Quote Originally Posted by gabe View Post
if "ATI" says VT1165MF needs sinking, then why not cooling it with the stock heatsink? Further contradicting this information, the VT1165MF receives no air flow whatsoever from the stock fan because the step that reaches the VRM's completely blocks any airflow across the entire width of the heatsink.

Either your contact at ATI is not in the thermal/mechanical group, or he is and he disagrees with the reference design, or he is simply mistaken, or you might have misunderstood.

Engineer @ ATI - direct quote -
"U601 is the critical regulator here. It looks to me like he does have a sink on there, but it really should be blocked."

I have to check and see if the backplate does in fact contact that chip. There is no thermal pad on it however.


Look just above that chip in the Pic silkscreened on the PCB - its labelled U601.