Mosfet cooling suggestions

Hello all, I have an FX-8320 with Cooler Master TX3 cooler. Motherboard is Biostar A960D+. Problem is the mosfets are getting very hot, up to 82C with Prime95 running for 5min+. I actually got them down to about 75C on load by turning the rear case fan around so it is blowing right on the mosfets.

Here is a picture of the motherboard:



You can see it has 3+1 setup which I know isn't ideal. But you notice it also doesn't have any cooling on the them. I am wondering if these would help:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938811&pf_rd_i=507846

If so I will buy a pack. Also, how do you use these? do you just tape them on to the black boxes using their included tape/glue?

Yeah, those enzotech sinks are exactly what I would buy. I used the mos-c1 sinks on my GTX280 and they did a surprisingly good job. They come with 3m thermal tape which is decent but I do prefer sekisui thermal tape. You could even use thermal epoxy. That would probably be ideal but the removal would be a pain.

BababooeyHTJ said:

Yeah, those enzotech sinks are exactly what I would buy. I used the mos-c1 sinks on my GTX280 and they did a surprisingly good job. They come with 3d thermal tape which is decent but I do prefer sekisui thermal tape. You could even use thermal epoxy. That would probably be ideal but the removal would be a pain.

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Thanks. I don't really intend to remove them, I mean this mobo was CHEAP ($40) so once its done its going in the trash most likely. I'll give the enzos a shot, hopefully they provide some much needed cooling.

Archonius said:

Thanks. I don't really intend to remove them, I mean this mobo was CHEAP ($40) so once its done its going in the trash most likely. I'll give the enzos a shot, hopefully they provide some much needed cooling.

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Keep us posted.

x509 said:

Keep us posted.

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Will do! Just ordered these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708012

Hopefully it will be here by Wednesday. Can't wait to see the temps, and maybe try my hand at a little OCing.

totally +1 on the try thermal epoxy option. bottom line, the stronger the connection the better your temperatures are going to be. ive had those thermal tape attachments just fail outright on me either due to poor cooling performance or from literally falling off

ak47is1337 said:

totally +1 on the try thermal epoxy option.

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Any brand recommendations on the thermal epoxy?

I use Arctic Alumina and apply a very thin coat. I have never had any problems with shorting out anything or having heat sinks falling off.

Hey guys I don't mean to threadjack but do you guys know if those heatsinks that the OP posted would work on http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414

MY video card has been having some nice coil whine for a while now and i read that its due to the VRMs getting to hot would you guys think this would help?

Then again it doesnt look like you can add anything with the stock cooler

Thermal tape holds just fine but whatever youre sticking it to needs to be 100% clean. If your worried about them falling off, remove the thermal tape, add any TIM and put a dab of super glue in 2 opposing corners, push down hard. It will dry fast and be on there very solid, and if you want to remove them its just a little snap and they are off. Did this with GPU ram sinks.

I guess the more i think about it and from those pictures on newegg, doesnt look like i can get in there without removing the heatsink/fan

yeah i think the stock hsf on pretty much every card you can buy covers the VRM's, although they rarely do a very good job at it

Just got them in and installed, then ran a few tests.

Before adding the heatsinks:


After:


After, and with the CPU heatsink on as well.


The heatsinks are quite small so even with my mATX setup and the Cooler Master TX3, there was plenty of room. Also very easy install with the included adhesive tape.

Here are the results of the temp test:

Before adding heatsinks
Idle:
THRM 21C
TMPIN0 21C
TMPIN1 40C
TMPIN2 33C

5 min Prime 95 In-Place Large FFT
THRM 53C
TMPIN0 53C
TMPIN1 91C
TMPIN2 33C



After adding heatsinks
Idle
THRM 17C (-4)
TMPIN0 17C (-4)
TMPIN1 37C (-3)
TMPIN2 30C (-3)

5 min Prime 95 In-Place Large FFT
THRM 45C (-8)
TMPIN0 45C (-8)
TMPIN1 87C (-4)
TMPIN2 32C (-1)



Conclusion: The heatsinks did reduce idle/test temps, but did not reduce test temps as much as I would have liked (TMPIN1 from 91C down to 87C). I think this might be because I am running a 125W 8core FX-8320 on a 3+1 VRM setup which I later learned was a bad idea, but c'est la vie. In any event, these things were a piece of cake to install and I would recommend them if you need a bit of extra cooling and you already have some good airflow.

I will do some "real life" testing later, where I play games for an hour or so and report temps. Previously playing Skyrim or Team Fortress 2 for an hour would raise TMPIN1 to 74C+, so maybe the heatsinks will do a much better job in real work uses as opposed to artificial tests like Prime95.

The little black things under where you placed the heatsinks are the mosfets. What you placed the heatsinks on is just a capacitor if I'm not mistaken. You don't really need to sink those. They just need a little airflow.

BababooeyHTJ said:

The little black things under where you placed the heatsinks are the mosfets. What you placed the heatsinks on is just a capacitor if I'm not mistaken. You don't really need to sink those. They just need a little airflow.

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What about some _quiet_ low-velocity fans blowing across the heatsinks?

BababooeyHTJ said:

The little black things under where you placed the heatsinks are the mosfets. What you placed the heatsinks on is just a capacitor if I'm not mistaken. You don't really need to sink those. They just need a little airflow.

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haha oh man this is great. so i guess i have to cover all those little black things... this can get difficult. I just assumed those black boxes were the "3+1" because 3 of them say one thing, and the last one says something else.

Hello there Archonius. I have a Biostar A960D+ and a AMD FX-8350 4ghz so I feel your pain. I stumbled on this trying to solve my own issue, the same issue. I have done the following but my HWmonitor values are strange and definitely off. All I can say is that this has helped but I can't unfortunately quantify it past the example I will give. I play a lot of League of Legends and like to watch videos simultaneously. The game and Hulu together would pull too much voltage and the poor little mosfets would overheat at tmpin1 65c (may not be actual) and my fps would drop to 4-5 as the cpu was downclocked to 1400mhz from 4000... So I put in TWENTY of these little guys : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007XACV8O/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
on the mosfets and the other components which also get quite hot. I used the Ye' Olde' touch it with my finger to test the temperature method...



Above are just the mosfets covered. Then i decided to go all out...



THEN I took the case fan that came originally which was pointed to vent out the back and I put in another fan to blow fan INSIDE and down over the heatsinks. Now the game + Hulu get the tmpin1 to only 56c (may not be actual) with no frame drops. A 100% cpu burn will still overheat it and have the downclock at 65c to 1400mhz but under a more realistic load I have seen improvement. For $8.59 with free 2 day shipping (prime) I can say this may be worth a shot. Good luck to you. The ones you already put on are not for nothing so don't get upset =).