Motherboard Overheating (Asus P6T) - Require Assitance

[jvanalst]

Alright... just finished building my new system, but I noticed I have heat problems. Significant heat problems and NOT of the processor variety (those I can control pretty accurately by tweaking voltage). The motherboard is reporting a temperature of 51 degrees celsius when idle (ok not bad, but not great either), but when I fire up the video card for gaming it shoots up to 60 degrees quickly and stays there. I find that very worrisome.


System Specs:
Intel i7 920 (running at 3.4Ghz, 1.1375v, 68 degrees celsius)
6Gb DDR3-2000 Ozs Reaper (running at lowest values, auto voltage)
Asus P6T Deluxe v2 mobo
CoolerMaster ATCS 840 case (with the optional 120mm mid-case fans installed)
Radeon 4870x2 video card
SB X-Fi XtremeMusic PCI
Corsair 1000w power source
Zalman CNPS9900 CPU heatsink/fan

I'm using Asus PC Probe II to read the motherboard temperature, btw.

Things I have tried to improve temperature:
A) Moved the video card from PCIE slot 1 to PCIE slot 2 (away from the southbridge) - marginally worse heat problem
B) Reversed the top front 230mm fan from exaust to intake. - no change on mobo temp, but improved CPU temp about 5 degrees.
C) Moved a 120mm case fan from the bottom, which I initially used as an intake to midcase because I thought it might be blowing hot air up from the power source and video card. No effect and possibly very very mildly worse.
D) I have a couple of variable speed fans. I tried increasing them all the way up to the 2000 RPM level. No effect.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

The only other thing I can think of is to remove the SoundBlaster from the PCI slot and forgo using it, to improve air circulation around the video card. Not convinced it'll make a significant difference though.

(Additionally I'm not submerging this thing in a vat of oil, I'm not going watercooling because I can't afford it, and I'm not cutting up or drilling holes in my new case... as everyone RL has suggest to me so far).

 

[GhislainG]

68°C isn't bad for an overclocked system. If you don't overclock it, does it run much cooler?

 

[jvanalst]

Nah. The overclock doesn't make any difference at all to the case temp. It's all from the GPU (I can actually go in and adjust the video card fan, cool it off and the case temp will drop 15 degrees).

I'm just nervous about having such a high case temp.

Edit: And off topic, if the CPU isn't overclocked the CPU runs at about 60 degrees when stress tested.

 

[GhislainG]

Other than cutting holes, is there anything else that you can do to improve cooling in your caser? What are the GPU temps with the case open?

 

[jvanalst]

The case temp shows as 50 degrees both open and closed at idle. It doesn't make a difference (I thought it would too because this case doesn't have have any ventialtion in the sides, but it makes no difference).

I've tried putting a fan in the bottom. But that didn't do anything. I tried putting a couple of mid-case fans in behind the harddrives but that didn't affect anything. I also tried reversing one of my top exaust fans, but that just improved cooling across the top of the board, not near the southbridge and the GPU where I'm most concerned.

The internal GPU temperature at idle is a constant 66 degrees, recardless of case condition. When running it goes up to 77 degrees. Temperatures that are on low end for the video card itself, but run the interal case temp up significantly.

I can actually hand tune the GPU fan but it's noisey as all heck. It's the only thing I've tried so far that makes any difference at all.

 

[GhislainG]

You could get a good cooling solution with a quiet fan for your video card.

 

[geofelt]

On my P6T deluxe, speedfan shows the system temp as 58c when not doing much. Touching a finger to the nb cooler shows it to be very hot.
I don't know how much of a problem it is. I suspect that it just plain runs hot.

If you open up the case and direct a house fan at the innards, you will eliminate any case cooling issues, but I suspect that you will not find the problem there.

Is it possible that the mobo coolers need to be removed, and reinstalled with a good thermal material?

Does your cpu cooler send a good stream of air over the nb heatpipe cooling fins?

