Motherboard VRM cooling

[GordonFreemanInTheFlesh]

My friend has been having a lot of issues with his MB VRMs overheating!
The motherboard that he picked was the cheapest AM5 one on PCPartPicker:

Gigabyte A620M S2H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard​

The cpu that he bundled it with is Ryzen 5 7600X.
I suggested him to add some heatsinks to aid in cooling however I talked him out of using heatsink plaster as that stuff doesn't conduct heat that well and is pretty permanent! So are there any good thermal pads that are self adhesive or semi adhesive [either that or zipties :V]?
I don't know much about thermal pads because I haven't really used them that much.

 

[eidairaman1]

My friend has been having a lot of issues with his MB VRMs overheating!
The motherboard that he picked was the cheapest AM5 one on PCPartPicker:

Gigabyte A620M S2H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard​

The cpu that he bundled it with is Ryzen 5 7600X.
I suggested him to add some heatsinks to aid in cooling however I talked him out of using heatsink plaster as that stuff doesn't conduct heat that well and is pretty permanent! So are there any good thermal pads that are self adhesive or semi adhesive [either that or zipties :V]?
I don't know much about thermal pads because I haven't really used them that much.

AS5 thermal expoxy mixed with AS5 worked on bga ram on my MR9800 back in 2006 with tweak monster ramsinks. The mix made a semi permenant bond like certain grades of lock tite (a little force broke the bond so I could remove the heatsinks if ever needed

 

[pavle]

From my own experience the best solution is that he would have CPU heatsink/fan that blows directly at motherboard (and with that at VRM's) and not past it as so many coolers nowdays do ("tower" coolers).

 

[eidairaman1]

If anything Id sell the board and get something better

 

[SalemTheKit]

The cpu that he bundled it with is Ryzen 5 7600X.

What does he use the 7600x for? If it's just for gaming reasons then he might want to first try setting it to 65w eco mode in the BIOS. You're not gonna lose any gaming performance and it'll set the power limit to 88w (because 65w eco mode means 88w...for some reason) which absolutely shouldn't cause any VRM overheating on that board.

Moreover, I'd be curious as to how he figured out it was the VRMs overheating versus something else. The S2H's VRMs aren't too bad so it surprises me that he would be getting throttled like that unless he was really pushing that 7600x to its limits in an all-core workload or something.

 

[Shrek]

From my own experience the best solution is that he would have CPU heatsink/fan that blows directly at motherboard (and with that at VRM's)

Isn't that an issue with water cooling? any air that might have have got to the VRMs is no longer present (with the CPU fan gone).

Most CPU fans blow down on the heatsink, so the VRMs get warm air (better than none at all); but what if one turned the fan around so it now pulled air?

 

[tabascosauz]

What does he use the 7600x for? If it's just for gaming reasons then he might want to first try setting it to 65w eco mode in the BIOS. You're not gonna lose any gaming performance and it'll set the power limit to 88w (because 65w eco mode means 88w...for some reason) which absolutely shouldn't cause any VRM overheating on that board.

Moreover, I'd be curious as to how he figured out it was the VRMs overheating versus something else. The S2H's VRMs aren't too bad so it surprises me that he would be getting throttled like that unless he was really pushing that 7600x to its limits in an all-core workload or something.

I'd like to know what your definition of "aren't too bad" is. It's Gigabyte's favourite unheatsinked 4C06N setup with only 5 undoubled phases. That's comparable or worse current handling than 3 doubled lo-side found on absolute bottom of the barrel AM4 boards. It literally doesn't get any worse.

Since like 5 years ago it's common knowledge that even 65W (88W PPT) CPUs are a struggle for doubled 3-phase Vcore. 7600X is a 105W (142W) CPU.

My friend has been having a lot of issues with his MB VRMs overheating!
The motherboard that he picked was the cheapest AM5 one on PCPartPicker:

Gigabyte A620M S2H Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard​

The cpu that he bundled it with is Ryzen 5 7600X.
I suggested him to add some heatsinks to aid in cooling however I talked him out of using heatsink plaster as that stuff doesn't conduct heat that well and is pretty permanent! So are there any good thermal pads that are self adhesive or semi adhesive [either that or zipties :V]?
I don't know much about thermal pads because I haven't really used them that much.

First step is to get a spare small diameter fan (e.g. 80mm) and either lay it on the VRM directly or stand it up on the back of the GPU pointing at the VRM and just blast it with airflow. Also you've not said anything about the rest of the system, improving system airflow (especially rear and top exhaust in a conventional layout) also helps.

If it's still a problem, you can look for those tiny stick-on heatsinks for individual mosfets like this, and combine it with said airflow:

And find Eco Mode in BIOS to drop it down to 65W TDP (either 76W or 88W PPT, not sure which it will be for S2H). It's a 6-core, no reason to be running that much power day-to-day, especially given how aggressive Zen 4 is with any extra power headroom. 7600X is one of those SKUs that should not exist; turning it into a 7600 through Eco Mode will be easier to handle all around.

 

[SalemTheKit]

Since like 5 years ago it's common knowledge that even 65W (88W PPT) CPUs are a struggle for doubled 3-phase Vcore. 7600X is a 105W (142W) CPU.

Didn't know this, thanks for the info.

 

[Outback Bronze]

but what if one turned the fan around so it now pulled air?

This is why you generally need good air flow through the case, it has an all-round effect.

