Measurement Science: Taking Accurate IR Thermal Readings

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Respect to tomshardware in its quest here to form a more complete picture in hardware tests and for presenting verifiable (factual) data in its reviews.
I never bothered with all other sites' temperature charts/reviews on gpus ever since toms started doing this.
 


They have an API and a helpful documentation too. :)

 
I like all the isolation and standardisation you use for consistent, repeatable and accurate measurement. I have a question though: would a cowl over the CPU, chipset and memory make any difference to preventing reflected heat contribution from those components?
 
Only, if the waves goes in the same direction. Upgoing heat is no problem (90° crossing).
I tried it to cover it with a thick, black foam plate - no difference. :)
 
Very good article, thanks for that. I´m sure a lot of people don´t know how time-consuming this kind of measurement is. Question @ Igor: Is the emissivity of the used lacquer constant across the electromagnetic spectrum (=grey body) or is it just known for the camera´s spectral range (7,5-13,0 microns)?
 
A lot of things I can calibrate by myself, but the lacquer is a little bit too difficult.
We had to measure both, emissivity and transmittance. You need a lab for such things.
BTW: I'm using a very good air brush to be sure to hold the thickness.
 
There are still people who think it is ok to run an eight-core FX on a 760G or other cheap AMD motherboard. Could you take a few shots of the VRMs on such boards, to show people why this is a bad idea? Only a couple ought to be enough
Anyway, that's a nice piece of gear; looks to be around $6k, so no wonder why not everyone and his brother uses one, and why TH continues to stand above the competition.
 


"Cheap" 970 mainboard (from my Wraith cooler review) and FX 8370:

02-IR-Wraith-Boxed-New_w_600.png
03-IR-Thermalright_w_600.png
 
I thought the 970 Gaming was actually a better board; looks like not...
For 970, I had in mind their 970-G4x boards; anyone's 760 or 780 could be used.
For the sake of fairness, I must point out that as poor as I believe those are, it is remarkable how much nicer high-end MSI boards are. I've actually come to look forward to seeing an MSI board among my review samples. Whether or not it deserves an award, I'm generally able to find something nice to say about it.
 
I've stressed the MSI 970 Gaming with a FX 9590 @5 GHz (and killed a 2 years old Corsair H100i with him). But the mainboard is still alive 😀
 
I've been using IR cameras to measure PCB temps for over 15 years.

Pro tip: instead of laquer, use athlete's foot powder spray. Make sure you check the ingredients and get the kind with talc and not the liquid spray. We found the talc powder coating gave us uniform emmisivity (~.95) and was easy to clean off with compressed air and an alcohol rinse when we were done. Much simpler alternative to laquer.
 
I also played with some powders, but I saw few problems. Due the sample rotation I need to keep all VGA cards absolutely clean, also the front-side of the PCB and the cover. My laquer is easy to use and I have a very good brush equipment - this works in 90% of all cases. Proofed and calibrated. Powders are not completely removeable with air compressor and alcohol is a no-go, especially for components, labels, printings etc. This costs me more time than 1-2 minutes brush or special tape 😉
 
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