X58A-UD3R X58 NB cooling

[jdvoracek]

When I changed my stock Intel CPU cooler to a CoolMaster Hyper 212 my CPU temperature dropped about 10 degrees C, and I could run OCCT CPU tests without OCCT complaining the CPU was getting too hot.  My X58 North Bridge temperature, however, went up about 10 degrees C, and the X58 chip got hotter than the CPU under OCCT.  While the X58 probably can tolerate the heat, it annoyed me.  Looking at my case, air flows in via the rear fan, through the CPU cooler, then out via the front fan (not visible).  There was a "dead zone" beneath the video card and above the CPU cooler with little airflow right where the X58 sits with that silly Gigabyte decorative cover over the heat sink fins.  Some builders just remove that cover, but as folks here know, sometime you might want to RMA your mobo, so I didn't want to do that.  The solution was to add an $8 AOC FC-2000 PCI Slot Case Cooler in the unused slot beneath the video card.  The fan sucks air in out of what was previously a dead airflow area and exhausts it out the back.  It's fairly quiet and makes a swooshing sound rather than the typical sound of my case fans. My X58 temperature is now actually lower than when I was running the Intel stock cooler which probably blew some air onto the X58 heat sink.  The green arrows show the airflow direction.

[Dark Mantis]

You are quite right, when you change from the stock coolers you lose the airflow out of the sides which normally keeps the components like the northbridge cool. The new coolers do a better job of cooling the CPU but at the expense of the other components. I get around this by water cooling all my components but if you want to air cool then you need to resort to a solution like jdvoracek's. Another way is to fix a fan blowing straight onto the NB. I have done a similar thing to keep my components around the CPU cool as I have no airflow to speak of in that area at all.