Biostar board w/ heatpipes!!!!!!!

[Elysium]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

That is a pretty nice board. I saw that a few days ago but was disappointed to find it is DDR3 only. The DDR2 P35 chipset based board is along Biostar's usual budget lines. However, I think these heatpipes are definitely over rated. They just raise prices and really don't cool that much better. My Abit KN9 SLI motherboard with a very basic heatpipe cooling design overheats ALL THE TIME now that the ambient temperature is warming up and it's driving me nuts. For me, these elaborate heatpipes that connect every single heat-producing piece of silicon on a motherboard is a total waste and would much rather see the R&D invested into better layouts, better components, and better cooling for the individual chips. Also, if you try to upgrade the chipset cooling on these boards, you end up having to remove the heatsinks on the MOSFET chips and power regulation circuitry also (because it is all connected). I find myself having a hard time trying to find motherboards without these extremely elaborate heatpipe cooling systems and I don't like it!

I disagree. I think if the heatpipe design is good, there is no need to remove the cooling. also, no active cooling on the board means no fans breaking. Also, getting a cooler like the Coolermaster GeminII greatly has a positive affect on cooling. This is my opinion, but I think that heatpipes look cool, and also don't do a bad job (in some cases). The heatpipes on my ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus do a pretty good job and will get better because I ordered the GeminII. You do have a good point there Blake, but there is another side to your story.

[Capper]

Because you guys are curious.....I have a Biostar P35 board on its way....it should be here tomorrow. I'll post some initial thoughts on it tomorrow night, or Friday in the forums, with a review going up probably some time next week

Originally Posted by yellowhello

I disagree. I think if the heatpipe design is good, there is no need to remove the cooling. also, no active cooling on the board means no fans breaking. Also, getting a cooler like the Coolermaster GeminII greatly has a positive affect on cooling. This is my opinion, but I think that heatpipes look cool, and also don't do a bad job (in so cases). The heatpipes on my ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus do a pretty good job and will get better because I ordered the GeminII. You do have a good point there Blake, but there is another side to your story.

Blake is 100% correct, passive cooled motherboards rely on a couple big principles. First, that the board will be mounted vertically, like an ATX tower case (if its not, the passive cooling is a waste, and even counterproductive). Second, that your case has good airflow, and for those overclocking, thats generally not enough.....you'll usually end up having to add additional fans over the chipsets. to keep them in a safe operating range.

[gvblake22]

I have nothing against heatpipe cooling technology, even on motherboards. But the way the motherboard makers are going about it now is not what I had in mind. I would like to see better heatsink/heatpipe designs that cool the individual chips (or maybe only a couple lines of MOSFETs) at a time. Capper touched on some of the primary annoyances with elaborate heatpipe designs, but I would like to add the inability to upgrade cooling on any of the parts, as well as the problem with heat distrobution. It is sortof along the same lines as adding more and more and more components to a watercooling loop without much change in the radiator. The more heat you add to the loop, the hotter each component gets and/or the harder you have to work to cool it all down. The same can apply with heatpipe cooling that link everything together. Imagine the heat of a northbridge, southbridge, and 8-phase CPU power regulating chips all tossing heat into those three little sets of fins. It looks nice, and it's a nice idea (if implemented properly), but for many situations (particularly with high-power and high-heat chipsets), it is getting out of hand and not working as good as individualized cooling would. I hate actively cooled chipsets just as much as the next guy, but I would like to see better individually cooled passive heatpipe chipset cooling designs rather than this "spaghetti plate" of heatpipes connecting everything without much (if any) increase in heatsink fin surface area for cooling.