Hi, I have the ASUS P5N-E Sli and have not had to worry about temps until I installed a Gigabyte 8800GT 512MB VGA card. The GPU on this has the later design Zalman copper heatsink which seems to perform well but whilst monitoring temps whilst gaming with ASUS PC probe a mobo temp alarm sounded. The limit is set at 45 degrees and the Mobo had reached 49. The system is not overclocked. I had already added a 50mm 5000RPM fan to the top of the N/bridge heatsink, a second rear exhaust fan and a front "drive bay" style inlet fan but have only had this temp alarm since the 8800GT went in. There are no fans in the side of the case. Question is, should I be worried about 49 degree temps whilst gaming? Should I change the stock Northbridge heatsink if so, for which one and how? (I have read that the stock one is not really up to the job). Maybe the case needs a side fan to blow in the area of the Northbridge chip? Thanks in advance.
The P5N-E SLI gets HOT. The temperature sensor is rarely right, either. My board said it was 43C when I measured the heatsink to be 78ºC.Heat, however, is the least of your worries with this board,it's one of the least reliable motherboards ever made. Most motherboards do not have cooling issues, and will not cause horrible issues later down the road like that P5N-E probably will, I know it's not the answer you're looking for, but I strongly recommend a new motherboard, something like a Gigabyte EP45-DS3R
I wouldn't worry about it, just stick another case fan next to it. A large 120mm fan blowing on it will knock 5 to 10c off of it. Sometimes you have to use spot ties to get the fan in the right position, and make sure the fan is blowing on it , not exhausting from it. You can never have too many case fans in your computer case.
Well I did have the stability issues that most have encountered with this board early on but I got to the bottom of those & its been very stable for sometime now. I think I'll change it when I feel I need DDR3 or it starts to fail otherwise. I'll have to cut a side case hole for the extra fan but O.k. if you reckon thats the best (& economic) air cooling option for the problem I'll go with that as a silent PC is not a pre-requisite of mine. I assumed by the way that the Mobo temp reported was for the N/bridge chip. That's right is'nt it?? The south bridge has an aftermarket square alloy heatsink on it aswell which feels quite hot to touch but I think I could keep my finger on it if my memory serves me well. Is being able to keep your finger on heatsinks a good "finger in the air" guage of a "safe" temp. I have'nt tried touching the northbridge.
I never heatsinked the southbridge, it never got hot enough to warrant it. The Northbridge however, gave me a pretty nasty burn once... lol
