From which volts does the cpu draw off of?

[jough626]

Ok, Opty 170 (939) pulls 90a. FX-62 AM2 pulls 90.4a. Both cpu's draw this much power at max load, of course. My question is, from which voltages does the CPU get it's power from? I mean, there is no 1.35v rail. So the voltage regulators change and moderate the voltage for the cpu, but what amount feeds them?

Next question, is there a limit the voltage regulators can supply safely? Is there a mobo and a cpu combo that just can't work, no matter how big of a power supple you get? Heat would be a factor for the regulators, but in the end they can only supply so much, no matter how much feeds them, right?

And, if they can supply power beyond anything you'd need, then why is there no super-supreme mosfet/regulator coolers on the market? I was thinking about a custom copper cooler to replace the small aluminum one on my Asus A8N-E. Ok, that's enough for now.

 

[WR]

12V rail. The ATX connector has a 12V supply, but with modern CPUs, the motherboards contain an additional 12V plug. Unless you're using extreme cooling on your CPU, typical motherboard voltage regulators have no problem supplying the CPU with power. All that's needed to cool them with a typical overclock is a light breeze.

 

[tool_462]

Also, your CPU isn't consuming 90 Amps, it is consuming 90 Watts. Could get you confused if you mix the two up when reading about PSUs and voltage converters, etc...

 

[endyen]

Some new boards have 5 mosfets, though most still have 4.
Each only has a voltage drop in the fractional range.
Even with the high powered chips, this translates in at most about 10 watts of energy released per mosfet.
Even at that, expect to see more heat sinks on mosfets in the near future.