Unacceptable Asus B550-I motherboard VRM fan whine rant

str

str

str

Soldato
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18 Oct 2002
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The noise from the tiny 30x10mm VRM fan is disappointing. :mad::cry:

It's too late to buy the only waterblock made for it (not for sale anymore) to keep the VRM/chipset cool. Custom replacement of the fan appears to be much more trouble than it's worth. It also seems like it would be a pointless exercise to RMA the Asus board as it'll only happen again in the future when the fan wears out.

I used the BIOS option to disable the VRM fan but VRM temp hit 80c+ and I've read reports suggesting the fan isn't just for cooling the VRMs it's also necessary to prevent the LAN chip from overheating/malfunctioning.

I could make an adapter cable (the VRM fan has a tiny obscure connector) for a Noctua PWM fan controller to limit the VRM fan RPM below 3000 which could make it run silent but not sure it would be good enough to solve the board area temperature issues.

I'm using a Phanteks Evolv Shift 2 TG edition with a watercooled 5950x and RTX 2700 Super. It runs well otherwise with two 120mm radiators and 3 Noctua slim fans (1 intake/2 exhaust) and a 140mm Noctua bottom fan.

For now I've disassembled the PC and swapped the Asus board for an old Gigabyte B450 I Pro Wifi which has a decent VRM heatsink.

I cleaned everything and reinstalled the water cooling and now I'm developing fan control software for it and I'm working on adding a custom water temp sensor which the Gigabyte board lacks.

I could sell the Asus board but how could the new owner accept the VRM fan whine?

Anyone else needing to rant about their unacceptable AMD motherboard tiny fan? :D
 
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str said:
Anyone else needing to rant about their unacceptable AMD motherboard tiny fan? :D
Click to expand...

I will happily rant about why I instantly disclude motherboards with fans from my shortlists, and it began in the late 90s with rattly noises :cry: Nowadays I won't even entertain the idea of giving them a try. The fan will annoy me sooner or later, simple as.

Maybe if they stopped making "aesthetic" VRM heatsinks and instead designed them to actually dissipate heat we could get away from this silliness...
 
Yeah I was impulsively dumb, I hadn't researched much before buying it so I didn't know it had a VRM fan. I relied on the ROG reputation and how expensive it was meant it had to be a well designed motherboard. :D
 
str said:
I hadn't researched much before buying it so I didn't know it had a VRM fan
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Asrock have even snuck one into their B650E Taichi...

That thing has like 2000 amps of power delivery. You could probably run a 7950X without any VRM heatsinks and not hit 80 degrees on them. Legit, I think the fan is there so that in 2 years time you buy a new motherboard to get rid of the rattle it's developed. If I hadn't had such a good experience with my Z370 Taichi, it would be enough to turn me off the brand.

And this is why I'm scared of motherboards without good reviews, and probably why I'll buy X670E instead. Feels almost like manufacturers don't send out review units to avoid their dodgy crap being spotted :(
 
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PeegeeTips said:
putting a 30mm fan on a mITX board was never a good idea. :(
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You mean putting a 30mm fan on ANYTHING 'pc' was never a good idea lol

I specifically picked a motherboard that didn't have any fans on it..... past experience has shown they're annoying and they're also a pain to replace if they fail.
 
Still nothing about the issue from the retailer (not OcUK). Evidently a bad choice that I won't be repeating. :D

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I built the prototype temp sensor. I need to solder everything to a small circuit board and fit it into an appropriate box along with the trinket m0. It provides via USB the intake airflow temp, coolant temp and the calculated Delta T. I've also made progress getting back into programming with a progression of C# apps learning about LibreHardwareMonitorLib and controlling the fans.
 
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