junediy

iamsynth, That Asus link would not load for me, so now I don't know if the cooler you are using is OK for a 4000+ SanDiego. Most likely not by your high temps with cover off, I suspect it is not even touching the CPU and bottoming out on the clamping bracket instead. Asus makes a very nice small barebones PC and has very small coolers with them for running a slow CPU not a 4000+ it may be for that or still Intel. It depends on if you want a big case or small case, if you like building PC's and plan on keeping the same case you may want a big one to allow full ATX later, big cases are much easier to work inside, run cooler, allow more fans, and make it all more fun. A good bang for buck case with very good air flow design is the Ultra Grid on Tiger Directs web site, as well as the Ultra Defender, I'm using the Rosewill R634-sl from NewEgg on my current PC, but I might switch to a smaller Cooler Master Centurion 541 RC-541 SKN 1 that runs the motherboard upside down ATX-B style. Only because I really need to fit three more PC's at my desk. It will run hotter because the Cooler Master case is smaller I'm sure. I didn't want clear side cover so I could cut holes all over and run more fans, but the RS482 is a nice board to show off. The Rosewill is good, but I got rid of the slow fan it came with, and I got rid of the toolless PCI bracket in back and just use screws to hold my cards in. I also got rid of the tooless fan brackets and mounted the fans with screws, I cut holes in the side cover to run extra fans and put filters on them, it has spaces for five optical drives and I only use one DVD burner so I put a 120mm fan in the extra 4 bays and a filter on it, the bottom fan came with a filter. There are two thumb spots on the front cover bottom so you can remove it to clean the filter, they will break off the first time you use them, so it is best to remove the side covers and reach inside to remove the front cover, the Rosewill is actually 19" x 19' x 8.5. no sharp corners decent paint but Chinese steel, easy to cut with aviation snips, very heavy. Not much to look at compared to any Ultra or Antec case. Always be sure to check front case wires as the factory always mixes those up and plugging USB to Fire wire can blow your mother board and power supply. I don't connect the front audio because I like 8 channel sound, I use the front USB, but wish it came with the Firewire so I can download from my Niece's video cam without reaching around back for the socket. I would suggest you try to get a case with Firewire supported in front or add it sometime. The cases that have that are usually expensive. You may want to get an even better CPU cooler if you get a case with room, the Tunig does a bit better than the XP90C and ReelFiles is running that on his AMD Opteron OC at decent temps, you need to be carefull when you use a heavy copper sink & fan and not bump the PC around at all, one screw at the bottom of the Rosewill is missing for mother board but doesn't seem to matter, but on any case be sure to remove any mounts they pre-install. Most tooless systems are crummy but it is getting hard to find without. Aline and mark the mounting holes for the mother board and install studs. Remove everything from the case that you can before installing mother board and install the heavy PSU first so you don't drop it on the motherboard, drape the wires out side the case to get them out of the way, put the RAM & CPU cooler & the IDE ribbons on to the mother board ahead of time and roll them up and hold with rubber bands, Be sure to get the front wires correctly connected, reversing certain ones cause some troubles. Be sure your rear IO plate is mounted to mother board before install. Never push on the fan blades as it will damage and slow its RPM. If you want to keep what ever case you get and not RMA it, then maybe remove all breakouts you want out of the way before putting in the mother board to prevent a slip and damage to mother board. Most people prefer the new Antec 190 case and it may be expensive but very well made. I also have a very old Antec and it has held up well. But my favorite is any Ultra.

