990fx extreme9 VRM temperature

Hi Taynak I have heard of other people on the net having the VRM  problem and they all said my options were to get a small fan and connect it to the heatsink or a spot cool.  My system is in the Thermaltake core P5 completely open and my VRM1 still gets high temperatures.  Everything else stays nice and cool.  I like the idea of the Fujipoly thermal pads as zlobster said.  I ordered some so I hope they will work and if I am lucky ditch the Spot Cool.

Edited by mixsetup - 16 Jan 2018 at 6:30am

yeah mine is a custom WC loop.  I might see if I can find a better way to mount some fans to give airflow across the motherboard.

Taynak wrote: I had to look up what you were talking about but, from what i found they are for smaller chips that don't normally have a heatsink.

Sorry, but that is pure BS. These strips are in essence, a TIM - thermal INTERFACE material, i.e. they combat the otherwise poor heat transfer of the air. If they terminate directly to the air, it's useless. They do zilch without a proper heatsink attached.

Taynak wrote: and i found sheets of it for like $5 on newegg and amazon. If i do anything to the heatsink, i would want to replace it with something that would be more effecient, right?

$5 means most likely a counterfeit or a regular W/mK, just as any other simple TIM strip. 17W/mK and above are expensive for a reason!

As with everything in PC building, you're not upgrading, you're moving the bottleneck somewhere else! With good strips VRM can now transfer all their heat to the heatsink. If something, the bottleneck is now with the heatsink itself. Even some minor airflow should improve the situation now.

Hmm, prices of the good stuff dropped a bit, compared to the last time I was shopping for these. Check these out:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/17499/thr-181/Fujipoly_Ultra_Extreme_System_Builder_Thermal_Pad_-_60_x_50_x_05_-_Thermal_Conductivity_170_WmK.html

https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00MQ6AJU2/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all

VRM can withstand the extreme heat in most cases. 990FX platform is known for its stock 140W CPUs, so even the crappiest engineer would beef up the VRM.

Your PC crashing may be not due to VRM overheating. I have a wild theory - VRM getting hot and no air circulation in that area means other mobo components are also getting pretty hot. Odd as it may seem, even a bad solder joint could be breaking contact if PCB or the copper traces expand whend heated. Other electrical components are also very sensitive to heat, resistors, capacitors, ICs - it may be the case where VRM are giving the poor surrounding elements more heat than the latter can handle. That alas is called bad design. Tougher components are more expensive.

Modern PC are extremely sophisticated electrical machines. Even the slightest electrical anomaly in their critical circuity (caused by heat in your case) will disturb the Zen of their inner workings, and ultimately lead to a hang/crash.

If interested - my Taichi's VRM are getting ~68C under stress. That's high for my non-OC CPU but it's because of the airflow I arranged (deliberately) in my chassis. I use Fractal Define G, my rear and top fans are SUCKING air (instead of blowing it out). Together with my front 2x140mm Noctuas (on CRSR h115i) blasting out I achieve good positive air pressure in the case, and good airflow as well. This setup however creates a whirlwinds over my VRM and it reduces their cooling.