Motherboard (VRM) Cooling - do you do it?

[WildW_UK]

After some recent overclocking and stress testing I touched my VRM heatsink out of curiosity and basically burned myself, which got me thinking about cooling for motherboards. I've been reading motherboard reviews recently and noticing that they talk about how well cooled the VRMs are in terms of heatsinks.

 

One of the only redeeming qualities of the Intel stock cooler is that it also gives you some airflow over the motherboard. If you're overclocking with an AIO water cooler you get none, and you're probably drawing a lot more power than usual. But, how important is it? I'm thinking about both stability and board longevity - do you add any cooling, perhaps a fan pointed towards your motherboard?

[keskparane]

not atm but i think for next mb i will look for one that takes cpu & vrm waterblock

 

[dgsddfgdfhgs]

vrm are supposed to be passively cooled, and yet they tend to be hot but not damaging itself..?

sames goes to chipset heatsink

[Stormseeker9]

37 minutes ago, dgsddfgdfhgs said:

vrm are supposed to be passively cooled, and yet they tend to be hot but not damaging itself..?

sames goes to chipset heatsink

 It having heat sinks on your mobo for chipset +VRM’s is an advantage (cooler temps)

[MaratM]

I use VRM waterblock, the only reason to do so is because I use unsupported CPU with my motherboard. it is 8700k on asus maximus viii hero (z170) the case does not have good direct airflow over the VRM.

the temps look great

 

 

[Mick Naughty]

Would liquid cool the vrm on fancy boards. On cheap stuff I’d just depend on air flow. 

[MaratM]

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

Would liquid cool the vrm on fancy boards. On cheap stuff I’d just depend on air flow. 

It is kind of hard to find a vrm waterblock for cheap stuff, or have to use universal aliexpress waterblocks

[Mick Naughty]

12 minutes ago, MaratM said:

It is kind of hard to find a vrm waterblock for cheap stuff, or have to use universal aliexpress waterblocks

Which is another reason I don’t like going cheap. But in the end, having it cooled does nothing for me as it would seem. 

[MaratM]

13 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

Which is another reason I don’t like going cheap. But in the end, having it cooled does nothing for me as it would seem. 

$90 for the z board is cheap? This is how much i paid for my m8h brand new in the box including delivery)))

[Mick Naughty]

4 minutes ago, MaratM said:

$90 for the z board is cheap? This is how much i paid for my m8h brand new in the box including delivery)))

Very. Think the cheapest I’ve gone is about double that. Still quite disappointed in it but it was a gamble anyway. 

[AnonymousGuy]

I've run computers for years with no airflow at all in the case (CPU + gpu watercooled) and it wasn't an issue.  VRM cooling only became a thing with Skylake-X because high core counts led to a lot of power consumption when overclocking, and motherboard mfg's had gotten lazy about their VRM heatsink design (ie: let's just put a slab of aluminum on it for style).  This led to overheating.  

 

If you look at VRM designs from years ago you'd see an actual finned heatsink.

 

Anyways for probably MOST people, just having some fans circulating air through a case should give adequate VRM cooling.  They're meant to operate up to 90C or some crazy temperature.