Motherboard's MOS/VRM temps down by 25c after removing/replacing heatsinks with no changes.

I finally had time to pull out my motherboard so I could get rid of the plastic shroud pieces that were preventing me from putting a radiator in the top of my case. This required the removal of the two heatsinks on the VRMs/MOS surrounding the socket, so I took them off careful not to get anything on the thermal pads, unscrewed and trashed the plastic parts, then reinstalled the heatsinks which I only now noticed has had a dramatic effect on temperature.

Normally, HWINFO64 reports my MOS temp as 50c average, with maximum usally close to 60. Right now it's 34c with a max of 39. Either I destroyed something while working on it, or those heatsinks were hanging by a thread. So if you have relatively high VRM temps, try reseating the heatsinks, but don't overtighten unless you like the sound of cracking motherboard.

viivo said:

try reseating the heatsinks, but don't overtighten unless you like the sound of cracking motherboard.

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that's the difference, the screw tightness. also seen it on gpus quite a bit.

The thermal pads can be very cheap as well, I have seen 10C drop just by changing pads. I have also had mobos where the HS moved if touched, it was a friends new build and unstable with any OC at all under extended stress testing, once I found this OCed temps of the VRM dropped by almost 30C. I have also seen them so tight it was bowed in the area, all the newer mobos I have bought have been mid/upper end and all have back plates now. It is something I inspect as soon as I take a mobo out of its box. I will admit it is VERY rare from what I have built, but it's possible and is an easy check to do before building.

Maybe the plastic parts were acting as an insulator. What motherboard?

Better contact I think, tighter screws should provide better thermal transfer capability