 

[jvanalst]

Currently I'm thinking of taking my whole rig and transplanting it from my CoolerMaster ATCS 840 to a Antec Nine Hundred to see if that has better air flow.

That airflow and graphics card are definately the issue. I can manually set the fan on the 4870x2 and cool the case 10 degrees easily and very very very quickly. The problem is it's noisey as all heck.

 

[wherryj]

Alright... just finished building my new system, but I noticed I have heat problems. Significant heat problems and NOT of the processor variety (those I can control pretty accurately by tweaking voltage). The motherboard is reporting a temperature of 51 degrees celsius when idle (ok not bad, but not great either), but when I fire up the video card for gaming it shoots up to 60 degrees quickly and stays there. I find that very worrisome.


System Specs:
Intel i7 920 (running at 3.4Ghz, 1.1375v, 68 degrees celsius)
6Gb DDR3-2000 Ozs Reaper (running at lowest values, auto voltage)
Asus P6T Deluxe v2 mobo
CoolerMaster ATCS 840 case (with the optional 120mm mid-case fans installed)
Radeon 4870x2 video card
SB X-Fi XtremeMusic PCI
Corsair 1000w power source
Zalman CNPS9900 CPU heatsink/fan

I'm using Asus PC Probe II to read the motherboard temperature, btw.

Things I have tried to improve temperature:
A) Moved the video card from PCIE slot 1 to PCIE slot 2 (away from the southbridge) - marginally worse heat problem
B) Reversed the top front 230mm fan from exaust to intake. - no change on mobo temp, but improved CPU temp about 5 degrees.
C) Moved a 120mm case fan from the bottom, which I initially used as an intake to midcase because I thought it might be blowing hot air up from the power source and video card. No effect and possibly very very mildly worse.
D) I have a couple of variable speed fans. I tried increasing them all the way up to the 2000 RPM level. No effect.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

The only other thing I can think of is to remove the SoundBlaster from the PCI slot and forgo using it, to improve air circulation around the video card. Not convinced it'll make a significant difference though.

(Additionally I'm not submerging this thing in a vat of oil, I'm not going watercooling because I can't afford it, and I'm not cutting up or drilling holes in my new case... as everyone RL has suggest to me so far).

I'm having almost identical issues with my i7 920/P6T/EVGA GTX 285 system. I have an NZXT blackline case/Dark Knight CPU cooler and am getting nearly identical temps at idle and load. I haven't overclocked anything and still get relatively high temps.

During Cryostasis the MB temps jump above 60c, setting off the Asus PC probe alarm. If I set the threshold higher it will eventually lock the system. The GPU temps seem to be about 50c idle and jump to about 72 with load. GPU is also stock settings with no overclock.

 

[geofelt]

Currently I'm thinking of taking my whole rig and transplanting it from my CoolerMaster ATCS 840 to a Antec Nine Hundred to see if that has better air flow.

That airflow and graphics card are definately the issue. I can manually set the fan on the 4870x2 and cool the case 10 degrees easily and very very very quickly. The problem is it's noisey as all heck.

Your 4870X2 should have a good cooler that is sending all of it's hot air out the back of the case.

I think the best cooling setup for your case is to have intake fans in the front and bottom, and output fans in the rear and top. That will give you good flow from cool input low to hot output top. That is the natural way for air to flow. Your input and output will be somewhat in balance. Using 1200 rpm fans will be relatively quiet. Increasing the rpm of the fans to 2000 or higher will increase the flow, but add more noise. Still, higher rpm case fans are not usually as loud as a vga cooling fan. I think side fans do not help, in fact, hurt. They disrupt the normal straight flow from low front to high back.

While you are at it, verify that the air flow of all your cooling fans is in the proper direction. A piece of tissue hung next to the fan will tell.

If that does not do the job, I don't think a Antec 900 will be any better.

