Hey guys,
 
I just got the X58 FTW3 off ebay, it was quite expensive (for this old piece of hardware) but it was completely new with all the stickers on it and the accessories still sealed so I was willing to pay the extra bucks.
However, the Northbridge temps are totally not okay. I overclocked my X5650 to 3,5 GHz, which is running fine, but 4 GHz was absolutely not possible. So I checked the temps and noticed that NB temps are idling at 80-85° C @3,5 GHz and even go up to 90-100° C under load ! I thought well, the TIM is at least 6 years old, so I replaced it with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut (one of the best TIMs on the market I guess) and put it all back together. Still hovering around 80 ° C ..
I bought a Noiseblocker XM-2 and screwed it on the heatsink, now with all the fans in my case running at 100% (which is loud !! damn) I get around 65° C. With everything at 50% it's still around 70° C. While writing this post, no stress testing !
What the heck is happening ? Is the stock heatsink really that bad ? I mean this board was advertised for dat OC but I don't see that happening with temps like that. Beforehand I had a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, which is ugly as hell but I got 4 GHz rock stable (with a considerably smaller aftermarket heatsink on the NB, giving me around 50-60 ° C under full load) ..
Or is it the mounting pressure ? I read that many folks had similar issues because of loose screws. I think I tightened them well enough, but I didn't use much force since I didn't want to break my motherboard ..
My last resort would be adding a northbridge cooler block to my Alphacool Eisbaer 280 but I would like to avoid that (cost factor and I think the stock one looks cool :D).
 
Anyway, suggestions are much appreciated.
Thanks in advance, have a good one.

I did notice that heatsink got really hot, so I wire tied a 60mm fan to the heatsink on mine.
After that it was only a bit warm to the touch.
Not sure what the exact chip temp was, but I am sure it helped.
 

considering that board is about 8yrs old the TIM might have dried up and needs replaced, 60c is about the normal temp, 80 is way to hot

quadlatte
considering that board is about 8yrs old the TIM might have dried up and needs replaced, 60c is about the normal temp, 80 is way to hot

perkyagnostic
I thought well, the TIM is at least 6 years old, so I replaced it with Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut (one of the best TIMs on the market I guess) and put it all back together. Still hovering around 80 ° C ..

 
;_;
 

MikkelFied
Take the airflow for the case and your gpu in consideration as well.

The northbridge on my EVGA Classifies 4-Way SLI got up to 75 degrees celcius due to the gpu exhausting its heat all over it. (My gpu is a EVGA 780 TI Classified K|ngp|n edition.

After i completely redesigned my systems airflow it topped out would be from idle to max 48-60 degrees.

I guess you're right, my GTX 1080 is right below the northbridge heatsink, there is only a small gap between the fan an the backplate of my gpu. But I already tried to insert the 1080 in the second PCIe slot but the massive length of the card seems to interfere with the sata connectors .. at least I was too scared to push it down .. maybe I should try this again :/
 
Edit: Wow, I moved my 1080 one slot lower and installed noctua fans on my radiator and now I get temps below 60° even while playing Battlefield 1. Awesome ! Thanks a lot.
But the game crashed with a direct X error .. hmpf