Upgrade VRM Heatsink Gigabyte 970A-UD3

[AciDeX]

As the title says I just upgraded to a 970A-UD3 with a FX-6300. So far overclocking has been pretty good, but seems that I hit a wall at 4.8Ghz @ 1.5v. Looking at reviews and opinions it seems the only complaint about this board is the VRM sink is a little inadequate.

I came from a Gigabyte 790XT-UD4P, which after 4 years of abuse is no longer with us (lost stability, and had random sound artifacts even at stock speeds). When I was pulling it and inspecting the board, comparing it to the 970A it looks like the VRM/ Northbridge are the same spec and placement on both boards. The main difference is the 790XT has a heatpipe that runs from VRM to NB and is much larger/ robust.

I guess my question is if it would be even worth swapping the 790xt sink onto the 970a board? If so I imagine that I would need some new thermal tape, are there any good brands out there? Or would I be safe with some MX3/4?

For comparison here are a few photos I found on the net. I think they look damn close, even if the 790xt sink doesn't totally line up I think a little dremel love can get it to fit.

790XT

970A

 

[pgaster]

It looks like it might just work to me. The thermal pad/tape might be able to be reused if you are very careful. I would not use Arctic silver. They say it doesn't conduct, but is capacitive so I would not trust it. See if the pad/tape could be reused.

Overall though, I'm not sure I would try it. You got a pretty healthy overclock as it is and a change may not yield any improvement at all. Your call though.

 

[AciDeX]

Fair enough, just a little curiosity to kill the cat. Getting stuck at 4.8ghz just had me wondering if it's more of a VRM issue than anything. I do have a pretty accurate IR Thermometer at work I'll probably "borrow" tomorrow. I thought about reusing the stock thermal tape, or getting some NT-H1 or MX-4 when I order a new heatsink this week.

I do know that getting a new cooling system will help with idle temp tremendously. However I'm almost lost on just the immense amount of choice in air coolers nowadays. I'm also kinda cramped on space as far as heatsink height in my oldschool Antec 1000 case. For reference I currently have a 5+ year old Zalman 9500 and maaaaybe 2" of clearance before I bump into my side panel fan.

 

[AciDeX]

I figured since the old mobo was just sitting around collecting dust and will be taking a visit to the dump soon as it's doa I may as well give it a try.

The 790XT sinks match up perfectly with the mounting holes in the 970a. So that is a good sign. The northbridge sinks are very similar, but the VRM sink on the 790XT is much beefier.

The only bad part was the pushpins on the 970a for the northbridge are a good deal bigger

No fear, a little love with an Xacto knife has them fitting perfectly.

Both heatsinks snapped right in just like they were made to fit!

Also added in an AMD stock heatsink fan to help with heat dissipation.

So far everything is running fine, at least there is no negative effects to speak of. Temps are low, I guess the smart thing would have been to monitor and record previous temperatures and log any changes ...but I didn't do that lol

So if you have any old motherboards waiting to go out to pasture take a second look at them! You could have some significant cooling solutions out there waiting to be rescued! I wish I knew what my buddy did with his gigabyte q6600 board, that thing had more copper on it than most cpu heatsinks do nowadays (this was before the great copper famine of 2008)!

 

[rancur3p1c]

good find, I've been hitting a wall overclocking with my 970A-UD3P-- VRMs getting too warm, confirmed with thermocouples installed on the heatsink, and am looking for a solution. It looks like they're almost nobody is giving us as good VRM heatsinks as we used to get a few years ago.

From looking around this actually looks like a really good board for overclocking-- best, most finned VRM heatsinks I can find for the $$$--

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130790

I'm considering selling my board and getting that (note, it has 5 fan connectors too woot!)