 

[jvanalst]

I'm having almost identical issues with my i7 920/P6T/EVGA GTX 285 system. I have an NZXT blackline case/Dark Knight CPU cooler and am getting nearly identical temps at idle and load. I haven't overclocked anything and still get relatively high temps.

During Cryostasis the MB temps jump above 60c, setting off the Asus PC probe alarm. If I set the threshold higher it will eventually lock the system. The GPU temps seem to be about 50c idle and jump to about 72 with load. GPU is also stock settings with no overclock.

My GPU runs alot hotter then that. I have managed to get my motherboard temperatures where I'm relatively comfortable with them.

All the same I fired off a number of e-mails to Asus Technical support, because I've heard so many varying things about what temperature the motherboard should show (the only consistant answer was that anything over 70 wasn't safe).

The reply states, and I quote:

"You'll find that while it does hit at or just above 60C, you won't see much variation under load above that. Normal board temps will range from 45-60C, and the chipsets can run a few degrees hotter than that."

 

[wherryj]

My GPU runs alot hotter then that. I have managed to get my motherboard temperatures where I'm relatively comfortable with them.

All the same I fired off a number of e-mails to Asus Technical support, because I've heard so many varying things about what temperature the motherboard should show (the only consistant answer was that anything over 70 wasn't safe).

The reply states, and I quote:

"You'll find that while it does hit at or just above 60C, you won't see much variation under load above that. Normal board temps will range from 45-60C, and the chipsets can run a few degrees hotter than that."

Thanks for the info. At least I know that the MB can run 60 c without issues and shouldn't heat up much more. I am still concerned that I've locked up twice with a load. I'm hoping that it's just something with this particular program rather than actually overheating, though I suspect that I'm overheating on the MB.

I am not sure, but 73c max on the GPU doesn't seem like it should be causing a lock up. I'll have to look into the GTX temp ranges.

 

[jvanalst]

I am not sure, but 73c max on the GPU doesn't seem like it should be causing a lock up. I'll have to look into the GTX temp ranges.

If it makes you feel any better my Radeon 4870x2 runs at 88 degrees stock on load. That's it's midrange temperature. Idling it;s usually around 65 degrees.

 

[Ademea]

having similar problem my motherboards at 73 at all times on a none overclocked pc

 

[jvanalst]

73 is excessive. I'd be talking with Asus about that one. Their customer service has been quite good. They even have some guides posted for removing your heatsink/pipe and replacing the thermal paste.

 

[wherryj]

73 is excessive. I'd be talking with Asus about that one. Their customer service has been quite good. They even have some guides posted for removing your heatsink/pipe and replacing the thermal paste.

I didn't make it clear enough perhaps. I'm getting about 60 or so on the motherboard sensors (log only shows "MB abnormal at 60c" Then MB returned to normal at...") as far as I know. I don't know if it went higher and Asus Probe didn't not the higher temp.

The 73c was the EVGA GTX 285 video card. I haven't found the stats for the PC version that mention max heat, but the Mac version states 105c. I doubt that it would be that much different, so 70s should be well within acceptable range.

 

[buckweed]

I've got two 4870x2's in quad crossfire, removed the stock cooling and put on two 4870x2 full cover water cooling plates from EK feeding through a Zalman Reserator 1v2, have another one on the CPU and chipset. Have the GPU tems down to about 45 degrees Celcius under load now, and the CPU is at about 35. Its a Q9550 running at 3.4GHz. Case temp is down to about 40 degrees.

You should look into some water cooling, plus its a lot quieter

 

[Guest]

Heat dissipation is physics, plain and simple. If you have a heat source and the thermal resistance of the media you use to disipate heat is high, you will obtain a temperature raise in the source. Period.

