Purchasing Motherboard heatsinks

Octagoncow · April 20, 2015

TL;DR Does anyone know how to purchase standalone motherboard heat sinks? I've tried searching Ebay for broken motherboards but can't find anything relevant. I'm not looking for a specific motherboard yet.

Details for why I'm asking this:

I'm currently planning a build for when Skylake comes out and am planning on painting parts of the motherboard with engine paint so heat isn't insulated. However, this would void the warranty. Therefore, I'm looking for replacement heat sinks to keep handy on the off chance that something goes wrong with the motherboard. Since Skylake isn't out yet I don't have a motherboard in mind so I'm just looking for a general idea of where I should look when the time comes.

W-L · April 21, 2015

-SNIP-

You'll probably have a hard time trying to get compatible heatsinks, if your worried about warranty problems I would plasti-dip it even though it insulates it, it will only increase by at most 5-10C. I personally wrapped the top portion of my heatsinks in vinyl wrap with no problems.

They used to be gold:

Octagoncow · April 21, 2015

-snip-

How much of an increase did you get when you wrapped yours? I can't imagine much since you only wrapped the top but I'm still curious. I plan on having all fans off when idling/browsing the web so I don't want anything to get too hot. I guess with plasti dip I could always monitor those temps and peel off the plasti dip if it becomes a problem.

W-L · April 21, 2015

How much of an increase did you get when you wrapped yours? I can't imagine much since you only wrapped the top but I'm still curious. I plan on having all fans off when idling/browsing the web so I don't want anything to get too hot. I guess with plasti dip I could always monitor those temps and peel off the plasti dip if it becomes a problem.

I didn't use a temp probe with a multimeter but AI suite didn't really see any difference at all the tops are only held in place by a few screws and the contact it makes to the bottom doesn't use any thermal paste or material. I would say as long as your VRM stays below 85C it should be pretty safe with some incidental airflow nearby.