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Reducing Z690 Chipset temp - (Maximus Hero)

Brigman
Level 9
So, I'm not entirely happy to see the PCH on my board ticking between 68-70 celsius in the middle of winter - and that with a slight undervolt applied. And yes, I get that it is still running in spec at this temperature, but if there's anything that can be done to easily reduce it, I'm up for that. So, let's see what's possible.

First let's take the heatsink assembly off and check it out:

92075

The placement of the chipset right in the shadow of the graphics card isn't ideal, but it is what it is and is largely dictated by the signal paths to the PCIe bus and storage anyway. An improved heatsink assembly could be machined if I really felt like it. However, I'd rather give myself an easier time...

92076

The heatsink is nicely finished and has a significant amount of thermal mass, but is very poorly optimised for heat dissipation, having no finning to speak of, as evidenced by the fact that the chipset actually runs very cold over the first few minutes of the system's use - and then slowly warms as the heatsink heats up.

The anodising also looks to be finished with an acetate film-type sealer on the underside, which will have a small thermal insulating effect - especially in the actual interface with the chipset.


92077

Turning the heatsink on its side, we can also see that the textured finishes on its upper surface are appliqués that are (presumably) stuck on with adhesive tape, and have cosmetic value only. This is, on one hand, theoretically undesirable as it will reduce the thermal efficiency of the heatsink itself somewhat. On the other, it may reduce heating caused by waste air blown from the graphics card.

So, there are a few ways in which this situation can be improved. It is not difficult to envisage a way in which a fundamentally superior thermal solution could have been implemented by Asus - a heatpipe with a fin array, for example. It is also not difficult to see how the monolithic aluminium heatsink could have been improved via the addition of some finning to increase its surface area.

In the short term, I'm going to lap/polish off the anodising in the interface area, and replace the stock thermal pad with a TG Minus Pad and see what, if any, difference we see.

92078

Let's see what that does.

And, good, that's made more of a difference than I had figured. Chipset temps are down a good 10-15 celsius with this change. Now idling in the 52-55c range once the system has fully warmed, and peaking 58-60 under heavy load.

So anybody else interested in a quick win in this area, there are a couple of things to try there. Next, I'm going to add some ducting round my (existing) SSD cooler to direct airflow specifically under the PCH heatsink - and then maybe machine some fins in it.
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Minaii
Level 7
i would like to know that too which Z690AusBuilder asked.
My Formula Chipset is at chilly 92 °c. That is with Thunderbolt enabled, 3 M.2 NVME SSDs + 2 NVME SSD on the hyper m.2 card and 5/6 Sata ports plugged in.
I managed to cool it down a little by lowering the voltage of the chip down to 0.8v and 0.7v like i read in a different post, so now its at 84-86°c depending on its load.

But i do opt to change out the factory thermal pad for a better one.

Hi Minaii

I was getting 92 C but then I removed the cover that you remove to install the M2_2 and M2_3 Drives, I unpluged and removed the RGB panel below that. Doing that exposes the top of the chipset heatsink to the air flow in your case, I also installed a PCIe Slot Fan to promote more air flow across the top of the Chipset Heatsink.
Doing all that lowered the temperature to 72 C

samboy87
Level 9
My Z690-E PCH is also running hot like hell , around 60c idle and 78c while gaming with an ambient temp of 31. why did they cheap out on cooling... my Rampage V is cold as ice.

samboy87 wrote:
My Z690-E PCH is also running hot like hell , around 60c idle and 78c while gaming with an ambient temp of 31. why did they cheap out on cooling... my Rampage V is cold as ice.


78c is on the high side, however it's within operating range and 31c ambient is quite high. Z690 moves more more data than previously ever before due to the DMI speed increases, so increased temps are sometimes to be expected depending on what storage devices are connected (and of course ambient temperatures).
13900KS / 8000 CAS36 / ROG APEX Z790 / ROG TUF RTX 4090

Following my earlier post, I've been playing about a little bit as I installed another NVME drive. All three M.2 slots on my Maximus Z690 Hero are now filled with drives (M.2_1 Samsung 980 Pro Gen 4, M.2_2 Samsung 970 Gen 3 and M.2_3 WD Black SN850 Gen 4). I have the 12900K processor and also have 4 SATA attached drives (2x SSD and 2x HDD).

Adding the latest M.2_3 drive (which is now hosting Windows 11) seemed to increase PCH temperatures by around 2-3C. You might be interested to know that reducing the NVME link speed of this drive to Gen3 in BIOS will reduce the temp by 1-2C, although I have left it on Gen 4 (Auto).

During the recent warm weather in the UK, I made a note of indicated motherboard temp vs PCH temp (m/b temps are close to ambient with good case airflow) and the temperatures below are obtained with:

a) The 8cm fan running at 2300rpm (which lowers temps by around 10C)
b) All M.2 bays occupied and running at 'auto' link speeds
c) The system is running Windows (no games active)
d) PCH voltages set to auto in the Tweakers Paradise section in BIOS

Motherboard/PCH Temp
===================
24/59C
25/60C
26/61C
27/62C
28/63C
29/64C
30/65C
31/65C
32/66C
33/67C
34/68C
35/69C
36/70C

I've since discovered that lowering the PCH voltages to their midpoints of 0.92V and 0.76V lowers the above temperatures by 2-3C and I've experienced no issues with speed or stability. I have opted to keep these voltages for now and I might try lowering them further in the future. If the system is under load and running a demanding game, then the above temperatures increase by around 10C.

I hope the above will act as a rough benchmark and give you some idea of how a fan, ambient temperature, drives installed, voltage and running a game might affect PCH temperatures in a similar system. Whilst high PCH temperatures are normal and nothing to be overly concerned about on these boards, I do have sympathy for hot components and I like to see the PCH no hotter than 60C most of the time. So, overall, the best thing I have done is to add that fan, but now you have a rough idea of how other factors can deliver further improvements if you wish.
Z690 Hero, 12900K, BIOS 3701, MEI 2407.6.1.0, ME Firmware 16.1.32.2473, 7000X Case, RM1000x PSU, ASUS TUF OC 3090TI, 2 x 16GB Corsair RAM @ 5200MHz, Windows 11 Pro 23H2, Corsair H150i Elite AIO, 4x Corsair RGB fans, 3x M.2 NVME drives, 2x SATA SSDs, 2x SATA HDs.

I've add small fan and my temps drop from 75 to 60st C on average. Will try to hotglue it and keep bit higher later in week this might drop temps few degree.

Image

rstebnicki wrote:
I've add small fan and my temps drop from 75 to 60st C on average. Will try to hotglue it and keep bit higher later in week this might drop temps few degree.

Image



the attachment is not viewable, can I know how you have mounted the fan?

HallofItten wrote:
the attachment is not viewable, can I know how you have mounted the fan?


95209

Sorry mate, this should work.

maximiza
Level 11
Thanks for the info just finished building a new system with strix z690-e and the temps seemed wrong but they are actually normal l idle around 57 c, i am using almost all I/O ports and SATA ports.

Seriously at the price where Asus sells their high end motherboards they could plan for better PCH cooling, active style with a small heatsink and fan.