Quote Originally Posted by justapost View Post
Hmm I have a fanmate connected to the cpu fan two amd stock cooler fans for pwm and chipset cooling and one additional 12cm fan.
Is all this extra cooling necessary?

MSI board doesn't need any chipset cooling, only PWM airflow is recommended. I've primed mine at 2.64GHz many times with just the stock heatsink/fan without problems.
Idle:
124.5W AC / 99.5W DC (79.9&#37

Load:
198W AC / 159W DC (81.5%)

Compared to 143W AC/111.5W DC so yeah 50-55W difference. On the M3A the system required 172W AC / 140W DC on a setup with an HD2400pro (- 10-15W difference) just one ide hd ( - 2-5 W), no dvd drive ( - 2-5 W) and no extra fan (- 2-5W). Add 15-30W AC and it's equivalent to the saphhire/dfi mobo. Used an 9500 at 2.2GHz 1.18V cpu vid/1.075 nb vid here.
What AOD button color do you have whilst measuring power?

Your idle/load is a lot more than mine, all my Phenoms have been much lower load at stock. I am idling 108-111W AC right now with this setup:

27C ambient
AOD button = yellow
9600BE 204x12.5 (2550MHz) 1.25VID 1.320V
1836MHz HT 1.250V
1836MHz NB 1.25VID
Stock HSF @ 5V 1500RPM
1x Delta (220CFM) 120mm @ 5V 750RPM
Zalman Fanmate
2x 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer @ 2.2V 1088 5-5-5-15-11
2x WD Caviar SE SATA II 76/78GB HDs
1x Seagate 7200.9 SATA II 500GB HD
1x Plextor PX608AL DVD-Re (IDE)
Sapphire HD 2600XT stock 24% fanspeed
2x USB HID peripherals
1x 1Gb LAN
Antec Earthwatts 430W

Quote Originally Posted by Undersea View Post
Just booted into bios and the northbridge is a little toasty at 54c. It is hot to the touch.
You mean the RD790? It's a very cool chip by design, I've no idea how it could be that hot at stock. Mine have all idled low temps. Looks like they may have a bad contact/heatsink. Post pics of the board and esp. the PWM/NB please.