8894A 4+2 controller) for the
CPU, but
not doubled, and also uses +2x phases coming from the same controller for the SoC (so, it's
6 phases or "4+2").
The
Asus Prime B350-Plus uses
4x real phases (ASP1106GGQW 4+2 controller) for the
CPU, but
not doubled, and also uses +2x phases coming from the same controller for the SoC (so, it's also
6 phases or "4+2").
The
ASRock Fatal1ty AB350 Gaming K4 uses
3x real phases (ISL95712 3+3 controller) for the
CPU, which is doubled to make it
6x, while it uses +3x phases coming from the controller for the SoC (so, it's
9 phases or "6+3").
Typically, the more the phases, the better the voltage control, thus, creating a "cleaner" power supply from the PSU to the CPU (and usually translates to better overclocking capabilities) and other motherboard components.
All of the motherboards you are considering have heatsinks over the MOSFETs, with the Asus Prime B350-Plus having the least surface area.
Further reading:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1229-anatomy-of-a-motherboard-what-is-a-vrm-mosfet?showall=1
Comparison Tables:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3502839/am4-motherboard-amd-ryzen-cpu-specs-comparison-list.html