MSI 790A G46 VRM Cooling

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Hello man

Hello man

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Aug 11, 2013
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Hi guys...
I bought a MSI 790A G46 motherboard and have loved it so far.......But I have heard that the VRMs can go out, resulting in a fried $200 CPU. Returning the board/buying a new one is not an option, so is there any fan/cooler that would do the job better? My H50 leaves enough room for a new heatsink or a small fan.
 
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TheGoat Eater
yes, those CPUs are *supported* but only should be ran at stock since they are so power hungry and on the 970 its older tech/specs - I would say that about any older model by any brand, ifyou plan to OC these very power hungry CPUs you need to have a beefy board that is up to the job spec wise to handle that. I also say that this board can handle it even if with a not crazy OC if the board is well cooled (VRM) as I would say for any board. Many failures happen because they are stressed so much / make heat and are not able to cool themselves properly in the provided setup. there are ways to mount a fan to blow on the VRM heatsinks and I would recommend that if inside a case. I use my motherboards on a test bench since I swap out HW so...
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Dark Lord of Tech

Dark Lord of Tech

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It's not a very good board , those changes won't really help much.

The 970A-G46 is a 970A-G45 (i.e. failure prone VRM design) with a bigger heatsink attached onto it and the "do not overclock" warnings on the MSI website subsequently removed. A bigger heatsink does not make a board with internal VRM design problems and a failure prone record any more safely overclocking-ready.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1234973/advice-on-gigabyte-ga-970a-ud3-vs-msi-970a-g46-hands-on-experiences-preferred
 
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Hello man

Hello man

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Do the VRMs just go out? Or do they overheat?
 
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TheGoat Eater

TheGoat Eater

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I think you left something out - the CPU model, If its something newer and very power hungry then you will want to stay at stock. Putting a newer big draw cpu on an older board is a bad idea even if it is "compatible", this would apply to any mfg
 
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Q

Quest_Skyrim

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From same site as quoted there are a databse for AMDs CPU: http://www.overclock.net/t/946407/amd-motherboards-vrm-info-database

Here you will see that they say following: It is a 4+1 VRM with support up to 125W CPU TDP, suggested bur this forum (same forum as what Blackbird linked) to be avoided for 8-cores, OC (not sure if they mean all 8-core or just that all OC in general is to be avoided) and it has a known problem with throttling. (You can confirm this by yourself by looking up this in the table for AM3+ and pick MSI in the tabs/links down in the table!)


Note 1: all un-heatsinked boards will support Enzotech MOS-C1 heatsinks

Heatsinks referred to in spreadsheet:
Enzotech MOS-C1
Enzotech MST-66
Enzotech MST-88
Click to expand...

From same source as linked.
 
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Hello man

Hello man

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CPU:FX8350
CPU Cooler:H50
PSU:900W
RAM:16GB 1600mhz DDR3
GPU:OCd GTX460
 
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TheGoat Eater

TheGoat Eater

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Apr 12, 2012
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yes, those CPUs are *supported* but only should be ran at stock since they are so power hungry and on the 970 its older tech/specs - I would say that about any older model by any brand, ifyou plan to OC these very power hungry CPUs you need to have a beefy board that is up to the job spec wise to handle that. I also say that this board can handle it even if with a not crazy OC if the board is well cooled (VRM) as I would say for any board. Many failures happen because they are stressed so much / make heat and are not able to cool themselves properly in the provided setup. there are ways to mount a fan to blow on the VRM heatsinks and I would recommend that if inside a case. I use my motherboards on a test bench since I swap out HW so often for testing... Even then I have fans blowing on the memory and VRM
 
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Hello man

Hello man

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SOOOOOO..... I am building a liquid cooling loop, and keeping the same board. I need a VRM waterblock, which one would fit?
 
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