The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact: A Sharp $430 Impulse on X570
by Gavin Bonshor on October 25, 2019 11:30 AM ESTPower Delivery Thermal Analysis
One of the most requested elements of our motherboard reviews revolves around the power delivery and its componentry. Aside from the quality of the components and its capability for overclocking to push out higher clock speeds which in turn improves performance, is the thermal capability of the cooling solutions implemented by manufacturers. While almost always fine for users running processors at default settings, the cooling capability of the VRMs isn't something that users should worry too much about, but for those looking to squeeze out extra performance from the CPU via overclocking, this puts extra pressure on the power delivery and in turn, generates extra heat. This is why more premium models often include heatsinks on its models with better cooling designs, heftier chunks of metal, and in some cases, even with water blocks such as the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula.
Two K-Type Thermal Probes attached to the rear of the power delivery on the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact
Testing Methodology
Out method of testing out if the power delivery and its heatsink are effective at dissipating heat, is by running an intensely heavy CPU workload for a prolonged method of time. We apply an overclock which is deemed safe and at the maximum that the silicon on our AMD Ryzen 7 3700X processor allows. We then run the Prime95 with AVX2 enabled under a torture test for an hour at the maximum stable overclock we can which puts insane pressure on the processor. We collect our data via three different methods which include the following:
- Taking a thermal image from a birds-eye view after an hour with a Flir Pro thermal imaging camera
- Securing two probes on to the rear of the PCB, right underneath CPU VCore section of the power delivery for better parity in case a probe reports a faulty reading
- Taking a reading of the VRM temperature from the sensor reading within the HWInfo monitoring application
The reason for using three different methods is that some sensors can read inaccurate temperatures, which can give very erratic results for users looking to gauge whether an overclock is too much pressure for the power delivery handle. With using a probe on the rear, it can also show the efficiency of the power stages and heatsinks as a wide margin between the probe and sensor temperature can show that the heatsink is dissipating heat and that the design is working, or that the internal sensor is massively wrong. To ensure our probe was accurate before testing, I binned 10 and selected the most accurate (within 1c of the actual temperature) for better parity in our testing.
For thermal image, we use a Flir One camera as it gives a good indication of where the heat is generated around the socket area, as some designs use different configurations and an evenly spread power delivery with good components will usually generate less heat. Manufacturers who use inefficient heatsinks and cheap out on power delivery components should run hotter than those who have invested. Of course, a $700 flagship motherboard is likely to outperform a cheaper $100 model under the same testing conditions, but it is still worth testing to see which vendors are doing things correctly.
Thermal Analysis Results
We measured 53.7°C on the hottest part of the board during our testing, the PCB around the VRMs
The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact is using a 10-phase power delivery with eight Infineon TDA21472 70 A power stages and two TDA21472 70 A power stages for the SoC which are mounted onto the rear of the PCB. The PWM controller of choice is the ASP1405I running in a 4+2 configuration but without doublers. Cooling on the power delivery is expansive with an actively cooled heatsink that has a 30 mm fan integrated into the rear panel cover, and also included a backplate on the rear which incorporates a slim heat pipe into its design. For a small form factor model, this is pretty comprehensive as both the front-mounted CPU section and rear-mounted SoC power stages all have some form of thermal reducing properties to maximise performance.
The results from our power delivery thermal testing put the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact in good stead for overclockers looking to use this board for high-performance systems. When directly compared to the other small form factor X570 model we've tested, the ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3, the Impact power delivery runs around 8°C cooler when comparing the integrated VRM temperature sensors. The performance can be attributed to the small 30 mm cooling fan over the top of the power delivery heatsink, as well as the backplate with a heat pipe integrated negating heat from the front and back. Our external probe reading does seem a little low with a reading of 49°C when compared with previous models on test, but the more heat the heatsinks can remove, the lower the probe temperature should be. The power delivery cooling solution makes the ROG Crosshair VIII Impact the most equipped small form factor board we've seen so far for overclocking Ryzen's 3000 series of processors, and with its high $430 price tag, we wouldn't expect anything less than best-in-class performance; the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Impact, in this instance, is certainly that.
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evernessince - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
It's the same people complaining on every article about the same issue, despite the fact that they've been told time and time again that these fans run at low RPM or off completely when you are not pushing the IO heavily. For most people, they are inaudible 100% of the time. These people want to spin their narrative, not try to understand what people are telling themHardwareDufus - Friday, October 25, 2019 - link
I won't say that I'm disappointed. I like Zen2.... but I will do just one more cycle of waiting.... I want to see the Zen3 successor to the Ryzen 9-3950X... and the RDNA 2 successor to the Radeon RX 5700 XT. That's all probably 12-15 months away, but that's just about right. I too am on an I7-3770k (longest lasting CPU I have ever had as well). This will be the last machine I build of my professional working career (If I've gotten 7+ years out of my I7-3770k, I'm sure I'll get 5 years out of the Zen3 16core CPU).hmmm, my trusty SilverStone SG055BB is mini-ITX / mini-DTX compatible (I own two of them). However, I'd pay a max of $300usd for a board like this (even though admittedly it's just about the perfect board... optical audio out, wifi and 2 M2 slots for storage... I ALWAYS have two harddrives).
