I'd love some opinions on these pics please:
- Intel 6950X Xtreme Edition processor
- 8 x 16GB (128GB) G. SKill TridentZ DDR 4 3333 RAM
- Built in December 2016 with 2 x ROG Strix 1080 GTXes, then switched in late 2018 to dual nVidia 2080 RTX FEs.
- In 6/2019 I then built a custom EKWB water loop for the video cards: front-mounted large radiator and backplate/cooling blocks with parallel water flow configuration and EKWB D-Bay front bay pump/res.
Looking over the motherboard I saw some 'bronzed' spots - I'm trying to figure out if these color changes are just heat turning the matte-black paint color or if there's actually any sort of heat damage to these components underneath. Under load the video cards under water cooling seldom broke 40 C. I was trying to limit the enthusiasm with which the Rampage V Edition 10 likes to soar through overclocking, keeping it to XMP Enabled and ASUS auto-tuning.
I took it all apart because while most everything runs fine, I'd have this random hard reset when playing GTA V - black screen, reset the machine, no workable messages in the Event Viewer (and no BSOD). No drama with temps or usages (CPU/GPU/RAM/VRAM) and no problems playing other games for hours on end. I noticed these spots and wanted to get a good look at the motherboard. I was also having some serious heat issues with the M.2 drive sitting right under video card #1, had to mount a fan directly over the drive and stick a heat-sink on it (you can see in the pics) to keep it under 50 C when gaming.
Questions / suggestions / comments welcome.
