Temperature at 90°C after 10 minutes is acceptable. Need advice on custom heatsink.
Temperature at 90°C after 10 minutes is acceptable. Need advice on custom heatsink.
I have an outdated Z370 board featuring a 4+3 phase VRM, specifically the Gigabyte Aorus Z370 Gaming 3. It previously ran a 8700 CPU in a hackintosh setup with satisfactory performance. Recently, I installed a budget 9900K and noticed the system throttled at 110°C and shut down above 125°C during intensive tasks like video editing and rendering. To address this, I adjusted BIOS settings, upgraded thermal pads on the VRM heatsinks, added a better-fitting heatsink, disabled frequency override, and lowered turbo frequencies for cores 6-8 to 4.4GHz. These changes helped maintain VRM temperatures around 80°C during normal use and about 90°C under stress tests like R23 after 10 minutes. Now I’m considering a custom heatsink solution. The original clips on both sides of the heatsink were effective but limited my options. Replacing them with proper copper heatsinks and securing them with adhesive tape seems simpler and more cost-effective. Alternatively, building a custom heatsink with matching clips would be more expensive. What do you think?
I favor thermal tape unless the heatsink is exceptionally large and heavy. Did you not undervoltage?
I didn't undervolt. I attempted to reduce the CPU core voltage by 0.01V, but a BSOD appeared right away. There are many voltage settings in the BIOS, and I'm hesitant to modify them. Perhaps it's worth researching further. Appreciate the guidance!
I came up with a solution. The extra heatsink I added to the OE heatsink was secured with thermal adhesive. After removing it, I applied strong double-sided tape to both ends and spread thermal paste in the middle. The outcome was promising! It significantly reduced the heat rise curve of my VRM under synthetic stress testing. I've attached the temperature chart showing three parts: first half with tape only, second half with paste in the middle plus tape on both sides. Meanwhile, I plan to order a smaller heatsink from Aliexpress, but this should be sufficient given the low-end Z370 motherboard.
Updated: Added three 3mm thermal pads directly beneath the MOSFET on the PCB, which is promising. The VRM stays under 65°C within ten minutes of applying R23 load. This is just a proof of concept; I used generic 6W/m² pads. I’ve ordered Thermalright Odyssey 12.8W/m² pads and found a compatible VRM heatsink on eBay, hoping it can reach 95°C in under 10 minutes at 80°C. I’m really excited about fully loading a 9900K on my four-phase board! Fingers crossed. Will let you know once the parts arrive and are installed.