ASRock X79 Extreme9 Motherboard

Voltage Regulator

The CPU voltage regulator circuit of the ASRock X79 Extreme9 has 16 phases for the CPU main voltage (Vcc a.k.a. Vcore), two for the CPU VSA voltage (memory controller), and two for the CPU VTT voltage (PCI Express and DMI interfaces). Therefore, it uses a “16+2+2” configuration. The voltage regulator is controlled by a CHiL CHL8328 integrated circuit, using a digital design.

Figure 10: Voltage regulator circuit

This motherboard comes with two EPS12V connectors. The motherboard manual doesn’t say when the second connector is required.

The ASRock X79 Extreme9 uses SMD (a.k.a. highly-conductive polymerized or simply Hi-c) electrolytic capacitors in its main voltage regulator circuit. All coils on this motherboard are ferrite-core models, which can provide up to 20% improvement in efficiency. The rest of the electrolytic capacitors used on this motherboard are solid, manufactured in Japan.

If you want to learn more about the v
oltage regulator circuit, please read our tutorial on the subject.