Is it okay to remove the VRM heatsink from a Gigabyte z490 Aorus Elite AC?

[GuruMeditationError]

19 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

Understand I will NEVER make an unsafe suggestion - The heatsinks are there for a reason.
Entry level boards are designed to run like that from the factory, this one isn't intended to go without a heatsink on the VRM's or it woudn't be there in the first place.

Bad advice is just that and something I'll never give intentially, even if the alternative happens to be true.
I actually don't know the skill level of the OP related to all that and the best thing to do advice-wise to be safe is to leave them alone and in place as a suggestion you'd make.
 

 

That's up to you, I've given the advice I have and I stand by it.
If you do remove them and it starts throttling/shutting down, then you'll know it has to go back on. 
Just don't go trying to OC it that way until you can confirm how it's going to act in the first place.



 

Thanks, but it seems the radiator in the top of the case is butting up against the wi-fi module rather than the VRM heatsink.

I've decided I'm going to Dremel the fins off of the RAM heatsink, if it's not enough I'll have to drill out the top of the case a little to slide the radiator over a few millimetres.

[GuruMeditationError]

So it seems I've actually damaged the wifi module on my motherboard. I no longer have Wifi after installing the board into the new PC case with the radiators...

...it's a shame because it was useful not having to trail a wire to the back of the case.

I've tried re-booting the router, in case it might have been a coincidental router issue but, it seems the wifi module is broken. I tried to find something that looks like a wifi device in the control panel also, and under View Network Connections, with no luck. It seems my rad jamming up against the motherboard wifi module housing has caused it to fail.

It's made me extra cautious about screwing around with stripping the heatsinks off of my RAM; I'm almost certainly going to be Dremel'ing the fins off of the top of the RAM heatsinks rather than trying to strip them off completely. It's going to be a huge pain, I know, but at this point it's just got to be done.  
 

[Guest]

13 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

Understand I will NEVER make an unsafe suggestion - The heatsinks are there for a reason.
Entry level boards are designed to run like that from the factory, this one isn't intended to go without a heatsink on the VRM's or it woudn't be there in the first place.

Bad advice is just that and something I'll never give intentially, even if the alternative happens to be true.
I actually don't know the skill level of the OP related to all that and the best thing to do advice-wise to be safe is to leave them alone and in place as a suggestion you'd make.

How is it unsafe ? The VRM isn't going to set on fire. The only way you would achieve that is if you did it intentionally i.e put silly voltages through the cpu and starved the case of airflow etc. Even then it should shut down before any damage occurred. It is possible to kill a VRM as seen in the video below, but it is a worse case scenario.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLMd-5yxTAc

 

 

As for the heatsinks being there for a reason, then yes and no. A heatsink can't fix a crap VRM. If you have ever watched Buildzoid on Youtube you would know that certain boards can run passive i.e. If you have a 14+2 phase VRM like the X570 Aorus Xtreme or B550 Master then the heatsink isn't really going to make any difference. You could run a 5950X on those with the heatsinks removed and not have any thermal issues.  

 

The entry level boards tend to not have them as it is a cost saving measure. Just like you wouldn't expect to have a tonne of features on the cheapest board.

 

Also you have to factor in what cpu the op has, and what the workload is on the cpu. Also overclocking will make a difference to VRM temps. So whilst I am not saying you are giving bad or unsafe advice there is more to it than just the heatsink.

[Guest]

18 hours ago, GuruMeditationError said:

So...I can take the heatsink off? 

You could certainly try it as long as you know that you can put it back if need be. The Z490 Aorus Elite AC has a 12 phase VRM so it is pretty solid.

 

So obviously keep the cpu at stock and make sure your case has good airflow. If the system does shut down then that is an indication that you need to put the heatsink back on.

[GuruMeditationError]

4 hours ago, lee32uk said:

You could certainly try it as long as you know that you can put it back if need be. The Z490 Aorus Elite AC has a 12 phase VRM so it is pretty solid.

 

So obviously keep the cpu at stock and make sure your case has good airflow. If the system does shut down then that is an indication that you need to put the heatsink back on.

It's looking like I might not have to...?...it turns out it's not the biggest obstruction; it's the wifi module that's stopping the radiator being seated, and somehow seating the radiator seems to have broken it; the board's wifi functionality just basically vanished... 

...that might mean I could maybe try and remove a portion of the housing for the wifi module but it looks like the RAM might still be a bit of an issue too, even after I've machined off the heatsink fins.

I should be able to get a little more clearance if I drill new mount holes in the top of the case but hoping it won't come to that.

