I badly bought Z370, how to fix?

Steveocee · 20 Aug 2019 at 16:03

When I moved back from a 1700X to an 8700K I blindly bought the CPU and literally the cheapest motherboard I could find which was an Asus Prime Z370-P.

If I try to even modestly overclock it (x47 all core)
Whilst it "tells" me it is running the multiplier at x47 it very rarely manages to make that. If I stress test it then after a couple of minutes the voltage peels off and the frequency drops away even though the CPU continues to push on at 100%

Temperature hasn't exceeded 72 degrees on the chip although I have recently bought a delid tool and intend to use some TG conductonaught on the die and kryonaught on the IHS.
Cooling it is a Noctua D15.

Does this point towards having utter pants VRM's?
I've come to the conclusion the motherboard is a turkey for anything more than stock. What could I buy to dig me out of this hole? As I'm delidding ideally I'd like to push up towards 5Ghz.
Currently in an Enthoo Evolv ATX so space isn't a problem.

Is it worth buying "old" Z370 but better or should I be looking at a good Z390?

I use an NVME, 2 SATA SSD's, a 1080Ti, Dual NIC (ideally as far away from 1080 as possible) and a few fans so my "needs" are relatively low other than needing something to get my 8700K up the multiplier range.

Webzta · 20 Aug 2019 at 16:37

I seem to remember that board struggling - a lot of people jumping on the Ryzen bandwagon perhaps keep an eye out on the MM for a z370 board? No need to go above that for the 8700k, imo.

Steveocee · 21 Aug 2019 at 09:10

Webzta said:
I seem to remember that board struggling - a lot of people jumping on the Ryzen bandwagon perhaps keep an eye out on the MM for a z370 board? No need to go above that for the 8700k, imo.

Eye's are certainly out for a used Z370, There's a supermicro one ATM but it gets some pretty horrifying reviews so have stayed away.

Steveocee · 23 Aug 2019 at 16:31

FWIW I spotted a Z390 Aorus Pro in the B grade section. Shortly after that my "do you really want B grade" kicked in so now have a new Aorus board on it's way.

Happy as it looks a damn site better, hopefully VRM performance will knock the old one out the water so 4.7Ghz will be had with what I'm hoping will move to 5Ghz and this board has on optical output so I can finally hook my speakers up a well and get some use out of them.

Lesson: Cheaper isn't always as convenient as it looks.