Is mosfet cooling a gimmick?

[karnavor]

Do those large heatsinks on the more expensive boards mosfets even increase performance? Or do they just increase price?

 

I've been wondering for awhile and haven't really seen anything on the subject.

[XxHellxRaizerxX]

Well if you would like your mosfets to catch fire and explode then go ahead and remove them

 

I just added heatsinks to mine to keep that very thing from happening.. (again)

[Guest ajmatson]

They do keep temperatures in control especially when pushing more voltage thru the board. I have heard some "sizzling" stories although I have never had an incident know on aluminum. IMHO I would rather have them there just as I have insurance on my car, just in case.

[sdy284]

cooler electronics will be more efficient and last longer. and some people would put heatsinks on their heatsinks if it let them OC more

[karnavor]

I realize it does help cool the mosfets but has anyone tested with and without the heatsinks to see if it even makes a difference in their overclocks?

[cchalogamer]

I realize it does help cool the mosfets but has anyone tested with and without the heatsinks to see if it even makes a difference in their overclocks?

I've added extra cooling on mid ranged boards and managed to get a bit more stable OC, as power circuitry aging happens though it could make a bigger change (or when dealing with more power hungry CPUs/OCs)

[SenitaL]

I think its important to keep them cool. I love MSI's DrMOS, its more power efficent and runs much cooler then mosfet

[dr_bowtie]

I realize it does help cool the mosfets but has anyone tested with and without the heatsinks to see if it even makes a difference in their overclocks?

 

yes i have.....

 

back when I used to overclock hard core on air they were very much needed...when the Brisbane CPUs came out and no one could get tham past 2.8ghz for a bit it was needed as they just put 1.6v to the cpu to get it to budge...it wouldnt budge without mosfet cooling no matter the volts...

 

for me it meant the difference from going 3.4ghz to 3.6ghz on 1.55v

[Zertz]

I realize it does help cool the mosfets but has anyone tested with and without the heatsinks to see if it even makes a difference in their overclocks?

I have one X58 board without a heatsink cooling the mosfets and I killed them while overclocking. Does that answer your question?

[redj41]

I recently bought mosfet H20 blocks for my 780i. It's definately helped my overclocking. I used to be hit or miss at anything over 4.4G, but now I can hit 4.5 all day and I'm hit or miss at 4.7-4.8. It's also nice to know I won't blow them up trying to break the 5Ghz mark.

[actionstan]

what if your not overclocking is mosfet cooling nessicary.. because i have a similar question my friends building a computer for pure gaming and no overclocking.. and the boards in his range alot dont have coolers... so this worries me im glad i saw this post

[paulktreg]

what if your not overclocking is mosfet cooling nessicary.. because i have a similar question my friends building a computer for pure gaming and no overclocking.. and the boards in his range alot dont have coolers... so this worries me im glad i saw this post

 

If your not overclocking and the motherboard doesn't have mosfet coolers then they aren't needed and I wouldn't worry about it too much. The makers aren't going to risk faults developing and numerous warranty returns if they thought unsunk, is that a real word, mosfets might cause problems.

 

Cheers

 

Paul