Serious Asus Rampage problem.

Demonmirc · 17 Mar 2010 at 07:15

As title I have a Asus Rampage Formula I purchased on the 25/02/2010. It was running fine and I was wrongly checking my temps with CPUID Hardware monitor. I thought things were fine. I then OC my Q9550 from 2.83Ghz to 3.9Ghz, Im also running crossfire 5850's at 1.15v 900/1200.

Recently my pc just kept shutting down and I could not figure out why. I thought it was the GPU's overheating . I then installed good old Everest and found I think the problem. With my Oc in place my Northbridge temps hit 78-86 degrees and SB 55 degrees. Eventhough the pc protection temps are 90 at 86 it goes off. This is too hot I think. at one point it was 184 degrees F.

Should I RMA the board to seller, I think the board for its cost should be pushable. Even now with my OC right down to 3.4 and my NB voltage down Im showing 63 c at idle. Far too hot. Anyone agree.

JonJ678 · 17 Mar 2010 at 10:32

Software measurements of temperature are notoriously inaccurate. Touch the northbridge heatsink while the computer is on, if it's actually at 80 degrees it'll burn you.

What voltage were you using on the northbridge?

Was it stable previously, or was it only "stable enough so it didn't crash while gaming"?

Demonmirc · 17 Mar 2010 at 11:31

JonJ678 said:
Software measurements of temperature are notoriously inaccurate. Touch the northbridge heatsink while the computer is on, if it's actually at 80 degrees it'll burn you.

What voltage were you using on the northbridge?

Was it stable previously, or was it only "stable enough so it didn't crash while gaming"?

Hi,

The heatsink was searing hot, could not touch for a second. I have removed the heatsink and the thermal paste/pad was pathetic, it literally peeled off with my finger. Gonna reapply and resit and see what happens. Cheers for reply. Not stable enough to game for any longer than 10 mins, doesnt help with the heat crossfire 5850 pumps out.

JonJ678 · 17 Mar 2010 at 11:44

Ah. Glad you checked it, but yeah, that somewhat confirms the software reading. Asus' thermal paste can be rubbish, remounting the heatsink is a good idea. That the heatsink was hot to the touch suggests heat transfer from chip to heatsink was alright, bad contact would lead to a very hot chip and a cool heatsink.

Next step is a fan positioned to blow air over the northbridge heatsink. I've sat a 120mm fan on top of a graphics card, held in place with cable ties. You're using a H50 according to your sig, so there's loads of space for a 120mm fan over the cpu socket.

I'm guessing the H50 is set to exhaust to stop it drawing warm air from the graphics cards. That's a lot of air blowing out the back of the case, hopefully there's at least two 120mm fans acting as intake from the front. Airflow over the cpu socket will be very messy with a fan blowing at the motherboard. I'd personally move the H50 fan so it's between the case and the radiator, acting as an exhaust. That's on a hunch though, it may take quite a lot of trial and error to find the best compromise. A nice example of why I think watercooling is easier than air.