VRM's getting very hot...

Craterloads · 2 May 2012 at 22:41

Just wanted to ask are the motherboard VRM's supposed to run very hot? Whilst running prime95 felt the VRM heatsink and it was too hot to touch. Stuck a thermal probe on there and re ran prime and passed 100c fairly quickly and my fan controller only goes up to 100c so god knows how hot it is getting!!

Idle: 40c
Load: 50c

OCed Idle: 50c
Oced Load: 100c +

Got very poor airflow over the heatsink, so just stuck a 120mm fan blowing directly over them and there was a 50c reduction!

Oced Idle: 30c
Oced load: 50c

What can i do and should i do? apart from just crudely sticking a 120mm fan there? Do i even need to or are they safe running at those temps?

Mobo is Asrock x79 Extreme6

hanluc · 2 May 2012 at 23:04

I used to own an Asus x58 motherboard, the VRM and the chipset heatsinks were burning hot to the touch like yours, mainly because it was watercooled and their wasn't any air flow from the CPU cooler over them. I never had any stability problems but never the less for piece of mind I stuck a couple of Asus chipset fans on them I had left over from an old P5K board.

Blue160 · 2 May 2012 at 23:57

An Antec Spotcool might be a decent solution if you've got an air flow problem in that area.

Craterloads · 3 May 2012 at 09:42

Antec spotcool sound like its a good option. Do you know if they are quiet?

PiKe · 3 May 2012 at 09:43

Quite what?

Sticking some small heatsinks on them would help somewhat.

paradigm · 3 May 2012 at 09:45

This is the exact reason I had to buy some 12mm thick 120mm fans to go beneath my radiator (above the mobo). My VRMs were really warm!

Craterloads · 3 May 2012 at 09:52

PiKe said:
Quite what?

Sticking some small heatsinks on them would help somewhat.

What you on about, i said quiet.

Dont think i'd be able to stick anything on them as they are curved.

Craterloads · 3 May 2012 at 09:54

paradigm said:
This is the exact reason I had to buy some 12mm thick 120mm fans to go beneath my radiator (above the mobo). My VRMs were really warm!

Not really got much options, see pic below. Anything you can suggest

paradigm · 3 May 2012 at 09:56

Can you not fit another fan to that 120mm rad at the top?

Craterloads · 3 May 2012 at 10:14

no, ram module in the way plus is exhausting out. no room at bottom either :mad:

Might be able to get the spotcool ebhind the psu cables

Zuban · 3 May 2012 at 10:33

at 4.6ghz in prime my vrm's were around 74 degrees, my motherboard documentation states that it will throttle at around 130 degrees iirc.

paradigm · 3 May 2012 at 11:52

Craterloads said:
no, ram module in the way plus is exhausting out. no room at bottom either

Might be able to get the spotcool ebhind the psu cables

Hence me using 120x120x12mm fans, a 12mm Scythe SlipStream SLIM will fit easily.

Yaayuh! · 3 May 2012 at 11:59

hanluc said:
I used to own an Asus x58 motherboard, the VRM and the chipset heatsinks were burning hot to the touch like yours, mainly because it was watercooled and their wasn't any air flow from the CPU cooler over them. I never had any stability problems but never the less for piece of mind I stuck a couple of Asus chipset fans on them I had left over from an old P5K board.

Not the P6T Deluxe then? It came with a VRM fan

lol

Daichin · 3 May 2012 at 13:06

Craterloads said:
Antec spotcool sound like its a good option. Do you know if they are quiet?

They are not quiet. At all. I have one pointed at my VRM's and it's INCREDIBLY loud - makes a constant buzzing/humming sound. Loudest thing in my rig, other than the PSU fan. It's the 100 model too, with the larger fan. The 80s are even louder.

hyperst · 3 May 2012 at 13:35

Why not turn the fan on the 120 rad the other way so it is drawing in cold air and blowing across the vrm area

Craterloads · 3 May 2012 at 13:37

could do but main rad fan are blowing air in, at bottom. and small rad at top blow out. If i reversed that the hot air would be trapped.

Yaayuh! · 3 May 2012 at 15:38

hyperst said:
Why not turn the fan on the 120 rad the other way so it is drawing in cold air and blowing across the vrm area

That would go against the entire reason for the design of that case.. lol

hyperst · 3 May 2012 at 15:52

Rossi~ said:
That would go against the entire reason for the design of that case.. lol

lol, the op has water cooled it, surely that goes against the design of the case more so than turning a fan.

But thanks for the useful post.

Yaayuh! · 3 May 2012 at 16:01

hyperst said:
lol, the op has water cooled it, surely that goes against the design of the case more so than turning a fan.

But thanks for the useful post.

He hasn't water cooled everything

Craterloads · 3 May 2012 at 23:19

found this little thing tucked away in my spares box

Took off fan, turns out to be a pretty awesome Delta fan rated for 45cmf!

http://www.delta.com.tw/product/cp/d...70x70x15mm.pdf

Cleaned it up, braided. Was going to leave the AMD sticker on for the lulz.

can barely see it, just what i wanted and needed.

and the proof is in the pudding as they say! thats a minimum 25c off temps on VRMs. They were reaching 100c ++ very quickly. My sensors capped off out 100c so can only imagine what temps they were reaching.

Fan is running at half speed, prettu much silent. If i run at full speed sub 60c but is a little whinny at full speed!

Cant help but be happy with a problem solved for free. Now 5GHz here i come