Sorry if this has been mentioned before but I thought I'd better warn people of a serious design issue with this board. When the A8N Premium board is orientation in a way other than standard the AI Coolpipe does not work at all. This results in the nforce4 chipset becoming blisteringly hot. :Q
I shouldn't think this will be an issue for most people, but you shouldn't plan on running this board in a Silverstone TJ06 case (and possibly some others). The Silverstone has been designed so that the motherboard is mounted vertically on the left hand side of the case, rather then vertically on the right as with most tower cases. With the board mounted on the left hand side everything is effectively upside down to usual (i.e. the processor sits towards the bottom of the case, the pci slots are above the network and sound ports, ect). This also means that the nf4 chipset is sitting above the AI cool-pipe cooling fins. See this picture to get better idea of what I'm talking about: A8N-Premium review at t-break
I'm guessing that whatever is in the coolpipe there isn't enough of it, and I think that an air pocket is being formed at where it meets the nf4 chipset. Due to this air pocket the heatpipe doesn't conduct heat at all and the chipset becomes too hot to touch; the "Fanless Design" logo on the chipset has actually turned rather orange and singed looking on my board.
In effect if I want to use my A8N-Premium board in my Silverstone TJ06 case, without it overheating every 20mins, I have to lay the case on its side or turn it upside down. The heatpipe works perfectly when orientated "correctly", though my case looks rather stupid.
I shouldn't think this will be an issue for most people, but you shouldn't plan on running this board in a Silverstone TJ06 case (and possibly some others). The Silverstone has been designed so that the motherboard is mounted vertically on the left hand side of the case, rather then vertically on the right as with most tower cases. With the board mounted on the left hand side everything is effectively upside down to usual (i.e. the processor sits towards the bottom of the case, the pci slots are above the network and sound ports, ect). This also means that the nf4 chipset is sitting above the AI cool-pipe cooling fins. See this picture to get better idea of what I'm talking about: A8N-Premium review at t-break
I'm guessing that whatever is in the coolpipe there isn't enough of it, and I think that an air pocket is being formed at where it meets the nf4 chipset. Due to this air pocket the heatpipe doesn't conduct heat at all and the chipset becomes too hot to touch; the "Fanless Design" logo on the chipset has actually turned rather orange and singed looking on my board.
In effect if I want to use my A8N-Premium board in my Silverstone TJ06 case, without it overheating every 20mins, I have to lay the case on its side or turn it upside down. The heatpipe works perfectly when orientated "correctly", though my case looks rather stupid.
