[SOLVED] Cooling for Asrock 970M Pro3

[wogfor]

I recently put together a build using an old AMD Athlon II X4 640 processor and ended up picking this board (AsRock 970M Pro3) that would support an AM3 socket and this CPU. I put a Cooler Master TX3 on the CPU for cooling.

I now read on both the manufacturers site and other posts, that this board has some poor design issues and it is recommended to install a down flow type cooler to move air over the motherboard components. Is this going to be an issue? This thing is mainly an office computer, no overclocking and maybe some mild gaming. The highest temp I am read right now is about 40 degrees C on the board. By comparison, my game rig is only showing about 25 degrees on the board and another system shows 29 degrees.

Should I consider switching to perhaps one of Cooler Masters Gemini coolers?

 

[QwerkyPengwen]

if this board has an issue with board cooling, and the case you have built it in has poor airflow (and obviously such high temp readings for just the board alone) I would either consider a top down cooler, or improving case airflow.

However, a top down cooler won't really "cool" the motherboard much since the air that will come from it is passing over the CPU first which will result in warm/hot air being blow onto the motherboard.

But if you wanted a top down cooler, you could go with a stealth cooler from Noctua. Those are really good.
Here is one for $50

Amazon.com: Noctua NH-L12S 70mm Low-Profile CPU Cooler with Quiet 120mm PWM Fan: Computers & Accessories

Buy Noctua NH-L12S 70mm Low-Profile CPU Cooler with Quiet 120mm PWM Fan: CPU Cooling Fans - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

And with this cooler, you can mount the fan to blow air either onto the board, or suck it away from the board, and you can install it either underneath the fins or on top of them for either more RAM clearance, or for more low profile action inside an HTPC case.

So quite versatile.

 

[wogfor]

Looking again through Asrock's compatibility listings, this processor is NOT on the list of CPU's needing top down cooling. Mostly when you go up the list to some of the 6 core Athlons and then the FX chips. I think I may be fine