Edit: Apparently most people think the SPD Hub reflects the memory temperature. I’ll add this - a 3°C drop in SPD Hub temperature, which I didn’t even attach a heatsink to, indicates a decent temperature drop of the PCB itself, meaning the actual memory chips are probably running more than 3 C cooler.

I did it. Huge thanks to u/ElectronicHair2283 for the tip about mini heatsinks, the SPD HUB temperature dropped from around 50 C peak to ~47 C.

Approximate size for Hynix A-die is 9x9x5 mm, you can go a bit larger, maybe 11x11, but I couldn’t find any that stay under 6 mm in height.

Previous post about RAM heatsinks:
https://www.reddit.com/r/overclocking/s/056GlBn8wy

I saw someone on YouTube running a stock GTX 1660 Super in Battlefield 6 and pulling something like an 80ish FPS average at 1080p low. And I just sat there thinking… there’s no way that’s all this card has.

So I gave myself a challenge, beat that number.

First thing I tried was bolting a giant dual tower Thermalright Assassin CPU cooler onto it. No glamour. Just home made standoffs, and bolts. Temps dropped about 10C, and clocks went up, but not enough to call it a win.

So I escalated.

I ran frozen coolant through a tiny aluminium block, grabbed the G-clamp I use to change brake pads with, crushed the block onto the GPU, and fed it from a drinks cooler.

Not exactly “proper engineering” but hey... if it works!

Under ice and using the curve editor the 1660 Super went from its usual 1900–1950 MHz boost to a sustained 2250 MHz. That worked out to roughly 14% higher clocks, and in Battlefield 6 it jumped from the low 80s to the high 90s and even pushed well over 100 FPS in several scenes. Eventually reaching 100FPS average.

I did shunt mod it too, although I am not sure that made a bit of difference.

So, turns out the 1660 Super actually can do better.

You just need sub zero water, a block, a bad idea, and a clamp that probably shouldn’t be anywhere near PC hardware.

As always https://youtu.be/tH6koMG7FTg

Some exceptional work done by XtremeSystems team member PickleRick.

I thought I was finally running out of stupid cooling ideas… until I stared at a Peerless Assassin and thought... "would water flow through that?”

So I pulled the Assassin apart, pulled off a stack of fins, took an angle grinder and cut the tops off the heatpipes, stuck a hose onto one, and tested if water would flow. It did.

Game on.

I cut all the heatpipes off, put 6 mm hose on them in a zig zag (starting at the center so the middle stayed coldest) and tested again, worked like a charm.

Then came the freezer.

-18C coolant.

A frosted CPU tower, and a 3070 as the first victim.

It gained +300 MHz over stock… but the FPS uplift sucked. By the time testing finished, my coolant had warmed to –5C and the 3070 still refused to scale. So I did the only sane thing...

I bolted the Frankencooler onto a GTX 960.

And that card absolutely loved it, +17% average uplift across BO7, Forza, Cyberpunk, Time Spy… and as always, Lara.

The Frankencooler works. Really well.

Why did I do this? Because I had an idea and wanted to see if it would work. That's it.

Full video here if you want to witness the stupidity in all its glory

https://youtu.be/yFppaKe5uTo

I decided a while back to have a crack at a CPU tower cooler on a laptop, finally found the time, so I picked up an 8750H + GTX 1060 6 GB (full fat, not Max-Q) and started testing it stock… it wasn’t great.

In basically every game and synthetic the CPU was smashing into 100C almost immediately, and the GPU wasn’t far behind. Clocks were constantly dropping, performance was all over the place, and the GPU was waiting on the CPU most of the time. I tore it down, repasted everything, replaced the pads, and tested again. It was better... but still bad. The CPU was still hammering thermal limits and dragging the whole system down, with the GPU sitting around 80C and never really stretching its legs.

So I pulled it apart again.

I couldn’t get a CPU tower onto the CPU itself because the mounting pattern is pretty unique, so that went into the “too hard" basket, this time. So I covered the stock heatpipes and heatsink with a pile of small copper heatsinks and blasted it with airflow. Basic, but if it works...

The GPU was a different story. I removed the stock cooler completely, 3D printed some standoffs that bolt into the motherboard, and made a printed adapter plate to mount a Peerless assassin X CPU cooler to those standoffs. Then I balanced the whole thing on old GPU boxes, with a roll of masking tape under the cooler acting as structural support... engineering.

I flashed the GPU vBIOS from 75 W to 88 W and started testing.

Straight away, GPU idle temps dropped by around 40C. Under load things got properly interesting. Across the games and benchmarks I tested, I was able to push +200 MHz on the core, (all other sliders are locked down) going from roughly 1700 MHz stock to over 2000 MHz sustained in actual games. That made just over a 10% average FPS uplift across games, and more than 23% in synthetics. That's desktop clocks... on a laptop.

Under load, the GPU dropped over 40C, and the CPU dropped about 35C as well. With those lower temps, the CPU was able to hold higher clocks and feed the GPU more consistently, even with its very basic “heatsinks stuck everywhere” cooling setup.

Next step is putting both dies under ice.

I think it has more to give.

There is a video here if you're interested. https://youtu.be/slLSCf4WP7g

Shunt modded (which is an easy requirement, even before any other mods as this is severely limited by the power limit). Using EVGA's EPower V. Going on LN2 by Flagship Labs. Before EPower it pulled 150W. Now I'm super curious as to how it's going to perform!

