[ElDani]

Okay, I've had the whole weekend to try to solve my temperature problem and I'm quite sure that I have found the culprit - not the solution though! For that I'll need your expertise and experience.

At first I cleaned up my case with some cable ties in order to get a proper air flow going (in front, out back). That did help a little bit under full load (1-2°C) but it was not groundbreaking. Then I continued on for quite a while with different scenarios (all but essential hardware removed, case open, etc) which all did almost nothing beyond another 1-2°C.

Well, to show you what I've found, you better get a look at my temperature figures first. Here they are, measured with CPUID Hardware Monitor under very similar conditions. All measurements were taken with the standard CPU speed of 3.0 GHz and the system has been undervolted from 1.35v to 1.25v, which is the smallest voltage I have prime-tested for 2+ hours so far. The ambient air temperature has been a near constant between 23°C and 24°C since I did the tests late in the evening. All measurements were taken after at least 10 minutes of full load or 5 minutes of full idle in Windows to insure a stable value. Edit: I forgot to say that for the time of testing, I disabled the fan control, so all 3 fans were constantly at ~ 1400rpm.

with AMD boxed cooler:
CPU idle (0.9V CnQ): 53°C
CPU load (1.25V Prime95 small fft's): 58°C
Motherboard idle: 39°C
Motherboard load: 40°C
GeForce 8800GTS: 60°C

with Mugen 2:
CPU idle (0.9V CnQ): 31°C
CPU load (1.25V Prime95 small fft's): 58-59°C
Motherboard idle: 37°C
Motherboard load: 39°C
GeForce 8800GTS: 57°C

with Mugen 2 (after putting my case on its side, so the motherboard is horizontal and the Mugen is facing skywards):
CPU idle (0.9V CnQ): 30°C
CPU load (1.25V Prime95 small fft's): 46-47°C
Motherboard idle: 36°C
Motherboard load: 38°C
GeForce 8800GTS: 57°C

Wow! 11 to 13°C simply by laying the case on its side, that shouldn't be possible, right? Now you're asking yourself what could have happened to make such a huge difference. Was it the air flow? Well, to answer all that, I have included motherboard and graphics card temperatures, if only to discount any alternative explanations, since those temperatures vary by only 1 degree, if at all.

That being said, I can only see one possible cause for this huge drop in temperature: the Mugen 2 doesn't rest completely on the CPU if the case is standing up as it is intended. Is it uneven, because the cooler is hanging on its side, or is there too little pressure on the CPU?

Whatever the answer, I can guarantee that my assembly of the Mugen was correct the first time, since I double-, triple-, even quadruple-checked it with the manual and images from the web.

Is there a way to get the combination of GA-MA770-UD3 and Scythe Mugen 2 working correctly? Because, frankly, I have no intention of having my case lie on its side all the time, I don't even have the space to do that comfortably.