Tuesday, June 5th 2012
ASUS Unveils Z77 Wolverine Motherboard with 40-Phase CPU VRM
If you thought the GIGABYTE Z77X-UP7 with its 32-phase CPU VRM was over the top, check out the Z77 Wolverine from ASUS. A design concept for the time being, this beast packs 40 (yes, forty) CPU VRM phases. The VRM makes use of compact chokes and driver-MOSFETs, with 20 phases on each side of the PCB. Given that it draws power from just one 8-pin EPS connector, the only idea we see behind this concoction is reducing load per "phase", resulting in lower temperatures per driver-MOSFET, perhaps even letting the motherboard do away with with VRM area heatsinks altogether.
ASUS insists that the CPU VRM of the Z77 Wolverine features Digi+, so we assume it uses the same EPU controller found on several other P8Z77-V series motherboards. The bottom half of the Z77 Wolverine is nearly identical to that of the P8Z77-V Deluxe, including the layout of expansion slots (3x PCIe 3.0 x16, 3x PCIe 2.0 x1). The board's connectivity resembles that of the P8Z77-V Deluxe, too. This include four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and two eSATA 6 Gb/s ports; eight USB 3.0 ports (6x rear-panel, 2 via header); dual gigabit Ethernet; and 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth module.
Source:
VR-Zone
ASUS insists that the CPU VRM of the Z77 Wolverine features Digi+, so we assume it uses the same EPU controller found on several other P8Z77-V series motherboards. The bottom half of the Z77 Wolverine is nearly identical to that of the P8Z77-V Deluxe, including the layout of expansion slots (3x PCIe 3.0 x16, 3x PCIe 2.0 x1). The board's connectivity resembles that of the P8Z77-V Deluxe, too. This include four SATA 6 Gb/s ports, four SATA 3 Gb/s ports, and two eSATA 6 Gb/s ports; eight USB 3.0 ports (6x rear-panel, 2 via header); dual gigabit Ethernet; and 802.11 b/g/n + Bluetooth module.
27 Comments on ASUS Unveils Z77 Wolverine Motherboard with 40-Phase CPU VRM
Wolverine
How many more X-Men is Asus gonna release ?
Nice to see both VTT and SA VRM dual-phase as well.
The weight of their boards makes me laugh, and the price is stupidly high compared to GIG.
Yes, I'm a GIGA fanboy.
I'd be surprised if they didn't have some sort of adhesive heatsink(s) on the board.
Adhesive would have to be some sort of thermal epoxy, which is not likely. It's cheaper to use plastic clips, and not worry about bonding issues.
It's only natural that all these companies are coming out with higher-quality devices, as that's the natural progession of things, you'd hope. Take IvyBridge, for example...it's not that much different than Sandybridge, merely lowers power consumption, added some features, and took others, like the solder for the IHS, away. This same general design philosophy is part of how the industry runs, and how they keep having new products to release.
Myself, I was expecting nothing other than AMD FM2 motherboards, so this is ALL good news.
i wonder how about ironman, with sleek red aluminum looks and blue light effect on VRM :toast:
phase wars equal phase wars, at least both companies have nice 8 phase designs.