To obtain better dissipation you need to play with the following variables:

1.- Heat transfer resistance:
a) The larger the disipator the better. The larger the contact surface the better also.
b) The lower the intrinsic heat transfer resistance the better (Copper and aluminum are the best choices)
c) Contact between different material heat resistance is key, ANYTHING is better than nothing (air). If you don't have thermal paste even your girlfriend hand's cream is better than nothing. Just be careful not to spread it in sensitive places, I'm talking about the mobo if you know what I mean , because it could be conductive. Polished surfaces are also mandatory.
d) Air is thousand times less conductive than water, that's why you need hundreds of liters of air flowing through you case and also why systems based on liquid cooling are so efficient.
2.- Temperature difference between source and air.
a) That's why you use fans, just to have the coolest possible air in contact with the dissipator
b) That also why hot summers results in crashing systems

In this particular case I can guess the problem is a poor design of the dissipators of the mobo, that have a large thermal resistance and that's why when the temp difference is high the system stops increasing the temperature because the larger difference start compensating the poorer disipation.

Improve the thermal transfer through better contact and disipators with larger fins. If you dont have access to better hardware try glueing copper or aluminum coins to the current dissipator. It works, believe me.

Regards

Pedro Rabié

From Santiago, Chile.

 

[danver1971]

Having pretty much the same issues as everyone else. This is my build:

Asus P6T (Non-Deluxe)
Intel i7 920 (running stock right now)
Scythe Mugen-II CPU Cooler
6GB DDR3-1333 G.Skill 2x3GB Triple Channel (7-7-7-18, auto volt)
2 x GTX275 in SLI PNY
ZM1000-HP 1000W PSU
2 x 750GB Western Digital Black Hard Drives
ASYS CK-1022-6 Full Tower Case w/ 120mm fans bottom front(intake), and rear just below power supply(out)

Previously was running an E6750(clocked to 3.4GHz) with Tuniq Tower on an EVGA 650i motherboard with a single MSI 8800GTS(also overclocked, can't remember exact numbers), and had zero heat issues. I was running an aftermarket Southbridge cooler as well.

I realize this new setup is a much higher heat producer, but the airflow was great before. Currently my CPU idles around 45C and the motherboard is above 50. When I fire up CoD:MW2 the CPU jumps to about 55C and the motherboard jumps to 63C. I'm sure the issue is caused by the increased heat producing GPUs and the decreased airflow, again caused by the huge GPUs. I had though about putting an small heatsink with fan on the ICH10R, but I'm not sure that is possible due to the end of the video card in the 2nd PCIE x16 slot hanging directly over the Southbridge.

Anyone else have any luck with any other solutions?

I am considering moving my hard drives from the bottom front of the case to the empty optical drive bays, in hopes that the air coming in the bottom front of the case will be cooler when it hits the Southbridge if it isn't blowing past the hard drives first.

And Pedro, thanks for the thermal engineering lesson, but I'm sure most of us here understand the basics of thermal transfer and cooling. This is more of a search for the best solution that has worked for others.

Dan

 

[DZeroENT]

On every thing that has heat sinks I replace the thermal compound. I just don't trust the quality control departments, if they truly exist. A lot of manufacturers will use poor quality coolers on "special" edition components. On more than one occasion have I found that the heat sinks have large surface imperfections that can trap heat and increase temperatures. My latest overhaul was a GIGABYTE 9600 GT w/ the Zalman fan, the heat sink has massive gouges in it and I applied Arctic Silver Ceramique to it after using remover and purifiers and got a 5C drop in temperatures before the compound even cured! This is on a brand new part from a "trusted" company.

 

[DZeroENT]

Note: Removing the heatsink to reapply any thermal compounds or pads will void manufacturers warranty. It is best to send parts back to have them inspected, if you want this service done to parts request it or DIY w/ regard that when you are done the component may not work properly or even at all.

