For years I have avoided passive heatsinks because mainly I always found myself having to add the necessary airflow to keep the GPU or CPU cool from roasting. I bought an ASUS AT5NM10-i used off of AMAZON for $32 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131630 with free shipping for a project build for a server that will run 24/7/365 but didnt need to be anything all that powerful, but greater than just a NAS because I have a database running on it.

Before putting it to use for its intent, I decided to stress test this used board. If there was any problems with it I wanted to know sooner than later. I loaded up Speedfan on it and its idle CPU temp was 32C

I ran y-cruncher on it for a large number and watched in task manager as the 2 physical and 2 virtual HT cores all pegged and then watched the temp rise on the CPU. It raised to 37C pretty quickly and then creeped to 41C in a room that was 65F. But it wouldnt go over 41C. I was impressed by this since the case its in does not have any extra FANS. Its just a low cost $15 case with no extra cooling fans and the Logisys power supply just has a single 80mm FAN to vent out the rear of the case.

Buying this motherboard I thought I was going to be forced to add extra airflow. But the 13 Watt TDP Intel Atom D510 doesnt overwhelm the large block of aluminum heatsink.

So many times in the past when running stress tests, especially with low cost video cards that have a passive heatsink, I found myself having to add a fan to get airflow across the heatsink to draw the heat away otherwise it will cook in place to dangerous temps. I even contacted ASUS a few years ago asking how they could sell a video card with passive heatsink that overheats without added extra airflow. Their response was that the airflow inside the case should be considered when using their passive video cards and that for $9 more you can get one of the next models they have which has a fan such as with this video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121765

My reasoning behind going with a passive heatsink video card was because the Geforce 7600GT I had prior only lasted about 9 months and then the small GPU fan failed and the GPU cooked. I then got an 8800GT and that fan failed in about 13 months and that GPU cooked killing it as well. Yet these cards were used in a clean environment, there were a few years that Geforce cards were having a bad rash of cooling fan failures and it wasnt just my cards but friends also had the same problem. One of my friends contacted the manufacturer of the video card inquiring about this to see if there was a recall. There was none, but he was told that there was a poor GPU fan design that allowed for a HOT spot to occur under the fan that would dry up the lubricating oil as well as some plastics were warping causing the shafts to seize up on the small cooling fans. So I decided to go passive to be done with GPU cooling fan failures. BUT immediately I noticed games would be fine and then start to get choppy with the Radeon HD 5450. I ran speedfan on the system and the GPU temp was up in the 83C zone. WAY TOO HOT!!! I had to cut the floppy drive connector off of the power supply that is not used and wire the 12V to a 80mm fan and tie wrap the fan upright to the bottom of the minitower blowing direct across the video card with passive heatsink in which then the GPU was topping off at 43C and games no longer choppy. Also 80mm fans last years without problems even if they get filthy so I knew that this was a good fix for an overheating passive video card.

Its nice that this is the first setup I have had where extra airflow has not been required. ASUS actually made this board with the intent of it functioning within safe operating temps with very minimal if any added extra airflow.

Additionally when I saw this advertised as a dual-core atom. I thought it was going to be the same as the other Atom I have with the N280 which sometimes people refer to as a dual-core when its really just a single-core with HT. The D510 is a true Dual-Core with HT that makes it act like a quadcore. While still limited in performance by intended design though this D510 is way better than the N280. Its not a board that I would run games on, but its far more responsive than the N280 with tasks thrown at it when testing. Currently running it for a week and stress testing it to make SURE its 100% solid before I migrate the needs off the older computer to this new green build server. A database can get messed up pretty quickly if there is any hardware instability. So its best to stress test and then after passing that to then implement its use after its proven itself to be solid and flawless since it is a USED motherboard and who knows if it was pulled from a troubled system. My hopes is that someone pulled it when they weren't impressed with its limited performance since it could be a headache build for someone throwing the wrong applications of intent at it.