Question Good Gigabyte board for an i9-14900K ?

[knowledge2121]

I am looking at Gigabyte boards...there are three different boards I am looking at with different VRMs/power phases, in different price brackets:

GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE X :

• 16+1+2 Twin Digital VRM Design - 8+8 phases parallel power design
• 8-Layer PCB
• Low Loss PCB
• 2X Copper PCB
• Premium Choke and Capacitor
• *Power stage maximum current capacity is based on VCORE Phase.

GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X:

• 18+1+2 Twin Digital VRM Design - 9+9 phases parallel power design
• 8-Layer PCB
• Low Loss PCB
• 2X Copper PCB
• Premium Choke and Capacitor
• *Stage maximum current capacity is based on VCORE Phase.

GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER X:

• 20+1+2 Direct Digital VRM Design
• 8-Layer PCB
• Low Loss PCB
• 2X Copper PCB
• Premium Choke and Capacitor
• *Power stage maximum current capacity is based on VCORE Phase.

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Which board can provide enough power for 14900K to reach its full capacity ? (I also may want to overclock later) .... Do all of them perform the same in terms of power delivery ? is it worth getting the more expensive ones(considering power delivery only) ?

 

[Eximo]

Doesn't really matter. "overclocking" a 14900k is kind of pointless. With adequate cooling, remove the power limits and let it boost as intended. Generally you aren't going to get 6Ghz all core without doing something drastic like de-lidding and custom water cooling, or more. Any tuning would have to be at the per core level, increasing the multi core frequencies until you reach too high of a temperature.

 

[Lafong]

Prices look like about 250, 330, and 500; top to bottom.

I have an aversion to 500 dollar boards based on the diminishing returns curve and on general principles.

Maybe you figure "you get what you pay for". Then it would be hard to convince you otherwise.....must be something worthwhile about it or it wouldn't be 500 bucks.

Overclocking a 14900K wouldn't be high on my priority list unless you are just curious about it and don't expect practical value.

I'd think more about spending the last few dollars on cooling.

 

[knowledge2121]

so you think I will be fine in terms of power delivery if I go with the cheapest in the list (Elite X) ?

 

[Lafong]

How much are you willing to pay to avoid buyer's remorse? 80 dollars? 250 dollars?

I don't know how you can semi-accurately evaluate them. It's always a leap of faith.

Suppose you build it with the 250 dollar board and have a bad outcome. What is the likelihood that the bad outcome was due to power delivery rather than any other reason? Perfectly understandable and a personal choice if you think a 500 dollar board would reduce the likelihood of a bad outcome, but I don't know how that would be more than hope, considering all the possible points of failure/unhappiness.

 

[knowledge2121]

Why would there be a buyer's remorse when all the specs can be looked at ?

I just want to make sure the board can power the CPU properly .... I have considered other features and I will not have a regret about them...

and you're saying all three boards can power the CPU properly so I will go with the cheapest and won't have any remorse ....

 

[Lafong]

Every prospective buyer gets to evaluate the degree of correlation between published specifications and overall satisfaction after the PC is built. Reasonable people can differ on that correlation.

"make sure"......hmmmmm.

I don't know if any of the boards that will actually arrive at your front door can even start up, let alone "power the CPU properly". Too many variables, so you hold your nose and hope.

You might have more hope if you spent more money. Lots of people would. I don't know if you would.

Good luck.

 

[Eximo]

Deep dive into VRM performance is done by a few reviewers. Buildzoid is one.

253W stock CPU. If you remove power limits and tinker with it, maybe 350W. If you can manage to dissipate that heat and you trust that the VRMs are efficient enough, or in this case, parallelized enough to dissipate their waste heat, then yes, any of these boards should work.

Board has dual EPS 12V connectors, each EPS connector is rated for 336W. You have that much power, plus some from the ATX connector, at your board's disposal.

If you take a typical CPU voltage like 1.3 volts, that comes out to around 200 Amps at 253W, call it 300A worst case at 400W load with a higher voltage. If the VRMs are like 90% efficient, then that means they are wasting about 40W.

Even with the 16 phase supply, that would 2.5 watt per VRM chip. And those heatsinks look plenty big to dissipate 40W in total.

All crude napkin math, but there is a reason you see boards without VRM heatsinks, they are pretty good these days and the board itself is sufficient passive cooling. Only these silly over powered CPUs demand any sort of extra cooling. And the tendency of people to use AIO on high end CPUs means they can't rely on downdraft CPU coolers either.


My board brags about a 13 phase design. Which I take to mean 10+2+1 likely. So only 5 parallel phases. They also claim 50A.

5x50A would be 250A, but it is more likely 50A per chip, so 500A. That would be 750W capacity at 1.5 volts, which would nuke any CPU.

 

[Eximo]

All the additional phases should get you is lower temperatures on the VRMs which should lead to better efficiency and a little less droop when the CPU rapidly changes load. Of course you can compensate for a lot of that with load line calibration.

 

[knowledge2121]

the 16 phases are rated 90A ....

 

[35below0]

The straight answer is that the VRM isn't what differentiates these boards. The Elite X and Pro X are both good boards and can handle an i9. The Pro is "better" because it has better VRM but mainly it has a faster LAN port and an extra USB-C gen 2 2x2 port.

Of the two, the Pro is ideal choice as it's not overpriced for an i9 build.

The Master X offers 10 GbE LAN and better audio, and even better VRM but nothing seems to justify the price tag. If you're serious about overclocking the CPU, this is the toughest motherboard on paper, but in practise i'm not sure you're getting anything for your money. To me it looks like you're paying for the illusion of "safety" without getting a better board than the Pro X.

And then there is the EXTREME X
Which you are not considering, and with good reason. Although, that is the board meant for i9 overclocking and is the toughest, most durable board of the Aorus lineup. With 12+12 parallel 105A phases.
It's also "no-compromises" in other respects such as audio, ports, LAN.


Like others have pointed out, good cooling is going to affect the CPU a lot more. BAD VRM on a board much too cheap for an i9 would be a concern but you are smart enough not to make that mistake. Already the Elite X and Pro X are good enough choices. Unless you want faster LAN and better audio, you should start looking at top of the line cooling for you CPU.
Btw, what cooler were you thinking of going with? And what are ambient temps normaly?

If you want to leave nothing on the table (certainly not money), the EXTREME X or Master X are your choices, otherwise the Pro X is your boy.

 

[knowledge2121]

Btw, what cooler were you thinking of going with?

right now I have DRP4 and peerless assassin ... but I am going with a better cooler, like Phantom spirit or frost spirit.

I don't need a 5GB or 10GB LAN for now, I can add a PCIE card later "IF" I needed more speed...I also have some very good USB sound cards....Creative G6 and X7 and other audiophile grade DAC/AMPs...

 

[35below0]

Seems like the Pro X and Phantom Spirit 120 EVO are your next purchases then.
Happy building.

You could go even with the Elite X but as you are serious about pushing that 14900K to it's limits, spend a little extra here.

 

[knowledge2121]

Seems like the Pro X and Phantom Spirit 120 EVO are your next purchases then.
Happy building.

You could go even with the Elite X but as you are serious about pushing that 14900K to it's limits, spend a little extra here.

Not an extreme overclocker...so I guess I will go with the cheaper Elite X...

I think Elite X can easily handle an overclocked 14900k ...

I might get the Pro X if it goes on sale or something..

 

[35below0]

Yea, if you're not in a hurry it makes sense to hold out for a sale.

Any reason you're not considering the AsRock Riptide WiFi? - https://pg.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z790 Riptide WiFi/index.asp
It's similarly priced to the Elite X.