How important are heatsinks on motherboards?

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yakuman
Posts: 140
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:05 am
Location: Canada

How important are heatsinks on motherboards?

Post by yakuman » Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:04 am

My future build will include an H87 matx mobo. I have the Asus H87M-E planned, but I recently found out it lacks proper heatsinks. How much of a difference is there temperature-wise and longevity if I won't overclock?

Asus H87M-E:
Image

MSI H87M-G43:

Image

Gigabyte GA-H87M-D3H:
Image

Even other H87 boards in its class like the Asus H87M-PRO has bigger / better / more heatinks, which corresponds to each increasing price level. Disregarding image scaling differences, it looks like the Gigabyte one has the most robust heatsinks.

Abula
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Re: How important are heatsinks on motherboards?

Post by Abula » Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:10 am

Intel non Z motherboards barely have any heatsinks, if any, and they do fine for years, if you are not introducing more voltage i dont think you should have much of an issue as long as you case has some airflow.

xan_user
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Re: How important are heatsinks on motherboards?

Post by xan_user » Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:31 am

not a concern if not OC'ing, or running fanless at constant high usage.

yakuman
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Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:05 am
Location: Canada

Re: How important are heatsinks on motherboards?

Post by yakuman » Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:35 am

Thank you for the replies. :)

HFat
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Re: How important are heatsinks on motherboards?

Post by HFat » Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:51 am

Constant high temps is not the only concern. Temp swings are as well.
Abula wrote:Intel non Z motherboards barely have any heatsinks, if any, and they do fine for years, if you are not introducing more voltage i dont think you should have much of an issue as long as you case has some airflow.
Their documentation does warn specifically about the need for an HSF.
Which doesn't mean heatsinks would help much of course, epsecially flashy heatsink which seem to have a marketing purpose. Asus in particular had a few flashy and sometimes expensive but ineffective heatsinks on low-power fanless boards.

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