To water-cool, or not to water-cool; that is the question!

My Asus R2E Northbridge that is.

I put together a water cooled system last November. I'm currently using fluid to cool both my CPU (overclocked to 4.45GHz), and my NB.

Problem is, I'm not too sure if there's much point in cooling my NB.

I made a thread about this months ago, before I put the system together, and I was told there was a massive difference between temperatures on the NB when using air and water. I was told that it wasn't hard to get the temperature to climb as high as 80C (!), whilst on water it sticks at around 40C (that's what I get right now using water). From what I can understand also, the entire cooling system on the motherboard is one big assembly. So the SB/VRM's/MOSFET's etc are all cooler as a result of the water cooling.

But, is there a problem with these components getting very hot, as they would do under air? Would it have any impact on the overclockability of my system? If I were to stop watercooling my motherboard (less chance of a leak, lower temps on the CPU), I would slap a fan on the NB heatsink, and use the optional cooling fan on one of the power modules. I also have an excellent airflow through my case, which has been useless so far (as the main components are all watercooled).

It may be worth noting also that right now (212MHz bclck) I have the NB and SB voltages at a minimum. However, I was advised to try increasing the PCIE clock to achieve a high base clock, which would mean I may have to increase the NB voltage (more heat) in the future.

These are the components I'm using by the way:

-6 GELID fans (~60CFM) on a TFC 360mm radiator - I'm guessing this will be overkill with only a CPU in the loop
-Swiftech Apogee GTZ
-""""""""" NB waterblock
-Laing D5 pump
-7/16" tubing

I'd really appreciate any help you guys may have!

i wc the nb, sb and mofsets along with the optional vcc block on my r2e, keeps things nice and cool so i wouldnt go back to air.

Is there any point though in things being cool? :D

I understand higher temps are gonna reduce the lifespan, but I only intend to have this for a few more years max.

If the temps are high enough to induce instability, there's a problem. At what point that happens though, I haven't got a clue.