Active Motherboard Chipset Cooling - Point of failures/Reliability

I’m new to the concept of active chipset cooling on motherboards built-in. I remember the X299 Dark having one. And I was curious. I asked any owners about it but apparently there were none at the time of starting the thread?

Anyway. They worry me. What kind of bearings do they have? How reliable are they? Is it POSSIBLE to fix them without any crazy intervention - is it REASONABLY possible to fix them? I just don’t want another goddam point of failure and i’m looking to correct a mistake I made and kill my frustration by finally phuqqing going AMD like I should’ve but I couldn’t because shitty reasons and stuff 4 years ago.

I’m pretty much of the same mindset when it comes to chipset fans.

Klick!

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Yeah I tend to agree.

Thankfully, B450 and X470 boards work just fine with Ryzen 3000 with a BIOS update. Some right out of the box.

That is what I did. I grabbed an X470 Asus Crosshair VII. No cooling fan. Yeah you lose PCIE 4. But I couldn’t care less.

This is a good affordable option that will be compatible right out of the box

FFS. And here I was thinking I was finally at a luck break. EVERY GODDAM ONE I LOOK AT has a dumb little cooling fan. Maybe I can wait a little? More boards will come out. I hate technology…

All X570 boards except like two $650 boards have active cooling. It is required by the PCIE 4 chipset. It is highly unlikely any won’t have it.

As I said it isn’t an issue really. Just get B450/X470

REQUIRED? Why? They produce excess heat? So what the hell does that mean about the future of PCIE standards? We’ll need liquid coolers for PCIE 6? :rofl: Holy shit. Those fans better be BULLET-PROOF.

Yes, X570 puts out around the same amount of heat in idle than what X470 does on full load. It’s still nothing compared to CPUs and GPUs of course but PCIe4 simply isn’t as optimized yet. It draws a lot more power.

Thing is: No current GPU is held back by PCIe3 x16 and the only ones that could be significantly suffer from x8 … well they are still PCIe3, no matter what.

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So what’s all the talk of Ryzen underperforming with lower RAM speeds? “slow” RAM. I got my Kingston HyperX Fury 2666 modules back when RAM was super cheap. 2 x 4GB modules for $60 CDN. Is quad channel really a problem if I decide to get 2 x more 4GB modules?

I will attempt to post updated when my X570 board gets to be about a year old, about 11 months from now.

Depends on the board and what exact memory it is. I have 4x8GB TridentZ 3200 C14 running without a hitch.

2666 is fine. You won’t be getting maximum performance but you won’t be held back really. RAM speed affects Intel performance too. It also can be OCd and RAM is getting cheap again.

Two more sticks isn’t quad channel. Quad channel is CPU dependent. Only Intel’s HEDT line and AMDs X399 stuff is quad channel. All Intel 115X and AM4 is dual channel. You can add two more sticks no problem though.

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Now to find out exactly what RAM I have. :sweat_smile:

I found out years later (like a month ago) I actually have 2666MHz RAM. I saw I could add an XMP profile and just go up from 2133 to 2666 with the click of a button in my BIOS. I could’ve sworn it was actually rated at 2133 when I bought them? I honestly don’t remember. I’ll try and find an old receipt.

Lot of RAM has stickers on it.

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All RAM will default to 2133.

XMP will allow it to run at rated speeds

Also like what exactly is this system for and what GPU are you paring it with? Like that would let us help you a bit better…

I just signed into Newegg, checked order history. So apparently other users have said they’ve taken this RAM to 3000 or so MHz without any problems. It’s CL14, says it’s 2133MHz. :thinking:

And yet it goes to 2666 with the press of a button.

@DerKrieger

Oh, boy… You had to ask, huh? Ok. Well I guess I could tell everyone a bedtime story, then i’ll probably go to bed as well because it’ll take so long. Basically I had this wonderful idea of building a modest system and giving it to my dad. Little did I know, Intel had other plans. Nothing Skylake had to offer was appealing. I thought to myself. i5. K i5? What’s the difference. Still single threaded. Even the 6700K wasn’t that appealing. Quad cores was already starting to seem really obsolete. And for that price, it was just really unappealing. Ryzen was DELAYED. So I went with the 6500. And thought that Intel would get their shit together and build their next Nehalem in the next few years. And that DDR5 was going to be out by then. And that multi-core CPUs would be common practice. And THAT’S the time to build something crazy.

But I really feel like my i5 is just a slouch and it’s really holding me back. I didn’t expect the parallelism to come so soon. I thought half-way or so, perhaps closer to the next console generation (9th now I’m pretty sure) that games would really utilize 6+ cores.

I’m getting into 3D modelling and still learning. I’ve been doing graphic design for a while, so it’s not the most demanding work. Not like Blender or 3DS Max. You don’t really need 8 cores for that. Photoshop and Illustrator aren’t crazy like that. And even then, in the most extreme scenarios, it’s RAM you’ll be needing. Not pure CPU power. Or hell, even VRAM/Graphics. I ALSO am looking forward to playing Doom Eternal. And I am almost definitely getting the Dell S2417DG in the next month or so (1440P Gsync 144Hz monitor). After searching high and low, that’s the best option for me. No other monitor comes close. Too many negatives.

So really, i’m at a point of frustration, and confusion right now. I really wish I never gave Intel my money. But at the same time, it was the worst timing, when my last system just couldn’t pull its weight anymore. It was older than old. So I needed SOMETHING. I’m thinking if I DO build something relatively soon, I should sell my Z170 board and 6500. ASAP. $260 for a fucking office PC i5. And $450 for a K i5, still 4 cores, still 4 threads, and no cooler. What the FUCK? Makes me want to never buy Intel again. And now i’m in this situation. Even if I do get something. I’ll need something once DDR5 is out, the CPU market should be quite different by then. But I was NOT expecting the parallelism to be used in CPUs that quickly .And to be that important. Because it really is. Just between now and 2014-2015. It’s unbelievable. Intel are amazing at making breakthroughs in performance and microarchitectures. Case and point; Nehalem. Revolutionary. I remember the Phenom VS Nehalem days fondly. But they were never good at being reasonable. At least not for a long time.

That is a 24" TN panel. Even taking gaming into account, I’m not sure if that is the best choice for your mix of workload.
Do you have space for two monitors?

Any electronical component can fail.
So yeah in that regards an passive chipset heatsink will always be more reliable.
However i generally don’t really get all the fuzz about chipset fans in general really.
I have not heared many complaints about them at all till now.
Next to that 15W to 18W or heat output to me is a reason to actually cool it.

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I don’t want this to be a monitor thread. It’s fine. And I don’t think my money tree is ready for picking, so i’ll make do with just one. :joy:

Well it’s a fan after all. I’m curious what options you have if it outright fails. Other than motherboard replacement. If it can even be repaired.

Supposedly, you can set the fan curve on it and not have to worry about it even turning on. If you’re like me and you have a massive case with great cooling capability, the perhaps it’s not so necessary? Especially when you have a fan controller? Perhaps with the right flow, it can cool the chipset adequately?

From what I have seen so far this is the case with default settings already.
The fans are there as a precaution in case the chipset ever gets hot, they don’t run all the time. If you’re not using any PCIe 4 devices chances are that thing will never turn on.

It’s really only an “issue” when using PCIe 4 devices.

Also about the replacement. It’s not like those fans are custom made for the boards… you can probably get them by the hundreds on aliexpress or any electronics dealer for a few bucks.

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