Motherboard - Active Cooling Required
Compared to the current X38 desktop chipset, the power consumption of the 5400 workstation part is another few Watts higher. This is due in part to how the Northbridge is still a 90 nm device. When overclocked, Intel's 5400 gets so hot that it requires active cooling.
Intel doesn't include a Northbridge fan with its board, forcing the buyer to find an aftermarket option. We strongly advise against trusting the passive heatsink alone. Either you'll need to ensure that the CPU cooler's airflow also reaches the Northbridge or we recommend installing a fan on the heatsink. In light of the high price of this motherboard, this is a must.
The 5400 Northbridge was designed with system stability as the foremost priority. Thus, the timings of the chips are higher and there are more error correction routines implemented, adversely affecting performance. The performance hit can be attributed in part to how the Northbridge has to manage two CPUs.
