Mr mbreslin - regarding the north bridge silent pipe - I haven't used one in ages - I tossed it long ago on my x58 extreme board and never installed it on the ud7.
Major nusense - always getting in the way.
I run an open case.
When i need extra cooling on the NB I point a fan at it and turn up the rpm's.
I do need to do this when benching with ich10 arrays.