NorthBridge - how hot does yours run?

[[AK]Clay]

Mine is over 50C, which seems hot. I think the issue is I'm running 4 2GB sticks of OCZ Reapers. DDR3 1600. These are 1.9 V sticks and they pull it too. I'm running them at 1770, and this 2 ur old rig is still flying. But I think that means my Northbridge has to put out some serious power too. According to my mother board, North Bridge nominal is 1.259v and RAM nominal is 1.55. I have them set at 1.497 and 1.908 respectively. Crazy high? It's just air cooled, and my NorthBridge has been set to shut down in BIOS if it hits 80 C. Default was 90.

So my question is are these settings nuts? If I cut back on voltage, my RAM doesn't have enough and won't even make it to boot.

[[AK]Palooka]

My NB runs hot, too. I wouldn't worry about it as long as you have good case cooling.

[[AK]Clay]

Thanks Palooka.

For those curious, I'm running an ASUS Rampage Extreme MoBo with 8 GB (4X2) of OCZ3RPR16004GK and an Intel Quad Core Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83 GHZ. It's an impressive spec list actually. But that RAM and this MoBo don't always play nice. I have to tweak the MoBo specs a good bit to get them to work - because that RAM wants to default to a much slower speed that it's rated for. Here's my current settings - as of 4/5/2010.

Everything is set to Auto unless otherwise stated. I'd leave the whole thing at AUTO, but it runs my settings very low when I do so):
OC from CPU Level UP = QX9650 (so I"M OC'ing the processor a tiny bit)
FSB Frequency = 377
PCIE Frequency = 100
DRAM Fre ] DDR3-1441 MhZ (sometimes I'll up that to 1600 Mhz by upping the FSB to 400, but at a cost of stability I fear)
DRAM command rate = Auto (sometimes I'll set it at 2N, though not sure what this really does to be honest)
DRAM timing control (I tweak these from time to time, chip good for 7 7 7 21 @ 1.9 V - or so it says, I don't always see that)
CAS# Lat=8
RAS# to CAS # Dealy = 8
RAS# Pretime =9
RAS # act time = 24
(everything else to Auto)
DRAM Static Read Control = Disabled
DRAM Dynamic WRite control = Disabled
AI Clock Twister = lighter (sacrifice a little speed for stability)
Ai Transaction booster = Manual
Common Performance Level = 7
Pull in of ChA/B PH1/2 = Disabled
EPU II Phase Control = Auto
CPU Voltage = Auto
DRAM Voltage = 1.908
CPU Spread Spectrum = Disabled
PCIE Spread Spectrum = Disabled

This seems to be fairly stable. My windows built in PC performance score gives me a 7.3 out of 8, with the exception of my data transfer rate, of only 5.9 (due to some of the drives being external USB drives). So not bad for 2008 parts.

I wrote it all down here, so I'd have some place to look at later while I'm tweaking.