A Closer Look
There’s a northbridge heatsink for starters, it’s decently sized but not as large as I’d really like.
Along the back side sit the ten VRMs, split into an 8+2 configuration. All use ferrite core inductors and polymer capacitors, are run by Driver Mosfets, and have a nicely sized heatsink on top of them that is linked to the NB heatsink by a heatpipe. This is a solid power section! We’ll take a look at the ripple put out by it in a bit.
Controlling the entire VRM section is this character:
The only difference I am aware of between the rev1.0 board and this rev1.1 board is that LLC is enabled on the rev1.1 board. Lastly there is the socket itself, largely unchanged since the socket 939 days.
Now we’ll install the AMD FX-8150 CPU, so first the lever is lifted, then the CPU is dropped in.
Once the CPU is in place the lever is moved back down, and then it’s time to install the cooler.
The AMD stock cooler is really quite good, it stomps Intel’s stock coolers into the ground (save for the unit that comes with the thousand dollar 980x/990x), runs pretty quiet and can hold perfectly reasonable temps with this FX-8150 CPU at a bit over 4GHz. Very nice!
To go much higher than 4-4.2GHz you’ll want an aftermarket cooler.
Once the CPU and cooler are installed the ram goes in, and then we’re ready to light this operation and play with the bios and overclocking a bit. That goes on the next page though.