We will see if a successor to this board is available in 12-15 months when I make the Ryzen Zen3 & Radeon RDNA-2 jump.
I'll be fine if only PCI4 is supported at that point.... I won't hold off for PCI5 to be implemented.
Will be interesting to see if we start seeing 4TB M.2 storage devices at that point as well... and if 32GB Dimms at good speed will be more affordable. Yeah.. Looking at 16 Cores @ 4Ghz+, 2X32GB for 64GB of Ram, 2X4TB for 8TB of storage to drive 2 32" 4K monitors. Will be a nice rig for the sunset years of my IT career...
alufan - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
honestly I do not understand folks who say this you have a CPU that is in modern terms slow and a system thats the same AMD comes along with a really disruptive product that is leagues ahead of what you have and in its third generation yet still you want to wait !What the heck exactly do they need to do to get your buy in, if AMD didnt exist or bring Zen to the party intel would happily keep chugging out its same CPUs for the next 10 years, support the company thats brought the fight to them!
HardwareDufus - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
Well, I will build the new system with cash on hand... So I may have misrepresented why I will sit out...... It's just that in my budget at end of 2020/2021 will make room for my computer. By then it will be Ryzen Zen 3 Radeon RDNA-2 and I will be curious to see what they offer... That's all. If their release is stalled significantly... then I 12 months from now I will buy current gen Ryzen Zen 2 Radeon RDNA....and would be equally delighted to do so...HardwareDufus - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
But perhaps in that time.... we will see a X570 variant that won't require a fan.... again, won't be a show stopper, as the CPU and Video cards will have fans aplenty anyway.....evernessince - Saturday, October 26, 2019 - link
And yet all X570 motherboards either turn off the fan during low load or run at low RPM, making then inaudible.PeachNCream - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
Noise isn't the concern. Fan failure is what bothers the OP as indicated by noting fans are a regression in the movement toward fewer moving parts (which can suffer from mechanical failure). While noise might be a concern, broken little fans that are a PIA to replace are what have peoples' panties in a twist right now and we haven't seen any X570 motherboards operating long enough to get a good understanding of whether or not fan failures are going to be a problem or if, as you implied, they are generally not running to begin with (which begs the question why the motherboard manufacturers are adding them in the first place instead of using a more effective passive heatsink).Oliseo - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
But you're not interested in anything but laptops, I don't get why you're arguing with people about something you no longer care about.Just like arguing I suppose.
RavenRampkin - Sunday, October 27, 2019 - link
May I kindly take Peach's initiative? xDNot interested in laptops. Have one, it's fine. The current pricing situation is meh. 6/12 ultrabook and 8/16 laptop parts are crazy expensive. Graphics are expensive (Turing), boring (Turing GTX) or both (Radeon, sadly. Power hogs or underperformers, or both). Zen is a skillful fighter for new users but nothing of particular interest over a good ol' 4700MQ (minus the Vega... got a dGPU anyway)...
As for the fans, sorry bud. If the interested customer has to find ways in which a hackjob (just sry, this IS a hackjob... it's not 2005 anymore) doesn't svck (oh the fans are low RPM, oh they're not that short-lived, oh there's passive mode at 0.1% load) and is actually *not that bad*, then it's not really a good hackjob. The need for this dayum fan in the first place screams a littley oopsie from ASMedia, or a design less efficient than usual on AMD's side. OK higher demands than for 300 and 400 series, then why does Shintel get away without le fans? (Pls correct if wrong.) Also, you can still do it passive, funnily enough. Why should it be a blessing and not a default option?
Case in point right above (or below?) me. Adaptation 100. Spare me some lube guys, been shilling for AyyMD, AsRock, Powercolor and Seasonic long enough :P want to try out some other companies
TL;DR there's no advantage nor purpose in reinventing the sleeve bearing (or dual ball, depends) wheel.
AshlayW - Monday, October 28, 2019 - link
PCI express 4.0 has significantly higher power requirements and thus heat output. X570 chipset is a repurposed Matisse IOD. Why you people complain about the chipset fan is beyond me, always gotta complain about something I guess. It's completely bloody inaudible on my X570M pro 4, and also completely unnecessary for all but the most intense I/o on both gen4 m.2 and the GPU.Stop complaining.