How to cooldown passive Nforce4 motherboards?

[mkygod]

I just got my Abit AN8 sli motherboard with the passive heatsink/heatpipe cooling.

I am loving the uGuru interface for fan control, but the nforce chip gets really hot. I cant even touch the heatsink or heatpipe for 2 seconds without burning my hand. On idle the nvidia chip runs at 36C, while my cpu runs at 27 C with an XP90 heatsink installed with fan undervolted to run 1000rpm.

What are my options for cooling down this motherboard, short of putting a fan on the chip? I cant replace the heatsink, since the bottom heatsink sits right under the video card and because the heatsink is integral with the whole heatpipe setup. The only thing i can think of is detaching the heatsink to apply some arctic silver, and im not sure if that is a good idea.
Do any of you guys with Abit KN8 sli/AN8 sli or Asus passive motherboards have problems with overheating?

[mkygod]

Anyone know if you can undervolt the Nforce4 chipset and still have it run reliably? I hoping maybe It will keep the heat down.

[=assassin=]

What's the load temperature of the chipset? The idle doesn't sound too bad...

[mkygod]

I'm not sure what the load temperature is, but I've never seen it go any higher than 40 C when i play 3d games or when I do folding (distributed computing)

[jackylman]

I'm not sure what the load temperature is, but I've never seen it go any higher than 40 C when i play 3d games or when I do folding (distributed computing)

That's probably the ambient temp and not the temp of the chipset itself.

[mkygod]

Well its the "SYS" temp on the abit motherboard. There is also the "PWM" temp which runs a bit hotter at 43 C, but im not really sure if tahts the chipset or not. In the uGuru manual it says the PWM temp is the temperature of the "CPU power supplying circuit".

How would I know the temperature of the Nforce chip?

But regardless, I still would know how I can cooldown the chip without adding fans or increasing fanspeed. I'm sure im not the only person on this board with a passive nforce4 motherboard.

[Firetech]

40C NB load temps passively cooled sounds good to me, if it was 60-70 I'd maybe be worried. AFAIK the NB is rated to 90C or so.
I don't think you need to cool anything down but if you want do a search here or google as there was a thread with pictures somewhere on removing a heatpipe and applying AS (ceramique?).

[jackylman]

How would I know the temperature of the Nforce chip?

With a thermal probe.

[nici]

Or with the Finger-Probe, If it feels cold the heat transfer is poor and the chip is cooking, if its painful to touch then its too hot. 40c feels warm but it wont burn you, the finger will get used to it in a few seconds. The Finger-Probe is a nice tool to have, and particularly useful when temps are hovering around 40c

A proper probe is obviously better, but assuming you ahve fingers its also more expensive and you don´t always have it on you

[ronrem]

That heatpipe setup has a radiator that's at the back. It does need to have some airflow,one way or another. think through how air is moving in the case. That radiator should be part of the flow. That could be entry or exit.

One plan,a couple of low rpm 120 intakes in the floor. let that radiator be one of the passive air-exits,basically the fans pressure the case and air exits where it can. You'd probably have a top mount psu fan pulling air across the CPU,and the trick would be more inlet pressure than it removes.

Having a single case fan+ Psu ,both exhausting,would tend to make that radiator unit an inlet. In this format,air-in is passive,no inlet fan.

Either way,IF you have an in-fan and an out-fan balanced,there's no real pressure for airflow at a passive vent. You want air pushed or pulled-not both.

40C is probably safe,with room to spare. 90C seems extreme,the chip might survive that but it's likely the puter is acting wierd by the time you hit 70-75 C.

A front panel unit that gives at least one temp probe and at least one fan control is a very useful thing if you want quiet. Yuo don't get extra points for the chips running way cooler than they need to be. For instance a silent rig may have a Venice chip at 40C. With a fan it easily could run at around 30C,but 40 works...and in that case,is quieter.

[Firetech]

Interesting heatpipe pictures at abit forums, mkygod
You may not wish to replace the heatpipe like he has but it shows what to expect when you take it off and may reveal why you're having poor heat transfer from chipset to the cooler

[mkygod]

Interesting heatpipe pictures at abit forums, mkygod
You may not wish to replace the heatpipe like he has but it shows what to expect when you take it off and may reveal why you're having poor heat transfer from chipset to the cooler

Unfortunately I cant just replace the heatsink. I have the same blue Zalman heatsink, but unfortunately the nforce4 chip sits right underneat my video card, so I cant use it. And I doubt any low profile heatsink can cool the chip better than the stock heatsink/heatpipe solution.

