WEBVTT

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when it comes to motherboards everyone wants something different for their PC

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some people are like yeah bring on the USB ports others want support for like

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multiple graphics cards and others just want like sweet Dragon graphics on their

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heat sinks but there's one important aspect of motherboard design that you'd

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be hard pressed to find in a spec sheet from your favorite retailer but is

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extremely important the voltage

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regulator modules or vrm so why are they

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important and how do you know what to look for when choosing a motherboard

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great question and it might help to think of the vrm as kind of like a mini

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power supply just like your actual main computer power supply takes 120 or 240

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volts from the wall and steps it down to 12 volts not to mention DC current the

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motherboard vrm does this a second time

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to provide your CPU with the you know

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like 1 to 1 and 1/2 volts or whatever it needs to operate without cooking like a

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lobster but unlike your power supply the vrm isn't one big bulky thing in a box

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that's easy to spot it's actually made up of a few different components number

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one is mosfets which are often located under those big heat sinks that surround

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your CPU socket indicating that they do give off some heat so the processor

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tells the mosfets yo dog I need 1.2 volts or whatever and the mosfets then

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deliver exactly that much power to to the CPU you also have your chokes those

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blocky things next to the mosfets that stabilize the current as well as

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capacitors which both serve as temporary storage for electricity and protect

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against sudden voltage spikes now admittedly these things aren't as

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exciting as putting in a new $400 graphics card or whatever but the

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quality of your vrms can make a huge difference for your PC for starters

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cheaply made vrms can lead to system instability and crashes even at stock

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speed and very poor quality vrms can

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even mess up the power delivery to the point where they'll damage your other

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expensive components and if you're overclocking uh you won't get very far

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with a poorly engineered vrm since the correct voltages are so important to

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system stability when you're pushing your components beyond their rated

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speeds okay lonus then so how do I know what to look for I've never even heard

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of people talking about VR before well a couple of simple tips can

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help you make sure you don't end up having to make a long trip to the tshi

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station to pick up a replacement power converter one of the easiest things to

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do is just count up the number of chokes on the motherboard you see motherboards

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split up power delivery to the CPU into a number of phases and more phases means

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the power is split more ways lightening the load on each phase which in turn can

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lead to Greater stability each choke on your motherboard corresponds to one

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power phase and usually all but one or two of these around the CPU socket are

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reserved for your CPU cores entry-level

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boards will usually have three or four phase CPU power but higher quality

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boards can have 6 eight or even more

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it's also a good idea to pick up a board with solidstate capacitors cheaper

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capacitors contain a conducting liquid which can cause problems if they're not

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made correctly and even if they are made corre irly they're very likely to bulge

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and rupture or even explode over time which is what happened to a lot of

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people during the infamous capacitor plague of the mid 2000s solid capacitors

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not only largely eliminate these risks but they also have wider temperature

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tolerances and a longer lifespan but are

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these things even going to be a big deal forever I mean CPUs are getting to the

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point where they can do so much more with so much less power I mean for

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example Intel Skylake CPUs don't need as

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many power phases for a solid overclock as previous generations and AMD's

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upcoming Zen architecture looks to be much more power efficient as well

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nevertheless you obviously want to make sure that whatever board you drop your

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hard-earned cash on won't fail more quickly than your attempt to go pro in

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for watching guys if you like the video do that thing if you didn't then do the other thing uh leave a comment with

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video suggestions if you have com with video suggestions don't forget to

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subscribe and follow and if you're looking for something else to watch we had a great video over on our lonus Tech

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tips Channel taking a bunch of different graphics cards and finding out what the

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actual difference in performance from one card to another in spite of them

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being identical can be very interesting stuff