[SOLVED] Asrock x570 Creator has m2 heatsink panels - Viper M2 won't fit!

[TobyInLA]

Hi all!

I just got the Asrock x570 Creator motherboard and trying to build my new system. I got two M2 drives - Patriot Viper VPM100 - that are on the QVL for this board.

To install them, I had to remove the x570 Creator's massive M2 heatsink panels - and these Viper's have a very very thick heatsink / heatspreader of their own.

They clearly WILL NOT fit under the CREATOR motherboard's M2 heatsink panels...

Do I just leave the CREATOR heatsink panels off?? Will the system run fine without both of the Creator's M2 heatsink panels (the upper and lower)?

Thanks in advance for any help! 🙂))

Toby

 

[Lutfij]

Mind stating what processor you're going to drop onto that motherboard? The board will operate as should with both M.2 slots occupied, and without the bundled, motherboard M.2 heatsink's. I asked about the processor since there are a number of people pairing the right board with the wrong processor and then complaining about a device not operating at full speed.

 

[TobyInLA]

Hi Lutfij OK thanks, I shall just leave the bundled "Creator" heatsinks off and leave the Viper's built-in ones on.

I'm putting an AMD 3900X processor on it. The plan is to have this 2080 Super in the top PCIe slot, then leave the middle one for possibly a card later on, and then the lowest PCIe slot I'll leave empty too - so that the bottom M2 slot has the proper bandwidth. Hope that's right. 🙂

 

[GarrettL]

Nice rig. What monitor?

 

[TobyInLA]

Just an update, all - especially for those googling 🙂 PATRIOT support got back to me - and indeed the heatsink isn't removable from the Viper VPN100 M.2 NVME drives. AsROCK support got back to me too, and said that the motherboard will indeed run fine with BOTH BUILT-IN M2 SHIELDS REMOVED.

Quick side note about AsRock manuals: I wish they had put all of this in the manual. Actually the manual is fairly dreadful - this is my first AsRock motherboard, and I find the manual to be almost useless. Lots of mistakes and things missing (even the CPU fan installation instructions are wrong - they tell you to connect a header that doesn't actually exist... USB_5). Doesn't even have XMP2 instructions - newbies trying to install RAM and finding it runs at 2133mHz I guess just have to google?? Lame, Asrock.

Bottom line: I have the computer running ok now - with the AsRock x570 CREATOR motherboard's m2 heat shields removed totally, in order to fit the Patriot VPN100 M.2 NVME drives which have their own bulky heatshields. (By the way - removing the Creator's M.2 heatshields has also has exposed a fan that has no protection on it - so be careful of fingers!)

p.s. I have photos of all this but can't seem to post any without uploading them myself to an external site, so i've given up, sorry!

 

[GarrettL]

Yeah, I had a "just barley fit" issue with a Sabrent Rocket with heat sink on my x570 Asus TUF. The TUF only provides one heat sink for the NVMe. The Sabrent heat sink is within an eyelash of the RTX 2070 S.

It's great to have the NVMe's now but they need to think about the heat sinks when designing the boards. And the drive manufacturer's should always provide a version without heat sink for the situation you ran into TobyInLA.

 

[TobyInLA]

Yeah, I had a "just barley fit" issue with a Sabrent Rocket with heat sink on my x570 Asus TUF. The TUF only provides one heat sink for the NVMe. The Sabrent heat sink is within an eyelash of the RTX 2070 S.

It's great to have the NVMe's now but they need to think about the heat sinks when designing the boards. And the drive manufacturer's should always provide a version without heat sink for the situation you ran into TobyInLA.

Exactly, Garrett. It's so odd that there's not even a mtnion of this stuff in any documentation - particularly with items ON THE DARN QVL. 🙂

 

[TobyInLA]

Nice rig. What monitor?

I forgot to reply to this. I'm mostly a TV editor as my main job, so I have two lame standard 1080p monitors I'm afraid. 🙂 I also have a 10-bit 4K monitor that I swap in when I need to do "online" quality color grading. But I find that 4K massive monitor frustrating to use for anything other than color grading - its just too massive and isn't curved. I actually wish I could find a great curved 1080p monitor that is about 32 inches hahaha 🙂

 

[GarrettL]

Larger pixels not an issue at 1080p with such a large monitor? I'd suggest a nice 1440p. Not 4K but it looks way better than 1080p.

 

[TobyInLA]

The issue is that various software plays very very poorly (ie. hides UI elements) at certain resolutions. 1440p is great - I have a few of those too - but they are hell when you are using some 3D apps. Same problem with 4K. 1080p is a sweet spot - despite, yes, having massive pixels up close on big monitors. 🙂