Temporary cooling of motherboard MOSFETs with fan[s] only [for testing purposes].

[uplink-svk]

Hey there guys,

Is it applicable for me, while doing a lot of mumbo jumbo with my system to temporary [for a few minutes, maybe half an hour] cooling motherboard MOSFETs with air only? [active fans blowing at full speed directly from side, or above them.]

My motherboard is X299 Apex with removed passive parts of MOSFETs, due to full motherboard waterblock from EK. It's off now, I relidedded 7960X and want to test it on air [heat dissipation among cores], thus I don't want to test it in a full loop just yet.

Thank You for Your insight

Kind regards

uplink

 

[Lutfij]

The real question is how they look right now after you've removed them. To what extent does the waterblock cover the CPU socket and subsequently block the airflow around the mosfets...? This will impeded you intended nature of your work.

A few pics would help this thread move forward, constructively.

 

[uplink-svk]

Thank You for Your fast reply Lutfij!

I'm gonna hit my mobo with Noctua NH-S14, which I purschased specially for testing purposes and MOSFETs will be naked, wholly. This is the current state of them, there's residual thermal pad, although, I'll remove it soon before the tests.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dTsqCmnufgE1cAMz6

Please advise

With kind regards

uplink

 

[uplink-svk]

Aaand, I answered myself. Yes, it does work, even as a "longer term solution". Airflow alone is sufficent. On my surprise, I've had better results with custom lid, LM between CPU substrate and custom iHS and Noctua NT-H1, compared to humongous watercooling system I've had before.

I'm looking forward for my results with 2 x 560mm rads from Hardware Labs [The Black Ice® SR2™ Multi Port] ^_^

Thanks for Your insight anyway

P.S.: Here's how 7960X fared on air for 30 minutes @ 4.5 GHz with super low voltage [1.230 vCore].