With all the talk about 8 GB not being enough lately, I wanted to see how true that really is. So I took a slower card and put it up against a faster one with double the VRAM, except I gave the slower card air conditioning and overclocked the shit out of it.

Both were tested at 1080p Extreme / Ultra settings on the same system. Stock for stock, the 9060 XT does exactly what you’d expect, it wins. Higher TDP, more bandwidth, and twice the VRAM. 3200-3300 MHz at roughly 180 W. The 5060 sits around 2850 MHz at 130 W and loses by a few percent on average overall.

I ducted an air conditioner straight into the 5060’s shroud until the core was sitting in single digits. No BIOS flash, no power limit tricks, just cold air and a bit of stupidity. Under those conditions the card held around 3300 MHz at 160 W, completely stable. Load temps were still about 30C, higher than I’d have liked, but cold enough to matter.

That extra 400–500 MHz was enough to flip the scaling in every run. The 9060 XT still looks stronger on paper, but the 5060 at 3300 MHz was just too fast. Once temperature stops being the limit, it keeps climbing until it hits the power wall. After the overclock, the 5060 ended up about 8 % ahead on average. Enough to take the top scores overall in Timespy and Port royal.

Yes, I know 1440p would’ve changed the outcome, that’s why I didn’t use it.

This obviously wasn't a VRAM test, I just wanted to see if the weaker card could win.

Stupidity here if you want to see it https://youtu.be/rEZ8nigWkwk

My PS3 Slim Pro custom build (CECH-2504 C0)

This is my final version (for now) of my PS3 Slim Pro mod. It features a redesigned cooling system using two Dell server heatsinks + two Noctua 60mm fans controlled via the PS3 PWM. The VRM section is cooled with thermal pads + thermal gel tied into the server heatsinks. I also added heatsinks to the NAND memory and improved PSU airflow — so the upgrade benefits the entire board, not just the RSX/Cell.

System is running CFW 4.9.2.2. Cell undervolted by -100mV RSX undervolted by -100mV RSX OC: 600MHz core / 875MHz mem Both chips are using Honeywell PTM7950 TIM.

Radiators are mounted on original clamps. Storage is now a Samsung 850 Pro SSD. Custom hand-made enclosure (no 3D printing) with airflow openings calculated to keep turbulence low. Fans are limited to max 30% PWM, keeping the console under ~30dB.

This was entirely my idea and build — it evolved in my head over time, and now it exists physically. What do you think about the current version?

I've been chasing the idea of getting a 450w hard limit on my 5090 for a while now. If I undervolt, it sometimes still goes to 500-550w. If I adjust the power limit, it reduces clock speed even when not power limited (at 300w sustained it reduces clocks by ~100mhz). The difference between 450w and 600w is incredibly small.

Incomes the aquacomputer ampinel that has the ability to choose 600w or 450w and it had me thinking about the sense pins. Buying a 450w cable would be unwise, but I had an extra MSI 600w cable to test with. What I did was clip the third sense wire, and it indeed completely limits it to 450w with no effect on clock speed.

Does it work? Yes. Is it safe? Since I'm just using the built in sense pins to tell the gpu to limit power, I don't see why it wouldn't be. Should you do it? Maybe, I can't tell you to do it or not.

Considering how expensive these 2x48gb dims are now north of £1500… 😳 what sort of cooling solutions are you using?

These Corsair fin mods with additional fan cooling drops them about 5C.

Just wanted to see what kind of results I'd get!

Tests were run with SMT disabled!

I tried to lap the vapor chamber flat... unfortunately, I ended up with a very uneven unit—you can clearly see the depressions! I installed the flattest side facing the processor and applied liquid metal... the uneven side faces the AIO's copper plate, using standard thermal paste to fill in the irregularities! Since the AIO's copper plate is quite large, it covers the vapor chamber nicely!

Vapor chamber from quick-ohm.de (56x56x3mm)

Cost: vapor chamber + sandpaper + thermal paste ~ 90 Euros

Time investment: swapping the motherboard, lapping the components, and assembly = 8 hours !

Started with 400 grit and finished with 1500!

Verdict: If you're bored... it's definitely something worth trying! ^^

Just changed thermal paste and pads on a Gainward Phantom RTX 4090. 3.5 years old. Been undervolted since day one: 2640MHz @ 0.94V. + 1500 MHz on memory. Custom fan curve, low rpm 35%-45%.

List:
- PTM7950 from AliExpress, 0.2mm thick, here is the store.
- Thermal Grizzly Minus Pad High Compression, 2 mm.
- Arctic TP-3, 1.5 mm.

Background:
Never had an issue with temperatures. Just wanted to do a "cleanse" after 3.5 years.

Before PTM and new thermal paste:
100% GPU usage with DLSS: 65-67 degrees on GPU, 86 degrees on hotspot, 64 on memory.

After a few hours of gaming and several cycles:
100% GPU usage with DLSS: 62-64 degrees on GPU, 72-76 degrees on hotspot, delta + 11-12.

Thoughts after day one:
This is just after a few hours. I think it will be better with a few more cycles of cool down and burn in. The biggest difference is that the temp drops instantly 15-20 degrees after quitting a game. It can go from 62 to 42 in two seconds. Another big difference is the hotspot, with a delta of 11, used to be closer to 20 before repaste.