Motherboard is running EXTREMELY hot. Is it fried?

[samoz3]

Yesterday I purchased a P6T deluxe V2 motherboard. I installed a core i7 920 stock cooler, 6 sticks of DDR3 ram, a Geforce 975 GTX graphics card, and Windows 7.

I have not overclocked at all nor have I installed any BIOS updates. The BIOS version is 0302. I literally bought this motherboard yesterday; I've had it under 48 hours.

However, I've noticed that the motherboard is running EXTREMELY hot. I've confirmed this using Asus Probe II and Everest Ultimate Edition.

While idling I get:
CPU: 38 degrees
GPU: 49 degrees
motherboard: 46 degrees

However, when I ran Empire: Total War for about 10 minutes, the temperatures skyrocketed to:
CPU: ~60 degrees
GPU: ~80 degrees
motherboard: 102 degrees (it was still rising but I killed the game and it dropped back to 46)

Why is this motherboard running so hot? Could this be due a board defect? I have several large fans in the case and the CPU temperature is within reason, so I don't think airflow is a problem.

What could be causing this and how can I resolve it?

 

[lopri]

You would first have to figure out what Everest calls as 'motherboard' temperature. It could be the northbridge, mosfets, or any other part where temp sensor is located. What does Asus Probe II say? I am not familliar with the latest Asus Probe. Is it also labeled "motherboard"?

Sometimes re-seating northbridge heatsink (which is likely connected to VRM heatsink) helps, but ideally you shouldn't have to. If that proves to be the case, however, contact ASUS and make sure you are not voiding warranty by doing so.

 

[lopri]

Oh welcome to AT Forums.

 

[Zap]

samoz3, welcome to Anandtech Forums.

I've also noticed that X58 chipset boards run pretty hot. It isn't a defect. If you want it to run cooler (which you will need if you decide to overclock) then you need to cool it better. You can do this one of several ways:

1) water cool the chipset
2) get a better CPU cooler, but still one that blows down on the board
3) disable Smart Fan in BIOS

#3 doesn't cost anything so you should try it to see if the extra noise is worth the tradeoff for lower temperatures.

 

[Binky]

Are you sure what that temp reading is coming from? That high of a temp (assuming its in Celsius) will be very very hot to the touch.

I see your board comes with quite a few heatsinks...all designed to work best with a downward blowing fan. You've most likely got a side-blowing cpu cooler, which is a problem. The MB comes with a blower fan that (maybe) attaches to something, are you using it? Grab an extra fan from your bag-o-crap and point it at the MB - see if your MB temps change.