Am i retarded or does the motherboard just have a poor design?

[Haggan]

Yup thats acknowledged by now. Never had this problem before and i had the thought in the back of my mind but i thought it would be np considering the amount of fans i had running all on 12v at the time. 2x 120mm on the side case. 140mm front and top. 2x 120mm "push pull" on the radiator blowing out in the back. OH well, live and learn i guess..

 

But IMO they should have had some safety mechanism built in to prevent you from burning the board. It wouldnt suprise me if the board would die running prime 95 at stock with only one case fan or something. Can just imagine those heatsinks getting hotter and hotter.

 

Think im might buy theese http://www.ocia.net/reviews/trhr-09/page2.shtml if i get my board back repaired from rma. Otherwise ill be looking into evga they have made some sweet looking cards!

[Puck]

You absolutely need to actively cool the passive heatsinks on motherboards when overclocking significant amounts, especially when you are watercooled and do not have the breeze from a big heatsink blowing over them.

 

When you get a new board and start overclocking, its a good idea to carefully touch a few components like the VRMs, northbridge, etc and check to see what is running hot enough to benefit from active cooling.

 

Even if it is not effecting stability, running to hot will severely limit the lifespan of a motherboard - and can even kill it, like you found out.