Asus Z690 Formula Chipset / PCH extremely hot at idle

Abrooksdavis · 1 Dec 2021 at 22:58

Hi all,

I have raised a ticket to try and get some advice as I dont know if this motherboard needs to be sent for an RMA replacement but so far I have not had a response.

But I am having a issues with the chipset temperature on this motherboard as at idle it is settling at around 88-89 sometimes 90C! Surely this is way too hot??

Im also trying to run a Teamgroup DDR5 6400mhz kit at xmp rating and Im experiencing boot loops, and am unable to apply much of an overclock to a 12900KF chip without constant bootloops.

Things feel unstable and to get into windows 11 at XMP speeds (6400Mhz required much more than the rated 1.35volts on the DDR5 ram)

Can anyone confirm the Asus z690 Formula idle chipset / PCH temperatures for me?

Is this board defective?

The attached screenshot is from a bios reset (everything stock apart from activating xmp on the DDR5 and managing to get into windows) Temperature of the chipset is from several seconds after loading windows

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Grim5 · 1 Dec 2021 at 23:14

Possibly Asus forgot to apply thermal paste to the pch, they did the same thing on the x570 formula

Sippo · 2 Dec 2021 at 19:44

Hey,

I have temp a little lower, byt still high.

GoRedwings19 · 5 Dec 2021 at 08:21

I have an Asus board but my temps are nowhere near those two. But I have the cheapo one as I am peasant I think mine was like 58C. Not sure how accurate the temp reading from HWinfo is though.

Grim5 · 5 Dec 2021 at 20:30

Something is definitely fishy with the Asus formula boards, that's multiple chipset models in a row with high pch temps, dunno what Asus is doing to these formula boards but for something reason they have issues

GoRedwings19 · 5 Dec 2021 at 22:02

Tiggerlator>yeah we have the same board and my temps are the same as yours.

Adrian1976 · 7 Dec 2021 at 19:30

My Strix Gaming A reaches 65c just booting Windows up, Just checked and it's freezing here in the UK it's peaking at 73c in games god knows what it's going to be like in summer, This is extremely poor from Asus, They have either used cheap thermal pads on the chipset or not used any at all by the look of it, Chipset hotter than a 16 core CPU is just baffling 100%

justdanyul · 2 Jan 2022 at 17:06

I'm on a ASUS MAXIMUS Z690 FORMULA and im getting about 66 - 68 degrees during gaming. Out of curiousity, at what temps should we be worried for the PCH?

Zaudi · 7 Apr 2022 at 20:33

Abrooksdavis said:
Hi all,

I have raised a ticket to try and get some advice as I dont know if this motherboard needs to be sent for an RMA replacement but so far I have not had a response.

But I am having a issues with the chipset temperature on this motherboard as at idle it is settling at around 88-89 sometimes 90C! Surely this is way too hot??

Im also trying to run a Teamgroup DDR5 6400mhz kit at xmp rating and Im experiencing boot loops, and am unable to apply much of an overclock to a 12900KF chip without constant bootloops.

Things feel unstable and to get into windows 11 at XMP speeds (6400Mhz required much more than the rated 1.35volts on the DDR5 ram)

Can anyone confirm the Asus z690 Formula idle chipset / PCH temperatures for me?

Is this board defective?

The attached screenshot is from a bios reset (everything stock apart from activating xmp on the DDR5 and managing to get into windows) Temperature of the chipset is from several seconds after loading windows

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Same here. my Z690 Forumla Temps are on PCH ~81-85°C

ChocAndGray · 7 Apr 2022 at 21:14

Could it be a faulty reading?

If the temps are actually that high there's been a problem in manufacturing.

Zaudi · 7 Apr 2022 at 21:16

ChocAndGray said:
Could it be a faulty reading?

I think not. It feels hot like that

ChocAndGray · 7 Apr 2022 at 21:20

Zaudi said:
I think not. It feels hot like that

If you've not had it long I'd try exchanging with your retailer. If the replacement does it I'd try a different board.

It seems to be a common issue, and it's very disappointing on one of their high end boards.

Asus have had a few issues recently with their high end parts, their strix graphics cards had issues with rattling fans for example.

Tetras · 7 Apr 2022 at 21:46

Z690 Strix-A D4 here.
Usually there are 4 screws holding the passive pch cooler in place. You know on cheap boards and such.

