VR Features

Power management is causing a big hoo-ha over in Taiwan at the moment, since Gigabyte kicked off a green movement that had Asus and Foxconn scurrying to compete. Here, the focus is on the power consumption of the CPU, with the pricipal idea being a dynamic approach to Vcore regulation. These attempts can range from loadline calibration to phase deployment techniques. Indeed, much lies after the EPS power connector seen on this Striker II Extreme. Sources tell us that the EPU chipset is in fact a power management buck converter from Analog Devices.

8 phases of DC-DC conversion promises power and stability to the CPU run on the Striker II Extreme. Where electrolytic capacitors are needed, only solid-polymer capacitors are found. SMD ceramic capacitors continue to be the mainstay where close-to-component power bypass is necessary. It's heartening to see the CPU socket indent completely filled with ceramic capacitors - an attempt at keeping power noise at bay. Multiphase DC-DC buck conversion continues to the rest of the motherboard there critcal Vcc sources are needed.