iamsynth, as far as the south bridge showing 110F, all I can think is the case is trapping in the very hot temps from the CPU and north bridge, make sure front fans are blowing in, and rear fans are blowing out, I cut holes in my side cover to install very large fans blowing in, I didn't use quite fans, and yet I can hardly hear them running. 120mm Fans for servers are low cost and really move a lot of air, but those can become loud, and might need a fan controller to slow them down a bit when not needed so fast. (search newegg for 80 to 110 CFM case fans). But if the CPU is running hot then north bridge will also, the heat will mess up your voltages too, "heat adds resistance and resistance adds heat" so temps can really climb and not always be picked up by the sensors that you read in Smart Guardian. Antech sells a 120mm spot fan that can mount inside and swivel around to aim at the hot spots but you still need proper air flow in and out of your case, it is very important for the modern high end stuff that you are running. Some nice case designs are becoming mostly mesh screen all around to allow enough air to keep the modern stuff cool. For certain the faster your computer the more heat it will make. Make sure nothing is blocking your case for air circulation like some of those desks that have a small cubby for the PC to sit in and cook, cut holes in the desk back and sides if it is closed off, and don't close a door over the front if it has one of those. The RS482 Infinity is very well made and can take a lot of abuse so you may be OK still, but that P4 CPU cooler on a AMD939 was a big mistake, I need to ask what kind of case you are using? It all adds up to more money when you might not be able to afford the correct things right away. You may end up needing to run it like my friend's P4 till you can afford everything, but for sure don't run that Asus P4 fan and heat sink on your AMD939. Even a TR3 or TR2 would be better, but it's not designed for the 4000+ SanDiego, good choice by the way. That was near $1000.00 a year ago! These RS482 Infinity boards make very respectful gamming rigs by the way when you add a PCIe video card and have the 4000+ SanDiego. I don't have mine set up that way yet, but will when I can afford it, I have built several that way for others that could afford it though, and they are really fast and much cooler with an add in dual slot PCIe video card and the on-board video "Disabled" and not sharing system RAM in BIOS.

Get a different CPU Cooler, get one for 939 socket instead of an exclusive Intel LGA775 style cooler for your AMD Motherboard. Everything will run hotter including Northbridge and VRM and Caps using the wrong cooler! It is going to be difficult to find one that will fit other than the stock AMD one, some AMD 939 Opteron sinks came with heat tubes and those are great, especially when room temps are so uncomfortably hot. Your RAM sinks may get in the way of something like Ultra X-Wind but that one cools everything very well, one that may fit but not as cool as X-Wind is the XP90C all copper, or a Zalman CNPS7700. All expensive but not compared to original recommended prices of your current hardware. We are not supposed to run computers in 90F rooms so try to get copper and heat tubes incorporated in your heat sink and a real good fan, don't worry about silent fans, those are for people that run whole house AC at 78F. Be sure to remove that pad and any glue that may have stuck, and save that Pentium4 fan for someone running Intel. I've also used the Tunig on this Motherboard and found it very cool running for the CPU, but those flower designs like X-Wind that blow down cool all the other hot spots too. Check your board and chips for heat discoloring from running so hot, and your capacitors for discoloring and even leakage if they got hot enough. When capacitors have been heat damaged the motherboard becomes a fire danger and shouldn't be left unattended. Nothing on a computer was designed to run in room at 95F so you need to do all you can to bring in cooler air and exhaust out hot air. I know someone that is running their hot P4 with no side cover and has one room type big box fan aimed into the case to keep air moving cause he can't afford anything else.

