Question Is the asrock 970m pro3 motherboard VRMs cooling issue as bad as they say?

[cavemantech]

Hi, I’m planning a MATX build, iv gone for a fx 8350 which has a tdp of 125w, the only micro atx motherboard I could find was the asrock 970m pro3, which has a tdp of 140w which seems sufficient for the 8350, the only thing concerning me is hearing about the “VRMs” on the board getting hot and killing the board or causing throttling, I’m going to run it at the stock no overclocking , the case I’ve chosen has two front intake 120mms and iv got a cooler master hyper 212 evo in push/pull as the cpu cooler as well as an exhaust at the back of the case , is it as bad as they say or will the motherboard be fine ? Many thanks

 

[logainofhades]

I would not go with an FX cpu, in this day and age. A Ryzen 2200g is a far better choice. Better IPC, far less power hungry, and much better motherboard options. Those 4+1 phase boards tended to have issues with those higher wattage CPU's.

 

[Dunlop0078]

Well first I have to question your choice of CPU. Why are you opting for an 8 year old CPU on an old dead platform with no upgrade path? There are certainly better options for a MATX build.

To answer your question It's a 4+1 phase VRM, it may struggle with an 8350 even at stock clocks, I would make sure you have plenty of airflow in the mobo VRM area. It is cpable of running an 8350 but you have to make sure the VRM stays as cool as possible when the CPU is under load to avoid throttling. I would rig up a fan so it blows air down onto the VRM.

 

[cavemantech]

Thank you all , the only reason for the old parts is it’s just a under £500 build for a friend , just wanted to make sure it would be ok, we’re is the VRMs located on the board so I can make sure the fan is in the right place

 

[logainofhades]

You can do a decent under 500 rig without going with dead end hardware.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 3 2200G 3.5 GHz Quad-Core Processor (£85.98 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450M PRO4 Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£72.48 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Team - Vulcan 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£53.44 @ CCL Computers)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500 GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£59.84 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX 570 4 GB PULSE UEFI Video Card (£100.59 @ Amazon UK)
Case: RIOTORO - CR488 ATX Mid Tower Case (£32.21 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - TXM Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£59.98 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £464.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-02-28 15:23 GMT+0000

 

[cavemantech]

Thanks , the problem is I already have the parts , I got them cheap off of eBay , I didn’t think I’d be able to build a rig for that budget with new parts :/ , that’s my bad tho, so if I put an extra fan in towards the VRMs I’d be ok?