Can someone clear up misinformation on the Z390 XI Hero's power phasing?

[jackflynn]

Greetings,

There's a buzz currently on Youtube and Reddit regarding some comments made by Steve from techtuber channel Hardware Unboxed, surrounding comments he made about what he called "fake 8-phase that's really a 4-phase VRM" power phasing on the Maximus XI Hero.

Initially in his video he doesn't reference the Maximus XI Hero by name but shows a slide of it describing it as a motherboard packing a "measly 4 phase VRM"

https://youtu.be/NGHiRrQ2AAo?t=213

Bizzarely enough, he then makes comparisons of the XI Hero to the 4 phase Z370 PC Pro and infers that the problems with the XI Hero are due to it's inferior VRM's - so somehow making an equivalency between the Z370 PC Pro and the Z390 XI Hero. but there's more ....

Further below in the comment section he describes the XI Hero as having "fake 8-phase that's really a 4-phase VRM" basically implying both incompetence and deception on Asus's part. He later apologized for that in the comment section but as you can imagine the damage was done.

The Reddit threads lit up and further picked up on this and a slew of impressionables are rushing to cancel or return their XI Hero's and XI Code's..

Can someone please link me to info regarding the power phasing on the board?

I have this from overclock.net
https://www.overclock.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=223640&d=1539304287

which led to this description of the Vishay SiC639 power phasing
https://www.vishay.com/docs/76585/sic639.pdf

but it kind of conflicts with this info from Dutch site Hardwareluxx.de
https://www.hardwareluxx.de/community/f12/lga-1151-mainboard-vrm-liste-1175784.html#z390

which describes it as 4 +2

So ... which is it? And what info is the correct info to clear this up?

Thanks

[sergiocrz]

Gladly I cancelled my order for the maximus XI hero on time.
For 300USD/EUR I would expect MUCH better quality! This board is not cheap at all! I always been an asus user, bought your motherboards for the last 15 years or maybe longer, and never went to this high price point. This time I was willing to spend more money in better product that would warrant me cool temps, better stability and peace of mind running a 9900K CPU.
I guess you are 'cutting corners' to fill your pockets, not with my money. Thanks.

[Zammin]

If it's any reassurance to those who bought the Hero and aren't sure if they want to keep it or not, in GN's livestream today Steve gave his opinion that he doesn't believe it's inadequate for the 9900k since they reached 5.4Ghz on it, it's just overpriced (at 31:38):

So pretty much in line with my recent thoughts. It doesn't excuse the rubbish marketing/false advertising and what not, that is still unacceptable. But for those of us that already purchased a Maximus XI Hero/Code/Formula it's good to have some more assurance that despite the disappointing VRM design for the price, it still shouldn't hold you back, this is of course assuming you aren't seeing major problems like hardware lockups that the OP was experiencing. If that occurs, definitely return/exchange/RMA your board.

Hopefully ASUS will learn that this sort of misleading advertising and cost saving measures without reducing the price will not be tolerated by the community and pick up their game in the next line of boards (Z470 maybe). Otherwise the ROG brand is going to go from one that is associated with enthusiast hardware to corner-cutting cost saving RGB disco gamer brand lol.

[Synomenon]

I'm guessing this fake 8-phase VRM issue applies to the Strix Z390-I ITX board as well?

Time to return my unopened one and get the ASRock Phantom ITX instead...

[Crimson_Specter]

Synomenon wrote:
I'm guessing this fake 8-phase VRM issue applies to the Strix Z390-I ITX board as well?

Time to return my unopened one and get the ASRock Phantom ITX instead...

At least the VRM Heatsink situation on that board is much better as the complete IO Cover is a piece of metal that acts like a big-ass Heatsink.

[ceski]

Synomenon wrote:
I'm guessing this fake 8-phase VRM issue applies to the Strix Z390-I ITX board as well?

Time to return my unopened one and get the ASRock Phantom ITX instead...

This is some serious false advertising.

Amazon and Newegg said this:



But Elmor said this:

3 PWM signals each one to 2x NCP302045, no doublers

https://www.overclock.net/forum/27701810-post2968.html

Of course any references to "twin 8-phase" have been scrubbed off every online listing, you know, after we already bought the motherboard.

[xxVanos]

I'm a new PC builder (built my first - on my own) in March this year. Had a Core 2 Duo system 10 years ago as a present. Been using laptops ever since. Anyway I digress.

I have read every comment in this thread and I am extremely disappointed with ASUS for their lack of response. Some of you have been long users (10 + years) and have sworn by this brand. As a new adopter and "fanboy", I can only imagine how you guys would be feeling.

I have a Strix Z370-F Gaming board. I wanted the E for its WiFi but sadly that model did not feature in Malaysia. So I bought a PCIe WiFi adapter (ALSO ASUS!).

I wanted to jump to the Maximus lineup as I did not quite like the Strix gaming board and I wanted something a little more robust. I was looking at the Maximus X but then the XI was released. Sadly I will not be housing my 5.0GHz (1.36v) 8700k in the XI and I will likely ride out this cycle until ASUS can demonstrate that they are receptive to the complaints/queries of their consumers instead of being D.E.C.E.P.T.I.V.E with their false marketing.

[Zammin]

Wow you're right, there no longer appears to be any reference to the VRM design on the official pages for the individual motherboards either. Perhaps ASUS and the retailers selling their boards are trying to avoid returns based on the misleading advertising. There is still however this rubbish online:

"Eight cores require more power, especially when pushed beyond stock speeds, so our full-sized Z390 boards are beefed up with at least eight power phases for the CPU and one more for the integrated graphics."

As seen here: https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-motherboards/introducing-rog-maximus-strix-z390-gaming-motherb...

Better screenshot it in case they try to sweep that one under the rug too. All this while staying silent about the issue... Not good.

[zool65]

If you call the MB Maximus and charge a premium mayby its a bad idea to cutt corners to save a buck and no vram temps on the Hero thats shaydy Mayby the reason is that Asus dont just dont whant us to see the results .

[ceski]

Zammin wrote:
Wow you're right, there no longer appears to be any reference to the VRM design on the official pages for the individual motherboards either. Perhaps ASUS and the retailers selling their boards are trying to avoid returns based on the misleading advertising. There is still however this rubbish online:

"Eight cores require more power, especially when pushed beyond stock speeds, so our full-sized Z390 boards are beefed up with at least eight power phases for the CPU and one more for the integrated graphics."

As seen here: https://rog.asus.com/articles/maximus-motherboards/introducing-rog-maximus-strix-z390-gaming-motherb...

Better screenshot it in case they try to sweep that one under the rug too. All this while staying silent about the issue... Not good.

I was able to RMA the motherboard to Newegg for a full refund using the above images and "item description does not match product" as the reason.

[Edward_Teach]

ceski wrote:
I was able to RMA the motherboard to Newegg for a full refund using the above images and "item description does not match product" as the reason.

Good for you. I'd advise anyone who bought this series of motherboards to return them with the same claim. If consumers let Asus get away with doing this now it will be giving them the green light to do it again and to cheap out on other components in the future. Don't pay premium prices for inferior products. Send them a message that you will take your money elsewhere. That is the only way to get them to change these shady practices.