[Beerzerker]

5 hours ago, lee32uk said:

How is it unsafe ? The VRM isn't going to set on fire. The only way you would achieve that is if you did it intentionally i.e put silly voltages through the cpu and starved the case of airflow etc. Even then it should shut down before any damage occurred. It is possible to kill a VRM as seen in the video below, but it is a worse case scenario.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLMd-5yxTAc

 

 

As for the heatsinks being there for a reason, then yes and no. A heatsink can't fix a crap VRM. If you have ever watched Buildzoid on Youtube you would know that certain boards can run passive i.e. If you have a 14+2 phase VRM like the X570 Aorus Xtreme or B550 Master then the heatsink isn't really going to make any difference. You could run a 5950X on those with the heatsinks removed and not have any thermal issues.  

 

The entry level boards tend to not have them as it is a cost saving measure. Just like you wouldn't expect to have a tonne of features on the cheapest board.

 

Also you have to factor in what cpu the op has, and what the workload is on the cpu. Also overclocking will make a difference to VRM temps. So whilst I am not saying you are giving bad or unsafe advice there is more to it than just the heatsink.

I'm coming from the perspective of "Bad Advice" in how I answer a question.
I will not do that intentially, that's just self-explanatory and bad practice to do.
I don't care "If" it can actually be done or not, I'm not going to suggest something that's potentally dangerous to either the hardware or even the person asking, esp if I don't know the person's knowledge level about such things and frankly I'm not going to assume it to be whatever.

I said the heatsink is there for a reason because it is.

As for Buildzoid, I not only have watched him before, I actually know him and can ask him anything directly if I have to.
I don't like bothering him since he's a busy guy anyway and have even had him to ask me a few questions himself.....
So there you go. 

And yes I've been featured in no less than two of his weekly Overclocking score roundup vids, namely episodes 2 and 6 under my benching name "Bones".
I understand quite well how all that works and I'll be blunt - There is nothing you can teach me about it and I have to know about it anyway in order to be successful and not kill anything when pushing 2.0+ volts to a CPU and not have it or something else die on me.

Back to all that, I've said IF the OP wants to do that anyway it's his call but as for me, I'm not going to say "Do it" for the reasons I've already given.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

I'm coming from the perspective of "Bad Advice" in how I answer a question.
I will not do that intentially, that's just self-explanatory and bad practice to do.
I don't care "If" it can actually be done or not, I'm not going to suggest something that's potentally dangerous to either the hardware or even the person asking, esp if I don't know the person's knowledge level about such things and frankly I'm not going to assume it to be whatever.

I said the heatsink is there for a reason because it is.

As for Buildzoid, I not only have watched him before, I actually know him and can ask him anything directly if I have to.
I don't like bothering him since he's a busy guy anyway and have even had him to ask me a few questions himself.....
So there you go. 

And yes I've been featured in no less than two of his weekly Overclocking score roundup vids, namely episodes 2 and 6 under my benching name "Bones".
I understand quite well how all that works and I'll be blunt - There is nothing you can teach me about it and I have to know about it anyway in order to be successful and not kill anything when pushing 2.0+ volts to a CPU and not have it or something else die on me.

Back to all that, I've said IF the OP wants to do that anyway it's his call but as for me, I'm not going to say "Do it" for the reasons I've already given.

I will just leave this here.

 

 

[GuruMeditationError]

9 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

I'm coming from the perspective of "Bad Advice" in how I answer a question...

 

5 hours ago, lee32uk said:

I will just leave this here...

 

Okay, so...just to interject and get things moving in more fun direction... 

...I got the WiFi back!!   

I thought I must have scraped a wire or cracked a solder but then it occurred to me that the module is probably a small daughter board which probably just got unseated...so...

...the solution was actually pretty simple (<-- click link)  (there's not a grin cheesy enough) 

 

[Beerzerker]

Glad to hear you got it back.
That does help to solve things but I guess if it had really died (And still could again) a USB or slot based module could work too.

I'm also glad you're actually enjoying the challenge of figuring it all out - Nothing like putting your hands on it to learn and improve.

[GuruMeditationError]

13 minutes ago, Beerzerker said:

Glad to hear you got it back.
That does help to solve things but I guess if it had really died (And still could again) a USB or slot based module could work too.

I'm also glad you're actually enjoying the challenge of figuring it all out - Nothing like putting your hands on it to learn and improve.

Yeah, I'm delighted, I really thought I'd damaged it when I fitted the radiator.

 

I'm hoping it should be okay...I think I most likely dislodged it when I removed the cover; I'd imagine, if anything, the radiator should help to hold it in place but I guess I'll have to see.

It did make me think of adding a card for WiFi but I don't really fully understand PCI-E lanes and I'm not sure if it'd interfere with the functioning of my graphics card.