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Asus P5N-D NB heat issue (Easy fix)

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Hi, I have read alot of posts about heat issues with the NB of the P5N-D. I was have a bit of an overheating problem with mine too, although it wasn't that bad, mostly when my GPU reached high temps during gaming. It was easy to avoid by turning the fan on mu 9800GTX+ way up before playing. My temps of the MOBO usually will stay around 38-39c under full load if I do this. However I just wanted a better fix. As many of you know, under the massive heatsink of the P5N-D are the NB chip and the PCIe2 controller and NOBODY makes an aftermarket heatsing for this board. What I did was to simply take off the heatsink, remove the crappy factory thermal compound, cleaned everything off and reapplied some Arctic Silver 5. After doing this I no longer have to have my GPU fan cranked all the way up for gaming (39-43c) and idle around 31-32c. Some work involved but a worthwhile fix for this heat problem. By the way I also use that little heatsink fan that came with the board. I have noticed during my research of this that the older P5N-D's seem to have a reddish anodized aluminum heatsink, mine (maybe newer?) has a copper heatsink, at least it looks that way, I could be wrong. Was this Asus's attemp at a fix for this heat issue?

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Actually I found out the heatsink isn't copper, just copper colored aluminum. I took mine off and threw it in the trash. I replaced it with a Thermaltake a1277 1U server cpu cooler. It took a bit of work as I had to drill the mounting holes in the correct spots but now my temps are MUCH BETTER, with an ambient of 24.5c I am idle@28-31c and playing Call of Duty 4 for about a half hour, meaning full load & GPU temps up there, my MB temps max at about 40c. A huge improvment from near redline at 43-49c before. I am anticipating a few degree drop beyond what I have now as the AS5 cures. I needed to do something my 9800GTX+ throws off some serious heat and tends to overheat the MoBo. Asus put the temp. sensor diode in a F'd up spot on this board (from what I hear it is right in back of the middle of the two PCIe slots).
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You have to remove your MoBo from the case. They are both retained by little plastic clips that you have to squeeze togather and push out from the back foreward. Once those are all removed, gently work the heatsink free. They may be stuck on pretty good if the thermal compound has cured, using a hair dryer to heat up the heatsinks may help. Just be carefull not to damage the motherboard. Remember to get ALL the old thermal compound off and use some rubbing alcohol (90% or greater) to clean off the NB, PCI chip and SB. use a razor blade to remove the foam fro the NB/PCI heatsink and stick on to new heatsink in approprate position (measure or trace from old heatsink). Then re-apply new thermal compound and seat new heatsinks. Good luck, this will do wonders for your temps. I currently have my FSB @ 1700MHz and even during heavy gaming with 2 9800GTX+ OC's in SLI, I never see my temps much above 42 for my MB.

jpar63 said:
You have to remove your MoBo from the case. They are both retained by little plastic clips that you have to squeeze togather and push out from the back foreward. Once those are all removed, gently work the heatsink free. They may be stuck on pretty good if the thermal compound has cured, using a hair dryer to heat up the heatsinks may help. Just be carefull not to damage the motherboard. Remember to get ALL the old thermal compound off and use some rubbing alcohol (90% or greater) to clean off the NB, PCI chip and SB. use a razor blade to remove the foam fro the NB/PCI heatsink and stick on to new heatsink in approprate position (measure or trace from old heatsink). Then re-apply new thermal compound and seat new heatsinks. Good luck, this will do wonders for your temps. I currently have my FSB @ 1700MHz and even during heavy gaming with 2 9800GTX+ OC's in SLI, I never see my temps much above 42 for my MB.


Are you running on air?

If you are then what cooler do you have?

What are your settings?

Is your memory 1066?

Is your GPU over 1gb?

Yes, on air. My NB heatsink is the thermaltake a1277 100% copper 1U server CPU cooler. MY SB cooler is a converted Enzotech SB pure copper Heatsink, My CPU cooler is the Asus Royal Knight, also 100% copper. My LianLi case is a wind tunnel for cooling 3 x 120mm fans (front-in, side-in, back-out) and 1 x 80mm top fan-out. I NEVER see my CPU over 50C and my MoBo barely ever touches 42c. My GPU's run slightly hot but not bad, the top one may reach 68c at times, which is perfectly within the specs. I am a heavy gamer, this means my system is reved-up for extended periods of time. It is ALWAYS perfectly stable. I love this MoBo, it gets alot of undue bad press, simply 'cuz people do not take the time and effort to properly set it up. BTW, the latest BIOS (1001) did wonders for the overclockability of the board.

Settings:
FSB @ 1700MHz (425MHz x 4 Lanes)
CPU-3.825GHz (425MHz x 9 multiplier)
DDR2- Mushkin Enhanced 800MHz @ 915MHz (5-5-5-12, trc-24, rest auto)
Voltages- CPU@1.28v, NB&HT@1.44v, SB@1.5v
GPU- I am running SLI'd Evga 9800GTX+ OC's (2 Cards) 512Mb (SLI does not double GPU memory)
Those are @ 806MHz(Core Clock)-1957MHz(Shader Clock)-1312MHz(Memory Clock)
PCIe Frequency @ 103MHz

Every system is different, you will have to experiment to see what works for you. Keep in mind that if you reach a FSB level that is giving you troubles, it may just be a "hole" in the settings. Often going higher will work out. For example, my system will not even boot with my FSB @ 1650MHz but is perfectly stable and cool @ a FSB of 1700MHz. Good luck, be safe, have fun with it.
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