SPCR

Most cheap motherboards don't have heat sinks on the VRM. Is it safe to use a tower CPU cooler, or is a down-blowing cooler mandatory?

It isn't mandatory, but why would you not use a down draft? Not all the tower coolers are good, but almost all the down drafts happen to be good coolers.

And they come in some very high cooling capacities. See:
http://www.frostytech.com/articleview.c ... 562&page=5

Luke M wrote:Most cheap motherboards don't have heat sinks on the VRM. Is it safe to use a tower CPU cooler, or is a down-blowing cooler mandatory?

Check with the supplier of your motherboard. They may know. We don't.

Obviously this could in principle compromise your board's reliability. Whenever you go with a non-supported configuration, you're taking a chance...
But how much reliability do you really need anyway?

For real-world data about VRM cooling, see: http://www.silentpcreview.com/Small_HSF_2012/

HFat wrote:Check with the supplier of your motherboard. They may know.

I am highly confident that you will not be able to engage them in any kind of useful conversation on this subject.

Is there any reason why you do not want to use an after market down draft cooler?