z370/z390 motherboards with real heatsinks

[TidusZ]

I'm wondering if anyone has found some z370 motherboards that have real heatsinks with fins/heatpipes, not the flat cosmetic kind that I have so far found on 100% of the motherboards I've looked at.

 

[Johnny Lucky]

Is there a chance that what you actually mean are the old forged copper heatsinks with tiny fans that replaced the old stock northbridge and southbridge heatsinks? A long long time ago, long before the Internet, hardcore enthusiasts would install them. The practice never really caught on among mainstream users. Last time I did something like that was in the 1980's. Geez! That's like 30 years ago.

 

[UsandThem]

The mainstream consumer chipsets don't run near as hot as they used to, and there is no need for the old heat pipe type cooling on Z370 motherboards. Several of their functions have been moved onto the CPU.

There are a couple of review sites that measure the heat output, and the overall effectiveness of the cooling on motherboards.

Here are a couple of those types of reviews:

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASRock/Z370_Taichi/14.html

A little over 35c for the chipset at idle, and just about the same under load.

https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/8381/asrock-z370-taichi-motherboard-review/index10.html

 

[Campy]

If you mean the VRM heatsinks, proper finned ones are very rare. Gigabyte has some proper ones on their X470 Gaming 7 board, but that's the only one i know of outside HEDT platforms. Fortunately there are boards with such overdimensioned VRMs that they could run overclocked CPUs even without heatsinks, and do so very easily with the admittedly bad ones manufacturers tend to use.

 

[phillyman36]

Do we know what the difference is between the z370 and the upcoming z390? Other than some added connectivity are they adding better quality vrms, better heatsinks, power delivery? Why would I want to use a z390 over a z370 for say a i9 9900k? Was there some sort of issue with the vrms on z370? My current motherboard is an Asus z370 Maximus X Hero.

 

[UsandThem]

Other than some added connectivity are they adding better quality vrms, better heatsinks, power delivery? Why would I want to use a z390 over a z370 for say a i9 9900k? Was there some sort of issue with the vrms on z370? My current motherboard is an Asus z370 Maximus X Hero.

No issues. The z370 boards were launched a little earlier than Intel wanted to, they were kind of bridge in a sense. The z370 didn't really have any big issues (outside of the usual launch bugs and quirks). Now the X299 chipset was the one that had some VRM and heatsink design concerns when it first launched.

As far as the heatsinks and VRM, that depends on the build quality of the board, and would be no different than someone buying an entry level motherboard, versus buying a mid-range, or high-end board. Your current board is a high-end board, so not much to worry about there.

Here is what is known about the z370 vs the z390:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13135/more-details-on-intels-z390-chipset-exposed

For me personally, I would use your current motherboard with the new CPU as there's really not much gained. But on the same token, I have known how strong the lure of the latest and greatest is.

 

[phillyman36]

Ok Thanks for the info UsandThem. Much appreciated.