 

[yrogerg77]

Having pretty much the same issues as everyone else. This is my build:

Asus P6T (Non-Deluxe)
Intel i7 920 (running stock right now)
Scythe Mugen-II CPU Cooler
6GB DDR3-1333 G.Skill 2x3GB Triple Channel (7-7-7-18, auto volt)
2 x GTX275 in SLI PNY
ZM1000-HP 1000W PSU
2 x 750GB Western Digital Black Hard Drives
ASYS CK-1022-6 Full Tower Case w/ 120mm fans bottom front(intake), and rear just below power supply(out)

Previously was running an E6750(clocked to 3.4GHz) with Tuniq Tower on an EVGA 650i motherboard with a single MSI 8800GTS(also overclocked, can't remember exact numbers), and had zero heat issues. I was running an aftermarket Southbridge cooler as well.

I realize this new setup is a much higher heat producer, but the airflow was great before. Currently my CPU idles around 45C and the motherboard is above 50. When I fire up CoD:MW2 the CPU jumps to about 55C and the motherboard jumps to 63C. I'm sure the issue is caused by the increased heat producing GPUs and the decreased airflow, again caused by the huge GPUs. I had though about putting an small heatsink with fan on the ICH10R, but I'm not sure that is possible due to the end of the video card in the 2nd PCIE x16 slot hanging directly over the Southbridge.

Anyone else have any luck with any other solutions?

I am considering moving my hard drives from the bottom front of the case to the empty optical drive bays, in hopes that the air coming in the bottom front of the case will be cooler when it hits the Southbridge if it isn't blowing past the hard drives first.

And Pedro, thanks for the thermal engineering lesson, but I'm sure most of us here understand the basics of thermal transfer and cooling. This is more of a search for the best solution that has worked for others.

Dan

I've got an almost identical setup as yours, minus one GTX275 and a different arrangement of HDD's... My power supply is also different, a 700W Silverstone (figured I didn't need 1000 since I'm only using a single GPU). That Mugen-II is really efficient btw! I've never seen my CPU get over 60 degrees, however when I'm running any GPU intensive games I have seen my mobo temp go up from idle at around 40-45 all the way to 60 deg Celsius within about an hour of gameplay. My case has pretty good airflow too, I think it's a Thermaltake Tornado or some such thing, but it's got 3 120mm exhaust fans (2 in rear and 1 beneath CPU mount) and a 160mm intake in the front, with large ventilation grills on all sides. My guess is that these P6T's just run a bit hot. Perhaps it's an issue with the efficiency of the heat pipe like some have suggested, but I'm not really sure. Haven't tested out the temp of my GPU directly, though due to its size I'm sure it's got to have some impact on the air flow to the mobo...

 

[ginobili1]

I am also having the same problem. The MB temperature is going above 60C and then if I try to put the threshold high the system will lock. I have tried increasing the fan speeds to a point where they don't make much noise and its still the same.
My setup is:
i7 930 (stock speed)
ASUS p6t (no overclock)
5850 Radeon

I have also installed an extra fan on the case to keep it cool but to no use. I have a top and back 120mm for outtake and two front 120mm ones for intake. One fan is completely in front of the VGA and the other is front of CPU (mem etc.). The CPU cooler is Cooler master!

The air flow looks to be nice but the system still goes towards 60C and then locks if I increase the threshold temp!

I am really in a fix and don't know what I can do with this setup!

 

[ssjgokoux2]

I just purchased a 80mm Vent Duct to help cool my i7 930.
Basically right now I'm using the Cooler Master Hyper N520, that has two 80MM fans. I ordered an adapter to replace one of the 80mm Fans with a extremely powerful 120mm fan that pushes 100+ CFM. This reduced my CPU by about 10C and I have a 80MM Vent Pipe that is coming in the mail. I purchased a Coolerguys Flexible Vent Duct Tubing with 80mm Fan End Caps, I'm going to set it up to by pass any air that is coming from inside my Case. Currently I have two Nvidia GTX260's that are putting out a Ton of Heat and it isn't helping my system.

 

[daywalker88]

OMG mine maximum temperature goes till 81C plz help me out... thanks in advance