iamsyn: I wish I could remember exactly where I found the cure to your exact problem as it was written much better than I can. But I now think yours is heat related, didn't know yours was running that hot. I think 55c for this board is much too high. Mine would lock up at that temp, the highest I've seen on any I've installed is 38c using the stock cooler set low RPM on the 3700+ and 4000+ CPU during Rise of Nations. Setting to full RPM cured that. I think only the cheap no name mobo needs double flashing of the BIOS. I only flashed one of these DFI boards and used the Diamond flash and the owner said it improved, I couldn't tell a difference, he was using only media center OS. When you erase the CMOS with the jumper, with power disconnected, after erase hit the delete key on restart and go first to set "default minimum" and say yes, then set to "default optimum", and say yes, then go to PNP and enable to reset, then reset date and time and any thing you need different, I leave most all on Default Optimum and auto detect, get it to boot and go back later if I want to bump things up. In System Monitor make sure your cooling is either Smart Guardian or Full, disable cool and quiet. Then save settings and exit. I don't even install Cool & Quiet drivers ever. In windows you can set your guardian to Fahrenheit if that makes more sense to you, mine always runs about 87F to 97F depending on room temp. What is your room temp? and what CPU fan? You may need to reseat your CPU cooler, make sure your wires are away from air flow to CPU, it will be very difficult to remove the heat sink after it has been very hot and not harm the pins on the CPU and socket, some people have pulled the pins right out of the CPU trying, clean the old paste off with alcohol and reapply a thin coat of diamond paste or artic silver according to instructions. The stock paste would have been fine if there was any, but yours seems to have a seating problem or not flat maybe, something is wrong to run that hot. Make sure your resolution is at least 1024x768 to get the load off the CPU. I can't know for sure but really think you have a cooling problem, with side cover off I can't reach 37C when room temp is 95F no matter what game I'm running. I also use the Rosewill 450 because of reviews on NewEgg, except when it is for 1900 and above add in video card, then I use a 500 watt of most any make like Ultra, or Corsair when someone has the money for that. But anything better is more for SLI or Crossfire and not needed on single slot. I have one friends DFI RS482 running a no name 300watt PSU just fine. It depends on CPU cooler but a stock one should be around 3444 RPM set to full when temps are above 37C. You seem to have smart guardian under control but maybe set to default first then back to software at full, I think SG is a bit funky like written in Taiwan maybe. Are you sure you need to replace RAM, all your hardware seems top notch including PSU, it seems more likely a cooling problem at the heat sink, did you use some kind of thermal paste interface? I'm no pro at all, but have had much help through the years from sites like this and manufactures through email and a genius nephew has really helped. I hope you can fix your heat problems then I bet it will run perfect for you. Keep searching all the forums. I try to twist a tiny bit back and forth on an old heat sink after releasing the clamp before any lifting pressure, but know I may break both the board and CPU trying. Try to keep any old or new paste off of anything so it won't short out the board. You may need to re-lap the heat sink if it is not flat and smooth, I use 4000 grit sand paper on glass using a little water and being very careful to keep flat, checking often if it shows not touching some where, (Not Flat). Or just get a better cooler that fits well. I don't think you need to replace RAM or PSU. You won't find much use for that high end DDR RAM except this board as they all are DDR2 now. Try some extra case fans, I run five 120mm & 140mm case fans and cut holes for two and run filters to keep the dust out of the heat sink fins and fans. Heat is the enemy and yours is hot I think. My Nephew always runs seven or more case fans, try to keep equal intake and exhaust and know you have exhaust in the PSU already.

I have seen this restart issue resolved on some forum somewhere before I started using this micro-board for most all the builds I do. I can't remember what or where but I Incorporate all the tips I've learned on each build and have never had an issue. The Rosewill 450 watt PSU is more than enough when using on-board graphics, the 4000+ SanDiego with the XMS RAM is using only 70 to 75 watts at the wall. And each rail is never running low, it is a very well made PSU for its budget target and can handle the 2600xt and 2600pro very well, not the 2900 and not the 1900xt. Make sure your RAM is fully seated in the first two same colored slots, or if clearance is required for CPU heat sink then use the second two same colored slots, remove, look for dirty connectors, and reinsert, same with all power sockets. Always be sure to clear CMOS on any new motherboard before installing, I think that is the reason for the restarts. Be certain to disable Cool and Quiet as that can cause many problems including restarts. Use the Smart-guardian and set it to load at windows and remove the check-mark for always on top. set it to Default then set it to software and raise the fan speeds to full on for all 3 chips. Set the warning temp to 48C for all and you will never reach that when ambient room temp stays below 85F. Never use any of those cool and quiet drivers for any manufacture, maybe in 5 or ten years when they get around to fixing it. If you are playing a full screen game and you hear the small beeps for temp you will know you are at 48C, try setting them to 45C on a hot day just to hear what it sounds like, I think the default is 52C and you will not reach this unless your heat sink was not seated when you clipped it on. Good luck, I have had good luck with over 30 of this DFI RS 482 infinity and plan to do about 4 more before I switch to the Nvidia 6150 version of the DFI micro board for variety.