Which alternative would You consider is better when taking sound pressure level into consideration:
1) passive cooling of CPU with a large tower heatsink + a nearly silent fan blowing at components
2) a fan blowing rather fast through a heatsink

I don't know the components, but if I speak what I noticed when I tested cooling of components without heatsinks (other that these), the only that worked was a 120 mm Nexus at 12V very near blowing directly or at leat at an angle of 45 degrees at the components to be cooled. if the flow is parallel,...

Thanks for the good comments. I think the same. It seems that Intel makes well designed products, because they are extremely well documented and work as documented. I haven't noticed any deviation from the documentation, and installation was only to put the hardware in, put the CD in, READY!, everyt...

The Intel board we discuss has only 5 stages and only measurement of temperature, and no heatsinks on VRM. The ASUS board VRM temperature control You mentioned seems to be very advanced compared with the Intel. Unfortunately, the board doesn't accept i3 530 so I couldn't consider it. I think the Int...

Thanks for comments, Is it really so that if VRMs get overheated, CPU throttles? I have information that the throttling is controlled by CPU temp, but I am not expert on this field. For the Intel board, there is a design parameter "air flow at VRM area", and was it as high as 2 m/s! So, it may be th...

Intel boards might be meant for office computers, and for commercial, larger builders. Intel has many excellent technical documents about each their board, but I have noticed, other manufacturers have only one poor...medium quality document (not always real english, unclearly, not precisely written,...

DQ57TM has double dual DVI and low power consumption, and excellent documentation. Installation was very easy and works fine. There may be better boards too but I don't have the time to test them. Intel boards may be planned so that they work fine with the stock cooler while other boards are more fo...

BACKGROUND: With many boards, if we think about long term component life, the VRM area gets very hot while the CPUs are cooled with modern tower heatsinks very effectively. PROBLEM: With a tower CPU cooler, the VRM area may get too hot. With a top-down CPU cooler, effective coooling of VRM area with...

I also experimented with some combinations of chassis airflow, but I noticed that the only thing very effective was a relatively direct, strong airflow to the VRM area. An other option could be adding heatsinks, but that wouldn't cool all components and would be riskier, and in the board I have, the...

Thanks for the comment, I think You understood me wrong, because what You wrote is approximately the same than that I wrote about CPU; I meant a situation, where the CPU is safe but the VRMs and/or the northbridge get overheated; in this case, the throttling of the CPU will save nothing, because VRM...

I have P180, and I do have integrated graphics; I have one Nexus 120 mm fan with the PSU, one at rear drawing air out and one drawing air in hanging near the top exhaust so that it cools the VRM area at an angle of 45 degrees. Placing the fans nearer the components that get hot is a good method espe...

I don't know about VRMs in other motherboards but in the very good and precise technical manual, it is said that the temperature of VRMs should not exceed 70 C in DC57TM. Because there may be only one temperature sensor and this may not be located at the hottest point, I think it is wise to follow t...

Thanks for your comment. Why I wrote that text was my experiences; the CPU of my new system runs mostly between 33 and 34 C while VRM:s are now at 47 C; without added cooling, VRM:s reached 61 C, while the yellow "warning range" of the temperature monitoring software by Intel for the motherboard Int...

Nowadays, CPUs can stand rather high temperatures and can protect themselves by throttling. Instead, motherboard components, e.g. VRMs and Northbridge, may not stand as high temperatures and can't throttle if they are overheated! So, when we see reviews where only CPU temps are measured, and coolers...

The specifications of R2 read: "BITUMEN in sidewalls". and R3: "dense noise absorbing material in sidewalls" There has been complaints about the smell caused by bitumen. Use of bitumen is forbidden on any surface in contact with indoor air according to construction regulation of houses, at least in ...