Motherboard temperatures

[Fivenines]

Hello,

 

 

Currently have B350 Tomahawk Arctic myself, which I plan on changing. How do i get the temperature on the motherboard low? Which coverage materials do I need for the motherboard and from which materials the parts should be made from to get the lowest temp? I never really explored much about this side of hardware. Used to just check if my CPU fits, now it's a whole different story. Every detail has to be accurate, just like the cooling system.

 

I'd like to know based on what changers should I pick a new motherboard for the lowest temperature for the motherboard itself.

 

I'll make another topic soon with my PC build and ask for possible better motherboard solutions. I myself have narrowed down a few myself but I'm sure others opinions over this forum add more value and information to this than me just checking if everything fits and reading motherboard reviews which aren't always good.

[lmeneses]

Get one with good VRMs, and that is pretty much it

[mariushm]

The question you should ask yourself is WHY do you want lower temperatures. And what are you actually aiming for?

 

The VRM (the dc-dc converter that converts 12v to whatever voltage the cpu needs) has components that are designed to work at up to 125-150 degrees Celsius, but most motherboards have temperatures sensors and heatsinks on that circuitry to keep the temperature below around 100 degrees Celsius. At more than that, over longer periods of time (like days to weeks of running at over 100 degrees) the circuit board material can be affected.

So most motherboards will keep the temperature of that circuit at around 80-90 degrees when you're using the CPU to the maximum.

There's minimal benefit to running that circuit at lower temperatures, you're not gaining much.

 

As for the processor, the Ryzen processors will work up to around 80-85 degrees before they start to throttle, to reduce their frequencies to get cooler. Again, whether it runs at 40 degrees or 60 degrees, you don't get more performance. The motherboard will adjust fan rpm to keep the noise low instead of keeping it cold.

 

Anyway, to answer question, the heat producers on motherboards are the VRMs (between cpu and IO shield and sometimes above socket, for the part that powers the integrated graphics and internal SOC part of the cpu), followed by memory vrm, chipset and then stuff like 10gbps ethernet chips. 

A cooler motherboard will have a large heatsink over that VRM area. The bigger the heatsink (and with more fins, not just a brick of aluminum), will spread heat faster and cool faster.

VRMs with more phases (more chips under the heatsink) could be cooler, simply because the heat generated is spread across more chips, and the heatsink is larger to cover all those chips... but it's not always the case ... for example you could have a motherboard with 4 phases but which uses very high quality chips that are very efficient, or you could have a motherboard with 6 or 8 phases but which uses much cheaper less efficient chips so the heat produced could be same or higher.

 

[Justinzonfire]

17 minutes ago, lmeneses said:

Get one with good VRMs, and that is pretty much it

While this is true, you can also be conscious of air flow. 

[LukeSavenije]

39 minutes ago, lmeneses said:

Get one with good VRMs, and that is pretty much it

and well cooled ones of course

 

get one with a vrm heatsink

[Fivenines]

Alright, thank you. Will try to get a better quality motherboard later.