[Dr Chocobo]

I just got this board and I was happily impressed with its performance for what it was, but I noticed this little issue and am uneasy about it.

first off, I installed it into a new case and power supply and placed a very good all copper heatsink and fan on it. That is when I noticed this strange behavior.

The thing runs at its rated speed and then slows down and shuts of completely sometimes. then at regular intervals, it runs ungodly fast and loud for about fifteen seconds and tapers of in speed until it stops.

I suspect this is some kind of thermostat on the mobo because I noticed it does this with both the case fan and the heatsink at the same time, but the thing that worries me is that this may cause microfractures to my cpu.

When the thing cuts in, the heatsink is HOT REAL hot! when it finishes its cycle its on the hot side of warm.

I like to keep my CPU in the neighborhood of 49 to 55 deg C and this is making me nervous.

SHould I worry over this behavior or is this simply how this motherboard operates? Ive exhausted my efforts to find any kind of specs from compaq or other places. I get nothing but the general rundown of features and such but no cooling related data. I suspect if I pull the fan and install a molex connector so that it run right off the power supply, that the board migh halt due to not seeing a running fan but am not sure.

Any input would REALY be welcome :)

Thanks