 

[Macro Device]

heatsink plaster

It's generally a good solution, why not. Just make sure you don't overdo it. Apply just enough for it to stick, no more. The thinner the layer the merrier.

Any airflow directed to these heatsinks will be much appreciated as well.

As mentioned above, restricting CPU from triple figure numbers in wattage is a must here.

 

[Fangio1951]

O, you could do what I did if you had water cooling =

 

[freeagent]

I would crazy glue a stack of like five pennies together and then glue them to the VRM. If you are gonna beat on it with a bigger CPU might as well give it a chance

 

[eidairaman1]

I would crazy glue a stack of like five pennies together and then glue them to the VRM. If you are gonna beat on it with a bigger CPU might as well give it a chance

Heck use AS Epoxy between the pennies and the AS Epoxy mixed with AS5 between the penny and ic lol

 

[mechtech]

One of the reasons I prefer 'downthrust' cooling like stock. Not absolute best for CPU, but helps vrms.

 

[AusWolf]

I'm in the camp that recommends lowering the power target. That motherboard already has a heatsink, so it won't do any better with another one, either.

As a rule of thumb, it is not recommended to pair an X-suffix CPU with a budget A620 motherboard because they're equipped with terrible VRMs and can't supply enough power without running into thermal issues.

 

[Macro Device]

One of the reasons I prefer 'downthrust' cooling like stock. Not absolute best for CPU, but helps vrms.

Wish my top-flow bad boy had a more massive heatsink. 85 W CPUs is its best. And no, additional airflow doesn't help, heatsink is the issue.

 

[eidairaman1]

I'm in the camp that recommends lowering the power target. That motherboard already has a heatsink, so it won't do any better with another one, either.

As a rule of thumb, it is not recommended to pair an X-suffix CPU with a budget A620 motherboard because they're equipped with terrible VRMs and can't supply enough power without running into thermal issues.

Need to be a 650 or 670 series

 

[AusWolf]

Need to be a 650 or 670 series

Or a non-X CPU.

 

[Canned Noodles]

I would crazy glue a stack of like five pennies together and then glue them to the VRM. If you are gonna beat on it with a bigger CPU might as well give it a chance

I did exactly that with an old raspberry pi. It works pretty well until it can't soak up any more heat.

 

[GordonFreemanInTheFlesh]

What does he use the 7600x for? If it's just for gaming reasons then he might want to first try setting it to 65w eco mode in the BIOS. You're not gonna lose any gaming performance and it'll set the power limit to 88w (because 65w eco mode means 88w...for some reason) which absolutely shouldn't cause any VRM overheating on that board.

Moreover, I'd be curious as to how he figured out it was the VRMs overheating versus something else. The S2H's VRMs aren't too bad so it surprises me that he would be getting throttled like that unless he was really pushing that 7600x to its limits in an all-core workload or something.

Well aparently he touched them and it left a burn mark on two of his fingers, I had told him to use a down blowing cooler but instead he got the Arctic A35x co :/

 

[AusWolf]

Well aparently he touched them and it left a burn mark on two of his fingers, I had told him to use a down blowing cooler but instead he got the Arctic A35x co :/

He will definitely have to get his power limits decreased. A 65 W TDP (88 W PPT) should do the trick.

 

[GordonFreemanInTheFlesh]

He will definitely have to get his power limits decreased. A 65 W TDP (88 W PPT) should do the trick.

I tried to talk him into doing it but he said "I'm not slowing down my system" I think I will try to glue some heatsinks on top of the VRMs it's a bad board after all.
Should I be looking for a good specific thermal adhesive brand or is the cheap heatsink plaster well enaugh?

 

[A Computer Guy]

I tried to talk him into doing it but he said "I'm not slowing down my system" I think I will try to glue some heatsinks on top of the VRMs it's a bad board after all.
Should I be looking for a good specific thermal adhesive brand or is the cheap heatsink plaster well enaugh?

Maybe if you show him the pic of my fried motherboard he might reconsider. Having great VRM cooling on a MB that heats up because can't supply the requested power might be catastrophic.

 

[AusWolf]

I tried to talk him into doing it but he said "I'm not slowing down my system" I think I will try to glue some heatsinks on top of the VRMs it's a bad board after all.
Should I be looking for a good specific thermal adhesive brand or is the cheap heatsink plaster well enaugh?

Oh my... A truly facepalm moment. If only he knew how little performance he has to give up!

I'm currently running my 7800X3D with boost turned off (4.2 GHz constant) because I have to do something with my cooler mount (either repaste, or just remount properly), and I'm losing only about 12-15% scores in Cinebench. By doing a 65 W TDP limit on a 7600X, your friend would lose only a fraction of this. He would basically get a 7600 non-X.

Try showing him this:

 

[A Computer Guy]

One of the reasons I prefer 'downthrust' cooling like stock. Not absolute best for CPU, but helps vrms.

View attachment 302459

I like those too, and they way you wrote it makes it sound like a very manly PC cooler - very performance oriented.

Well aparently he touched them and it left a burn mark on two of his fingers, I had told him to use a down blowing cooler but instead he got the Arctic A35x co :/

Well it would be interesting to put a temp probe on it. Maybe it isn't a big deal if its actually under 80c especially with some heatsinks and a bit of airflow on it.

AS5 thermal expoxy mixed with AS5 worked on bga ram on my MR9800 back in 2006 with tweak monster ramsinks. The mix made a semi permenant bond like certain grades of lock tite (a little force broke the bond so I could remove the heatsinks if ever needed

Do you remember the mix ratio?