The motherboard in my old system just died after ~4 years. Getting a new motherboard meant upgrading CPU\RAM to new hardware standards. (Hence the old GPU.) We have several computers on the family network, so backwards compatibility is useful. Jetway's is the only board compatible with DDR2 & DDR3 as well as AM_ socket types, very versatile. It was recently offered with a Phenom II as a combo deal on newegg - $70 off on a $75 board for buying a decent processor. I thought it made sense... However, after successfully flashing the bios (no errors) and rebooting the system, CPUID Hardware Monitor is reporting 'System' (TMPIN1) is reaching 120ºC! System Specs OS: Windows XP Motherboard: Jetway XBlue 78GA3 LF PSU: OCZ ModXStream 700w CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 GPU: GeForce 6800 GS RAM: 1x Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1333 (2gb) Peripherals: - PS/2 Keyboard\Mouse - Speakers - 2x IDE Hard-Drive - 1x PCI-IDE Expansion Card - 1x IDE CD\DVD RW - 2x Front Panel USB - 2x Rear Panel USB - 1x USB Hard-Drive Tower Setup consists of only the stock fans & heatsinks: the PSU Fan, the CPU Fan, GPU Fan, and the Rear Fan. The side panels are not on. Ambient temperature is ~70ºF. The CPU (and all other components including TMPIN2) idle at 25-45ºC. The 'System Temperature' in bios increases from ~20ºC up to ~45ºC as well. As soon as Windows boots up, it quickly (before the Hardware monitor loads) jumps up to 118-120ºC. When shutting down the system, it quickly (before it enters BIOS) drops back down to 40ºC. If it is left running in windows for more than a minute or so, both the Northbridge and Southbridge heatsinks become hot enough to be uncomfortable if held for more than a second or two. The heatsinks don't appear to be loosened. Removing the video card from the system drops the temperature by ~10ºC. (It also decreases my RAM to 1.7gb for some inexplicable reason.) Holding a large fan up to the side of the tower reduced the temperature by another 10ºC. I've tried throttling the CPU by >30% with no effect (It's idle anyway). I tried to underclock the RAM and CPU, but Jetway's bios is notoriously unfriendly with non-default settings, and I had to reset CMOS to get it to post again. In short, this doesn't appear to be a sensor or software issue, the Northbridge (if not the Southbridge) appears to be genuinely reaching 120ºC, which is clearly an unacceptable amount of heat to leave the system running for any length of time - even though the system appears to somehow be stable at this temperature.. My questions are: 1. Is there a better way to tell if the system is actually overheating? 2. What is the most likely cause of the overheating? 3. How much reduction could I expect from Thermal Compounds and\or Chipset Fan\Heatsinks? 4. What should I look for in the latter case? 5. Is there anything else I can do to reduce the temperature? 6. How can I determine if the bridges have already been damaged by these temperatures? 7. Would this problem persist if I paired the motherboard with more 'cost-efficient' RAM\CPU? 8. Should I try to fix & make use of this motherboard - if not in the above system, in another one? Or is it defective enough to warrant replacement?
try speedfan. Each chipset varies some run hotter than others, but you've gotta take into consideration these controllers do alot of work. It can also be cheap crap heatsinks also the thermal paste that has been used. If you invest in some decent thermal paste such as artic silver 5 and a good pair of heatsinks and chipset fans you would notice a considerable drop in temp. If you want it to drop really low watercooling is the best solution. If the north and southbridge controllers had been damaged by the heat you would know about it, especially if the northbridge controllers where damaged it wouldn't post. if southbridge controllers where damaged you would notice some controllers wouldn't work also the drivers reportin to device manager there is a problem with various controllers. No point wasting your cash on another cpu and ram modules they have nothing to do with it. so overall either invest in better passive heatsinks or chipset fans or go for watercooling. if you sent the board back to the manufacturer they would send it straight back to you because everythin works.
