Understanding Power Phases

I'm moving from AMD to Intel, i actually just dropped about $2000 in a sandy bridge build, sold my old 1090T. My old 1090T board was a 4+1 power phase or something like that.

So from my understanding the more power phases a board has, the better stability you can achieve on an overclock?

This is a 20 phase board, i didn't want to drop another $100 in a board that had 4 more phases of power, and an extra PCIe. Can you explain in alittle more detail how this 20 phase is going to benefit me anymore than a 7+1 phase? If you're interested i can post/link everything i bought, should be here tomorrow morning ~lunch time.

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to post the board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128479

Sometimes I've read that the quality of the phases in motherboard's voltage regulation design can have a greater effect then the total number of phases. However the UD-5 and its big brother the UD-7 are both quality motherboards and I know the UD-5 is easily capable of pushing any SB to its maximum o.c. potential.

There is a dedicated thread on this particular motherboard over at XS Forums that you might find of interest.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264003

PolRoger said:

Sometimes I've read that the quality of the phases in motherboard's voltage regulation design can have a greater effect then the total number of phases. However the UD-5 and its big brother the UD-7 are both quality motherboards and I know the UD-5 is easily capable of pushing any SB to its maximum o.c. potential.

There is a dedicated thread on this particular motherboard over at XS Forums that you might find of interest.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=264003

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Thanks a bunch Pol, quick question, when you say "max" what do you mean? The first gen sandy bridges were hitting 4.5-4.8ghz pretty easly, and now the second batch of sandybridges don't seem to be going much past 4.5ghz, did Intel recall these simply to limit the O.C? I know there was a SATA problem, but professional O.Cs are having issues stabalizing 4.8ghz now. that has me alittle bit worries, although, i think my 4.0ghz 1090t is going to be smoked by even a sandybridge at 4.2ghz. I posted this before i read your link, i will do that now.

I will go ahead and post the systems parts.

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-P67A-UD5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128479

CPU
Intel Core i7-2600K
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

RAM
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 4GB DDR3 2133
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231449

PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139009

Video Card
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 BIOS Overclocked Core: 850/Memory: 1200
-I also ordered a Radeon HD 6870 factory o/c to see how it will perform-
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150520

CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-D14
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608018

Case
Antec Twelve Hundred V3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129100

HDD
Corsair Force 120GB SSD (i got 2 of these, one for my wife)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233125

Thermal Compound
Arctic Silver 5

Subtotal $1,763.91
Tax $0.00

UPS Next Day saver $134.14

Rush Processing $2.99

Order Total $1,901.04

Intel never recalled the CPU. Its the motherboards.

Im far from a professional and all 3 chips I have had were at 5.2Ghz or greater. Im not sure that information is correct.

Build looks solid, though why the 5970? Monster card and appropriate for multi onitor or 2560x1600 or 3d, but overkill otherwise.

Rush processing is a waste of cash and next day? Damn, grab some patience and save $100.

EarthDog said:

Intel never recalled the CPU. Its the motherboards.

Im far from a professional and all 3 chips I have had were at 5.2Ghz or greater. Im not sure that information is correct.

Build looks solid, though why the 5970? Monster card and appropriate for multi onitor or 2560x1600 or 3d, but overkill otherwise.

Rush processing is a waste of cash and next day? Damn, grab some patience and save $100.

Click to expand...

Iv'e been back and forth on this decision for the last week, i figured i'd make up the time in my patients, didn't realize i copied all that other information The 5970 i have in the (rebuilt) 1090T system, and i'm thinking of keeping it and putting the 6870 in to replace it or letting it go with the 5970, as it's currently sold to a family member, they're allowing me some time to get my new one in and built. We -my wife and i- play Final Fantasy XIV, the 5970 in this 1090t makes it feel like it isn't good enough, my wife has an o/c 6870 which does as good as my 5970, that's why i was considering swapping out, but i paid $700 for this thing several months ago, it's hard to let it go for a sub $300 card, also my 5970 out benches her 6870, so i might not be see'ing everything it can do just yet, time will tell, i was logiclly talking myself into keeping it since it was so expincive back in the day.

I can't imagine having anything above 4.5ghz... the thought makes me tingle in special places.. iv'e spent loads of money in AMD chips and never been above 4.2 for any length of time.

According to that link, it has the standard plain-jane BIOS, for some reason i was thinking it had that pretty animated one, not a big deal, just would of been a nice change.

Kohta said:

I can't imagine having anything above 4.5ghz... the thought makes me tingle in special places.. iv'e spent loads of money in AMD chips and never been above 4.2 for any length of time.

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GHZ isn't the holy grail. A slower CPU can be much superior to a higher GHZ CPU in many cases. Clock for clock, your SB chip is a beast, even at a "paltry" 4.2Ghz.

Nice system BTW. It will be faster than 99.999% of PC's on the planet... for a while.

Kohta said:

So from my understanding the more power phases a board has, the better stability you can achieve on an overclock?

Click to expand...

That's what the marketing says but in reality Intel's board has 6 phases. I think there are diminishing returns after that. Mine has 5 phases and I have no regrets.