Motherboard Temperature Benchmarks


Orientation: Pushing "Downwards"




As you can see the effects on the motherboard does vary from board to board. At first this variation may be confusing, but when you take into effect the number of fans that are moving air in a given case things start to make more sense. In the 939 system there is only 1 fan for air intake and 1 fan for air removal; whereas the AM2 has multiple intake and multiple outtake fans. In the 939 system there is just not enough air movement over the motherboard when the AMD cooler was taken out of the equation, and thus temperatures went up. While in the AM2 Coolermaster 830 case, there is more than enough air movement that this lack of cpu fan air movement has a negligible impact on the motherboard.


Orientation: Pushing "Upwards"

As this unit can be mounted in only two possible ways we here at HWC decided to test the TMG A1 in its alternate mounting position. In this position the fan is pointing towards the top of your case and away from the video card. This alternate mounting did not raise or lower CPU temperatures but it did help case temperatures. As mentioned the possible negative to this, is that hot air is being blown into your Power Supply’s intake which can disrupt your power supply fan's rotation. If your power supply becomes noisy after mounting the TMG A1 this way, we recommend changing it back.




Mounting the TMG A1 this way actually did improve the older 939 motherboard temperatures by 2*C. This is certainly a big improvement and a temperature difference of only a few degrees from stock is minor. As with any aftermarket part it does all come down to proper cooling. If your system has good air flow, it really shouldn't matter how you mount the heatsink. If your system only has adequate cooling, then this alternate mounting may be right for you. If your system has the power supply on the bottom of the case then this is definitely the way to mount your A1 as there is no negatives and only positives.

In a nutshell, if your case has multiple 120mm fans blowing air over the motherboard then chances of any negative effects being caused by changing out the stock cooler are greatly reduced. However, if your system is like many mid-tower cases with only 2 fans you should definitely take this lowered air movement into consideration before purchasing any tower style cooler. Please do not get us wrong, at no time was any motherboard in any danger from overheating. While we prefer to have these motherboard temperatures as close to ambient as possible, 20*C above ambient is not anything to seriously worry about. While we would have been remiss in not including this information, this should not be considered a “deal breaker” by anyone.