EK and ASUS team up to create the ROG Crosshair VIII Formula X570 motherboard

[AlienALX]

I think it'd be an optional thing, even if you don't use all that current(~235W for 8-pin, ~150W for 4 pin), spreading the load out across several cables reduces resistance and voltage drop/power loss which can get quite significant at 12V with higher currents(I^2 losses so they increase exponentially), which would result in slightly lower pin temperatures, better efficiency and better stability.

It could be for the memory or PCIE lanes tbh. With 4000mhz+ on the table that may need some voltage. I had a 8+4 pin board once (CH AM3) and it used the 4 pin for the memory. Then again there may be a connector elsewhere for the PCIE etc.

 

[grec]

I'm not sure it'd be worth splitting the memory power nowadays, even a full 4 sticks of high end memory is unlikely to use more than 25W in any stable config, maybe the PCIe slots but there should already be more than enough left over from the 24-pin 12V lanes since nothing else really uses that 12V line anymore. You could probably push a 16c CPU past that 8pin 235W limit or get uncomfortably close if you were water cooling it though.

 

[Breit]

Really simple answers...
Because of cost. And because where else would you put that won't get blocked by something else? It will get covered the least on the IO shield.

Beautiful board Asus. Though not worth the insane cost it will inevitably cost.

For a board that costs $700+, this is no excuse to be honest. Sure 10G is expensive, but it's not THAT expensive.

Also, why on earth do they try to sell a high-end premium board equipped with a pre-mounted water block on the VRMs, but for whatever reason forgot to replace the fan on the chipset with a water block (or some heatpipe magic connected to the VRM block) as well??

 

[grec]

Wasn't that long ago you'd have to be spending that kinda money for a single 10G add-in board to be fair, you're still usually looking at £100+ for a single card new. In the time between 1G releasing and 10G reaching sane prices 2.5G and 5G were fully conceived, developed and brought to market purely because of the expense of 10G systems.

I think it's fair to saw a ~10W chip doesn't really need watercooling and it would be OTT even by modern motherboard standards, VRMs/MOSFETs can and do get a lot hotter than chips and heat in those parts has an impact on efficiency, but 10-15W is around the cut off point for when passive cooling might not 100% cut it in every possible scenario, I think the chipset fans are just a side effect of the over engineering that goes into making sure modern motherboards can cope with any extreme scenario(Say two 300W GPUs sat above the chipset at full whack during a sunny 35c day)

 

[Warchild]

For a board that costs $700+, this is no excuse to be honest. Sure 10G is expensive, but it's not THAT expensive.

Also, why on earth do they try to sell a high-end premium board equipped with a pre-mounted water block on the VRMs, but for whatever reason forgot to replace the fan on the chipset with a water block (or some heatpipe magic connected to the VRM block) as well??

Because its common for EK to sell a CPU block for the rampage series that extends and covers the chipset also. ASUS have done VRM cooling as optional like this for a while.

BP and EK then step in to design a rampage block to cover the missing components you expect to be put under water.

 

[Breit]

Because its common for EK to sell a CPU block for the rampage series that extends and covers the chipset also. ASUS have done VRM cooling as optional like this for a while.

BP and EK then step in to design a rampage block to cover the missing components you expect to be put under water.

Sure, there might be aftermarket solutions, but isn't the purpose of that board to NOT have to rely on aftermarket cooling solutions (except for the CPU of course)? I mean if you wan't to go build a custom loop with aftermarket coolers, you can always get a cheaper board and put a monoblock or separate blocks on it.
Removing chipset blocks or VRM blocks sometimes void the warranty of your board...

 

[Warchild]

Sure, there might be aftermarket solutions, but isn't the purpose of that board to NOT have to rely on aftermarket cooling solutions (except for the CPU of course)? I mean if you wan't to go build a custom loop with aftermarket coolers, you can always get a cheaper board and put a monoblock or separate blocks on it.
Removing chipset blocks or VRM blocks sometimes void the warranty of your board...

The whole point of their board is that they allow you to cool the VRMs as well. That in itself is not very common across the market and a good selling point for them. It has always been a popular design decision for the Rampage series.

There are extremely few blocks or options that allow you to have an IO cover and cool VRM like they have designed it.

 

[Bartacus]

I understand Breit's point though. If you look at HOW much premium you pay for that EK VRM cooling, it doesn't make financial sense. With my CH7, I paid $330CDN for the board, and $220 for a monoblock that covers CPU and VRMs. A CH8 + monoblock (when they arrive) will be a more complete solution, and cheaper, *unless* it's over-priced out of orbit. It's hard to see any sane water cooler spending that money for this board.

However, if someone *really* wanted to target the hard core water coolers, they could release something sexy a la that Gigabyte Waterforce 9900k combo, like the above, but sexier. It will be interesting to see what the Chinese do with this. Barrow and Bykski are releasing all kinds of good stuff into the market. There will be a HUGE market for people wanting to axe that fan, whether it's needed or not, LOL!

 

[NeverBackDown]

I am not sure what his point is, as all this conversation took place long before Ryzen 3000 came out... no idea what the price was. This was an old thread

 

[Bartacus]

Oh crap, didn't realize it was an older bump, oops!

 

[NeverBackDown]

Oh crap, didn't realize it was an older bump, oops!

wasn't your fault, it happens though ^_^