turn your A8N32-SLI upside down

[astromoose]

Will someone with an Asus A8N32-SLI in a normal case please do me a humongous favor by running a test with your case upsidedown to see if the temperature on the motherboard (northbridge and southbridge) changes much at all. I am considering mounting the board in an inverted case and on forums all over the internet some people say it doesn?t make a difference being upsidedown (the heatpipe is the issue in question) and some people say the heatpipe doesn?t work nearly as well. If someone could do this it would clear up a lot of confusion and ambiguity. Thanks very much!

for the curious the system I am considering setting up is going to be something like:
Athlon X2 4200+
Asus A8N32-SLI mainboard
Evga 7800GT (second card to be added later)
2GB OCZ memory
150 gig raptor (more storage added as needed)
Lian li V1100 case
x-fi soundcard
dell 2005fpw (probably actually waiting for 2007fpw which is due soon)

what do you all think, any components that really need to be upgraded?

thanks

 

[AntiStatic]

Asus says: don't do it. a lot of people have problems with heat and this board running right side up. i have one (and a LL v1000) but i bought a stacker to put it in rather than risk problems.

 

[VERTIGGO]

first off, if you're going for a badass setup like that, dont use the 7800GT wait a little for 7900, or a better single card.

However, I should be getting my cpu and paste here in a day or two, and as soon as I get it running, I'll be testing for exactly what you're talking about. I have my V1200 all setup and modified upside down already, as I think the cooling setup is better anyway, but I'm going to test the temps for an [ATX] orientation as well.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c16/vertiggo/New%20Build/P2040002.jpg

 

[astromoose]

nice setup you have yourself... does the case still look cool sitting upsidedown? are you running those raptors in RAID?

i was going with the 7800GT because of the price/performance, and i figured i could add a second one for pretty cheap after the 7900 is out. I know its not due out until around april, i don't think i want to wait that long but do you have any idea about what the prices of these cards will be?

i'm anxious to hear your temp results once you get the CPU. much appreciated.

 

[VERTIGGO]

I had bad experiences with RAID, and it's not worth the negligable benefeits it grants a "home user". This is my HDD plan:

74GB Raptor
Windows XP
Utility installations
Personal files (pics, documents)

74GB Raptor
Windows page file
Music

150GB Raptor
Game installations

400GB Caviar
Manual backup of program files, personal, music, and games

As for the case, I don't use the wheels anyway, so the only visual difference that's noticeable is the perforations are on the topside, which I don't mind much, and I'd like to think that the heat is rising off of the HDDs and escaping instead of cooking the rest of the case.

It seems the only recent graphics to be way over priced recently is the 7800 512, but most of the other top models release at around $500 now. That said, I'm pretty sure my x1900 smokes two GTs, and it can be had for $480, which beats the GTs also. Not to mention the advantage of newer shader processing. This thing cranks out COD2 and FEAR like nobody's business. I'm sure if you want nVidia, that the 7900 will perform similarly, and shouldn't cost the $600 of two GTs, and would be a better choice unless you already have one.

 

[dworley]

I tried the A8N-32-SLI in my Lian-Li V1000B case (inverted) and the Northbridge was getting fairly hot. It idled around 48C and load temps after about 20 minutes of gaming were 60C. (I even added a 120mm fan blowing directly over the video cards onto the MB.)

I ended up using a plain old A8N-SLI with a fan mate on the Northbridge fan to slow it down to 4900RPM and my Idle temps are 36C and load temps of 42C.

The only difference I noticed with the A8N32-SLI was that I could overclock the CPU higher, other than that my benchmarks scored only a few points higher on the A8N32-SLI and I obserevd no difference in game performance.

I prefer the better spacing for the video cards of the A8N-SLI anyway since I am running (2) 7800GTX 512's

 

[astromoose]

I think i may actually spring for the X1900XT . What do you all think, 2x 74 gig raptors or one 150gb raptor?
Or on the other hand i could downgrade a bunch of components and go with a 24" monitor instead of 20". I would like to keep the budget under around $2500. I am having trouble deciding exactly what to get.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: astromoose
I think i may actually spring for the X1900XT . What do you all think, 2x 74 gig raptors or one 150gb raptor?
Or on the other hand i could downgrade a bunch of components and go with a 24" monitor instead of 20". I would like to keep the budget under around $2500. I am having trouble deciding exactly what to get.

I'd go ahead and grab a Raptor 150, and a 250 - 400gb hd for storage right off the bat. You'd be set.

 

[Skott]

You could get a 74GB Raptor and a good 250GB HD for less than the price of one 150GB Raptor.

 

[astromoose]

i guess i'll probably wait for the A8R32-MVP

 

[Yreka]

I was acutally going to post about this, as I was curious myself. Mine hangs around 40c normally. Turned my case upside down for about a week, and I didnt notice a change in the temps at all. Highest it ever got was 42c.

Does anyone have a link where Asus says this is a no-no. I will doublecheck my manual, but I dont remember seeing anything about it.

 

[Skott]

I think it was people posting that they spoke to ASUS techs and was told they dont reccomend it. I have heard it can be done but you need to mod some air onto the heatpipe to keep it from getting too hot.

 

[lopri]

What ASUS says: The temps should be within specs whether the board is mounted up/down, but ASUS generally recommends use with *normal* ATX compliant cases.

What I say: Temps can be quite different and the NF4 chip will be literally burning hot. If you don't believe what I say, play games, or run SuperPI32M, etc. for 30 mins and touch the HSF. If you can keep your finger down on the tiny HSF for longer than 10 seconds, well, I will give you a cookie. The temps might be within specs if you run everything @spec. (a.k.a. no OC) I realize this thread is about A8N32-SLI, not A8N-SLI Premium, but whichever it is, the lower the temps the better it is.

Easy fix:
http://img498.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc001121yz.jpg

Or even putting a small HSF on top can significantly lower the temps. In my case I lowered nearly 10C on both the chipset and video card with the above mod.

 

[VERTIGGO]

ATX style:

ROOM TEMP
79F

MB IDLE
31C

CPU IDLE
36C

MB LOAD
31C

CPU LOAD
40C

(UPSIDE DOWN)

ROOM TEMP
79F

MB IDLE
31C

CPU IDLE
36C

MB LOAD
32C

CPU LOAD
40C

Of course, my temps are pretty good anyway, and I haven't overclocked yet.

 

[astromoose]

interesting vertiggo, thanks for the test

i know you have ATI for video, i think i am also going to get the X1900 , what do you speculate about A8N32-SLI vs. A8R32-MVP using the X1900XT. i know anandtech had an article on the MVP that they took down where they compared the A8N32-SLI and A8R32-MVP both with a 7800GTX, but then only put an X1900XT in the MVP, not the SLI ... i guess the MVP would be the logical choice because it would result in putting both ATI products together (chipset and video),,, taking the dual video card option out of the picture i would think both motherboards would probably have nearly equivalient performance with the 1900.. or do you think the RD580 is sketchy, because the RD480 was a little immature.

 

[VERTIGGO]

i have yet to look into the RD580, but if I had the choice now, I would go with the ATI chipset, because I love my Radeons, and I'd like the option for crossfire. At the moment I'd have to switch to nVidia just to upgrade my graphics.