sabertooth p67 PCI E lanes hot!

[rfowler30]

whenever i play games for atleast 30 or more minutes, games like crysis and metro 2033 the first pci E lane gets to 60c and the second gets to 59c. im running 2x gtx 580s and even with the cooler master haf x case and an antec spot fan blowing cool air in between the graphic cards, the PCI Express lane always gets hot(although my gpu temps stay within the early 70c). i keep getting warning pop ups from the Ai Suite II from the thermal radarand ive read on other forums that i should get a 50 mm fan for i believe its the northbridge(instruction manual doesnt show pictures of what it is) also (its located beneath the cpu), currently its getting no cooling. ive heard it lowers temps for the mobo due to how the thermal armor works. is 60c or 59c for the PCI Express lanes safe at these temperatures, also if i get the 50mm fan what direction should i make it face?

 

[cadaveca]

nVidia says that dual 580's in SLi need like 158CFM of airflow blowing across them. Do you have this airflow?

 

[rfowler30]

i have a 200 mm fan on the side of the case blowing air out at 110 CFM, but i also have an antec spot fan blowing cool air inbetween the graphic card 1 and 2 at 3000 rpm at 22cm(this lowered my temps by atleast 12c for gpu 1, gpu 2 didnt have temp issues)

 

[cadaveca]

Yeha, the 50mm fan to go in the hole there needs to blow towards the board, and will help airflow under the "Thermal Armor".

 

[rfowler30]

should i go with a 50mm fan with a faster rpm or a great cfm??? i was considering this one EVERCOOL FAN-EC5020M12CA 50mm Case Fan

 

[newtekie1]

The problem with the Sabertooth board is that stupid plastic "armor" shit covering the entire board. I can't believe ASUS would be that stupid in designing a motherboard. It relies on the downward airflow from a downward blowing heatsink to provide airflow under the plastic and cool the board. If you aren't using a downward blowing heatsink on the CPU, then the board overheats because the plastic doesn't allow normal airflow over the board, and simply pointing a fan at it does nothing because the plastic blocks any airflow from the fan from reaching the board.

So if you aren't using a downward blowing CPU cooler, you have to attach a fan to the little openning under the CPU. I'm kind of disappointed that ASUS doesn't provide this fan, as I feel they should like when they provided fans with their other boards to put on the VRM heatsinks around the CPU socket when using water cooling. It scares me even more that no where does ASUS seem to tell people that they need to do this if they aren't using a downward blowing CPU heatsink.

 

[rfowler30]

installed the 50 mm fan, didnt power it through the motherboard, powered it through connection cords it came with to make it run full speed. temps are way down, motherboard as well as other components(such as PCI E 1 and 2)must not have been breathing properly. thank you everyone.