After the Strix-A got finished clearly the marketing department got hold of it and made some very bad design descisions that left my pch with only 2 screws and a heat trapping plastic cover on over 60% of the passive cooler.

So i removed all the needless plastic that clearly has been put there as an afterthought since without it all the clearence issues with big noctua coolers are gone in an instant.
I believe they even cut the aluminium coolers weight to make place for a stupid white ... cable binder?

Then I switched the 2 mm cheapo pad that already sweated out most of its silicone anyways with 1mm 14 kw/h pad and a glug of thermal paste.
The cooler itself has two silver mounting spacer/holes. Those i tightened against the cooler itself. I got a 160 degree
trun on both out of it. Makes the cooler stay closer to the pch.
And i screwed very very tight the 2 measly screws that hold my pch cooler in place.

My record temps from my pch have been 91c with all m.2 slots populated after copying only 220 gig with one transfer.

Now i can try whatever i want i never see 70c. No matter the bios ASPM options or how many copy tasks i run in paralell.

In your case just get to the backside of the board and screw tight the screws they left on your pch.

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?127267-Z690-Formula-PCH-Chipset-Temperatures

Sounds like it can be improved on Asus boards, but I should imagine this will void your warranty

Marian · 21 Oct 2022 at 16:38

I have the same issue:
ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 Formula, with Intel 12900K, Z690 PCH has 75 degree Celsius when is standing idle and not doing anything. I didn't test in a serious game because so far I haven't any graphic card, waiting for buying the Nvidia 40x when will appear. The PC box is pretty large, is Fractal Define 7, and has 7 fans, 4x14cm and 3 x 12 cm from the water cooler put on the box ceil. 3 NVMe of 2TB, gen4 x4, Segate FireCuda 530.

Qitarah · 23 Oct 2022 at 16:13

I remember one of my hero’s had similar temps. After a year or two during the summer heat, oil literally started leaking out of one of the thermal pads. Made a right mess of the pcb.

IT Troll · 7 Nov 2022 at 13:18

I experienced similar temperature issues with my Asus ROG Strix Z690-G. I am using all three NVMe slots and the 3090 covers half of the chipset heatsink. So probably worse case. From cold boot it immediately hits 50°C, after about 15 mins of just sitting idle in the BIOS it reaches 75°C. During light desktop duties (when system fans are spinning slow and quiet), the PCH temperature would gradually rise through the day and eventually hit 100°C! I had to add an extra fan next to the chipset to get it under control.

I suspect the RGB bits are not helping. I'd take the heatsink assembly off if it didn't require rear motherboard access.

GoRedwings19 · 10 Nov 2022 at 23:33

so current update. My first board developed a fault. The one that ran the PCH at 58. So I got a replacement board and then rediscovered this thread. I knew I shouldn;t of looked at it but this baord runs it at 65-68 idle. Which I am not too happy about. I also have an Asus z690 Formula sitting in a box next to me for a new build...

Tempted to send it back and get the z790 apex

GoRedwings19 · 11 Nov 2022 at 02:30

Okay looking into this further it mostly applies to Asus strix and its variants and the formula boards. I have 2 z690-a strix motherboards and a Z690 whihc I have not used it for a build. I did manage to find a little bit of information to help. It seems Asus for whatever reason for the past 2-3 generations have neglected the PCH for wahtever reason ranging from not bothering or forgetting to use thermal paste or in some cases not screwing the offending part down to make good contact.

But I have also found another post which can help ever so slightly but not enough if you are having extremely high PCH temps. That would require you to replace the thermal pads/paste or RMA.

So go into bios and under Tweakers Paradise go down thorugh the menu until you come to two PCH options. One is for 1.05v as it called PCH 1.05 and set that to 0.800 underneath it should be another one and it has the voltage listed as 0.82v change this to 0.700 save the changes and restart. This should drop the temps ever so slightly so before I was 65-68 idle and about 71-72 on load. With the above setting applied it is 60-63c idle and so far load has been 65c. So not really a big drop but every little helps. You can if you wish at your own discretion change the PCH 1.05 voltage to lower but this comes at the the expense of stability so if you can get it lower and it 100% stable that's great if not this will have to make do.