Help me please

[Louie808]

What is the part of Asus m5a97 le 2.0 that the stock cooler connects to and does it come with that motherboard originally

 

[weberdarren97]

If you are referring to the black brackets seen in the below image, they are attached to the board from factory.

Note that the image is not your motherboard, it's just a stock image of the AM3 socket.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Do you have the board? If not don't buy it one of the worst on the market , no heatsinks on the VRM.

 

[weberdarren97]

Do you have the board? If not don't buy it one of the worst on the market , no heatsinks on the VRM.

Very true, but MOSFET heatsinks can easily be improvised for under $10 just in case this happens to be a really good deal on the board.

https://www.moddiy.com/products/3M-8815-Thermally-Conductive-Adhesive-Transfer-Tape-%285cm-x-5cm%29.html

https://www.moddiy.com/products/Passive-Heatsink-MOSFET-Chipsink-9mm-%252d-Blue.html

Do I recommend this method if other boards are available within budget? No.

Will it get OP out of a pinch if he doesn't have the budget for a better board? As long as he isn't using a ridiculously overpowered CPU then yes.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

That board should be removed from the market , one of the most problematic offerings out there.

 

[weberdarren97]

That board should be removed from the market , one of the most problematic offerings out there.

Other than VRMs being not being cooled, I haven't had much trouble with it. I built a machine for my cousin using it (he supplied the parts otherwise I would have picked a better board) and it's still running strong. I used the same cooling solution I just posted.

It's probably important to state that he's running a Phenom II X4 910e which is a very low wattage CPU compared to most that are available for the socket. You're right that anything else would probably give the VRMs a heck of a time trying to keep up.