System Reliability Tip:
- The Asus ROG Strix Z690-i Gaming WiFi contains a VRM fan whose speed can be controlled in BIOS.
- There are several built-in fan curves:
- Standard; Silent; Turbo; Custom; etc.
- I had been using Silent for several weeks and my system was freezing or locking up every couple of hours. On a hunch I wondered if this was due to overheating so I changed the setting to Standard.
- There hasn't been a single crash or lockup in the past 3 days.
Bottom Line:
- Do not use Silent or any reduced fan mode for the VRM fan
P.S.
- There's a new BIOS 1505 for this board; installation was flawless
** Update on Stability of Asus ROG Strix Z690-i WiFi mini-ITX System **
Despite increasing the speed of VRM fan, I continued to experience periodic total system crashes in both macOS and Windows. Thinking I may have applied too much thermal paste and the CPU was experiencing periodic heat-related problems, I decided to remove the CPU, replace the thermal paste, and reinstall it.
There was indeed a bit too much paste, but not enough to cause system instability. Nevertheless I applied a thinner amount, which actually led to reduced CPU temps.
Idle temps:
But those pesky total system crashes occurred again.
Although I ran
MemTest sometime ago (for only a few minutes) with no errors reported, I decided to replace both memory modules with those from my Asus ProArt Z690-Creator. And so far the system has been solid, but I'll stress this thing out and report the outcome.
Update 1:
Just installed the suspicious DDR5 memory modules into the ProArt Z690-Creator and macOS crashed on first boot right after logging in. Now filing an RMA with G.Skill...
Update 2:
Over 5 hours on uptime now. No crashes.
Update 3:
20 hours without crash.
Update 4:
Over 26 hours now without a problem. Numerous sleep/wake cycles performed flawlessly.
Case closed: Replacing the two DIMMs has solved the problem. Now I'm totally satisfied with my first and only mini-ITX build!