[SOLVED] Frighteningly High Motherboard Temps

May 14, 2022
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Got myself a prebuilt from Cyberpower a couple months ago.

Specs:
5900x
EVGA 3060 Ti XC
32 GB RAM, 3200 MHz
Apevia Genesis ATX Mid-Tower

And the motherboard: some "Gigabyte B550 UD AC" that, from my searches, appears to be specific to prebuilt PC companies...? Info is hard to find. I could provide a picture if needed. Before purchasing, I read that any B550 motherboard should be plenty capable of anything I needed- even fine for overclocking which I didn't plan on doing- and X570 was overkill. So I got myself a cheap motherboard and am now having doubts.

PC was perfectly fine for a month, but in the past few weeks, I've been getting seemingly completely random reboots- running intense games, running light games, browsing the internet, or idling on the desktop. It happens once or twice a day. This may not be related to the issue I'm primarily concerned about right now, though.

In the process of troubleshooting this, I was running Cinebench as a stress test and noticed my CPU clocks would sometimes plummet below 1GHz for a second or two and then back up to speed. A little googling suggested it was VRMs overheating and desperately trying to save themselves. I downloaded HWiNFO and was watching my temps when I saw "Temperature 5" on the motherboard climb to 102 degrees (!!!!!) as I was running Cinebench. I didn't let it get any higher than that, but it probably got higher in the past when I wasn't watching motherboard temps. The internet suggests that high motherboard temp readings are often fake, but I don't see how that would be the case here. I have not been able to figure out where exactly this temperature sensor is located. I don't think my case has bad airflow- I have 3 fans in the front, 1 for exhaust in the back, and a dual fan 240mm AiO CPU cooler exhausting out the top. I've got an undervolt on the CPU too (CO factor of -20).

I am new to the world of owning a powerful PC and fiddling around with things, so I figured I ought to turn here for help. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I ought to note that I don't think the undervolt is the cause of the random rebooting. It happens without the undervolt.
 
Solution
Got myself a prebuilt from Cyberpower a couple months ago.

Specs:
5900x
EVGA 3060 Ti XC
32 GB RAM, 3200 MHz
Apevia Genesis ATX Mid-Tower

And the motherboard: some "Gigabyte B550 UD AC" that, from my searches, appears to be specific to prebuilt PC companies...? Info is hard to find. I could provide a picture if needed. Before purchasing, I read that any B550 motherboard should be plenty capable of anything I needed- even fine for overclocking which I didn't plan on doing- and X570 was overkill. So I got myself a cheap motherboard and am now having doubts.

PC was perfectly fine for a month, but in the past few weeks, I've been getting seemingly completely random reboots- running intense games, running light games, browsing the...
Got myself a prebuilt from Cyberpower a couple months ago.

Specs:
5900x
EVGA 3060 Ti XC
32 GB RAM, 3200 MHz
Apevia Genesis ATX Mid-Tower

And the motherboard: some "Gigabyte B550 UD AC" that, from my searches, appears to be specific to prebuilt PC companies...? Info is hard to find. I could provide a picture if needed. Before purchasing, I read that any B550 motherboard should be plenty capable of anything I needed- even fine for overclocking which I didn't plan on doing- and X570 was overkill. So I got myself a cheap motherboard and am now having doubts.

PC was perfectly fine for a month, but in the past few weeks, I've been getting seemingly completely random reboots- running intense games, running light games, browsing the internet, or idling on the desktop. It happens once or twice a day. This may not be related to the issue I'm primarily concerned about right now, though.

In the process of troubleshooting this, I was running Cinebench as a stress test and noticed my CPU clocks would sometimes plummet below 1GHz for a second or two and then back up to speed. A little googling suggested it was VRMs overheating and desperately trying to save themselves. I downloaded HWiNFO and was watching my temps when I saw "Temperature 5" on the motherboard climb to 102 degrees (!!!!!) as I was running Cinebench. I didn't let it get any higher than that, but it probably got higher in the past when I wasn't watching motherboard temps. The internet suggests that high motherboard temp readings are often fake, but I don't see how that would be the case here. I have not been able to figure out where exactly this temperature sensor is located. I don't think my case has bad airflow- I have 3 fans in the front, 1 for exhaust in the back, and a dual fan 240mm AiO CPU cooler exhausting out the top. I've got an undervolt on the CPU too (CO factor of -20).

I am new to the world of owning a powerful PC and fiddling around with things, so I figured I ought to turn here for help. Thanks in advance.

Edit: I ought to note that I don't think the undervolt is the cause of the random rebooting. It happens without the undervolt.

Looks like a motherboard designed for mining, industrial, commercial, OEM or some other special application with 4 or 5 PCIe x 16 sockets and pretty much barren of features. Probably not a high-spec VRM on it since mining isn't really CPU intensive and running in a commercial or industrial environment usually doesn't want a high powered CPU on it. An OEM would either put an appropriate CPU on it or cripple it with a safe default BIOS setup and let the buyer suffer the consequences of changing it: that's what warranty disclaimers are for.

But even so, if Temp 5 really is the VRM 102C isn't that high. Modern FET's are designed to handle up to 125C. Most motherboards don't start throttling CPU until 115C.

Get a hand held IR thermometer. Very valuable with questions like this.
 
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Solution