Power Phases on Z87 Mobos

[wrenaudrey]

I know that these are very important when OC'ing but do you really need a high amount of them?

What im getting confused at is that Gigabyte's Z87X-OC (not FORCE) has an 8 phase CPU power design, and this is an 'overclocking board' while the Z87X-UD5H and UD4H has a 16 phase power design. This seems very odd to me.

On Asus side, the ROG Hero and the Sabertooth has an 8 phase power design while the 'mainstream' Plus, Pro and Deluxe has atleast 14 with an added 2 for the deluxe.

I was really looking to get the Z87 Sabertooth but then saw the 8 phase power design, then I looked at the Pro which had 14 but (personally) looked very ugly with that gold colour scheme.

 

[Vlada011]

You need to search little more about phase, quality of build, and everything to decide. Do you know sometimes board with 8-12 phase is much better for overclocking than board with some poor 18 phase.
You need to start from beginning different between analog and digital, what is advanced of one what of other design. Sometimes manufacturer tell you Digi but that is not full real digital expensive design. When you compare example ASUS ROG with less phase than ASRock usually is much better quality. I don't know exactly because I look EVGA Boards and I have confidence in their design no matter is it
8 phase or 10 or 6 phase. I know they try best and can build with 40but no need.
And other things are important.