990FXA-UD3 NorthBridge gets HOT / has funny smell

[tomana]

Just bought a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 mobo from Newegg and I've been running it since yesterday. At first the NB ran warm to hot but I think after I upgraded the BIOS from F2 to F4 the NorthBridge gets HOT and it is definately generating a funny smell, like the smell of a brand new hot-running cheap quality power supply (not a burnt smell, it's too hard to describe).

I tried BIOS F2 again to see if the NB temp ran lower (and it does, 46C max under full cpu load) but with F4 installed the NM gets almost too hot to touch and the NB temp is hitting 55C

Even though this board has a three year warranty, I'd rather not have to use it - especially if the NB heatsink was designed too small?

I'm now considering doing an RMA. Any official feedback would be appreciated.

[absic]

Hi there,

if you have any concerns over such things as NB temps then the best advice would be to RMA the board, epsecially as you have just got hold of it.  said

Without knowing your full system spec's it's hard to say though, if this is a major problem or just the usual bedding down process. When I first took delivery of my GA-990FXA-UD5 I noticed some odd smells, that like you I couldn't quite describe, but they soon passed and everything has been running fine since. I guess the heat from actually running the board was just burning off some of the residue chemicals.

[Dark Mantis]

As absic says there is often the smells of production chemicals being released into the air when you start running a new board or in fact any new appliance that gets at all hot. This normally diminishes within a week or so and it all settles down. You can of course RMA the board but if that is all it is you will find the same with the next one. Even if the NB is getting a bit warm it is easy to remedy that with a better heatsink or extra fan etc.

[absic]

Hi again,

just saw your post over on TweakTown ( http://forums.tweaktown.com/gigabyte/46038-990fxa-ud3-northbridge-gets-hot-generates-smell.html )about this and I have to say that as you are overclocking and also running an unlocked CPU then the temps are about what I would be expecting and are quite within the safe limits.

The "burning" smell should pass within a few days and will be more noticeable then usual due to the slightly higher temps you are reaching than you would if you were running your system at default settings.