I will try removing the thermal pad and applying some Arctic Silver. That will likely only make it go down 2 or 3 degres though.

I've read that SYS temp is not the real temperature and that the actual northbridge temperature is actually around 35-40c added on to the SYS temperature. This means the chip is normally running at 70c+? Can anyone confirm the typical temperature for an NFORCE4 SLI chip (passive)?

[Le_Gritche]

I've read that SYS temp is not the real temperature and that the actual northbridge temperature is actually around 35-40c added on to the SYS temperature.

Look at the screen captures in Firetech's link, the guy has a NB temp 19°C hotter than the system temp (which is indeed some kind of 'inside the case ambient temperature'). I don't know if that 20°C rule of thumb can be applied to a NF4 mobo though.

If you can't touch the heatsink for more than 2 seconds, it's likely hotter than 40°C. Can you compare that with the CPU and VGA heatsinks to check if the temperature reported is consistent with your 'finger-probe' ?
Maybe you can look in your mobo documentation, or search directly on the layout if you can find the temperature probe, it might be around the southbridge.

Why are you trying to cool it down ? Is your computer acting weird, or are you just cautious ?

[Sizzle]

What I did with my AN8 Ultra was to put a XP 120 hs on with a 120 mm fan, it covers a larger area of the motherboard then the XP-90 would. Lowered my NB and PWM temps on my board considerably.

[sanse]

I just got my Abit AN8 sli motherboard with the passive heatsink/heatpipe cooling.

I am loving the uGuru interface for fan control, but the nforce chip gets really hot. I cant even touch the heatsink or heatpipe for 2 seconds without burning my hand. On idle the nvidia chip runs at 36C, while my cpu runs at 27 C with an XP90 heatsink installed with fan undervolted to run 1000rpm.

at the moment, while typing this, the chipset on my asus a8n-sli premium is at 55C and the vrm's at about 59/60C.

i'm not worried.

should be no problem for modern chips these temps.

[mkygod]

Why are you trying to cool it down ? Is your computer acting weird, or are you just cautious ?

I'm just cautious. My computer has been running fine with my Athlon64 3200 winchester running at 2.4ghz. I haven't had any motherboard related problems. My finger prob tells me the temp is 60c+. Its enough to make the entire heatpipe too hot to touch. But atleast i know the heatpipe is doing its job. Its feels multitudes hotter than my cpu and much hotter than my evga geforce7900gt ko at load, although granted, these are cooled by a fan.

[defaultluser]

Have you tried improving the airflow to the heatsink? That heat has to be dissapated, and if the airflow isn't enough, the heatsink (and thus, the heatpipes and chipset) get hotter.

[Firetech]

I'd be interested to know what your heatpipes temps were like with a fan blowing/sucking across the 'radiator' section of heatpipe adjacent to the various ports. I know the Fatality boards generally run with twin 40's in that area but I'm sure you can rig up something quieter just as a test?
A spare 80/120mm just hanging outside the case for example (you've got the OTES fan headers at the radiator and AUX1 header beside PCI-E slot 1 to connect to I think).

[mkygod]

I hooked up my cooldrive6 temperature probes to the heatsink (the one that is attached to the nforce4) chip and find the idle temperature to be 64c, and the middle part of the heatpipe to be 53c. I will try it later with a low running fan for the top heatsink later.

[roadie]

The nForce 4 chipset does not have a temperature sensor so the temperature you are seeing will be that of the sensor chip somewhere else on the motherboard. I have the passive blue Zalman HS on my chipset and that too gets blisteringly hot. I am not sure of the long term effects of having a very, very hot chipset; are you experiencing system instability?

[mkygod]

Nope, no system instability at all im glad to say.

Last nite I took the heatsink apart, and tore off the foam padding around the chip and tore off the small thermal pad. I also took off a couple of plastic ring spacers for the screws. I applied some arctic silver.

Now my thermal probe on the heatsink read the 54c idle with the case open and only 40c with the case closed. Granted this was in the middle of the nite where the it was quite a bit cooler than the temps i measured earlier on in the evening (7pm). So those temps aren't directly comparable to my previous temps. My previous temps were also measured with the case opened, so that probably had a big effect.

[ppcie]

My main concern is that the nForce 4 Ultra chipset on this board runs VERY hot. I just tested it with a ThermoHawk 200 Infrared Thermometer and came out at 198F (that's 92.2C). I thought it must have been wrong so I tapped it with my finger and got a nice, heatsink-shaped red mark for my efforts. Despite that, however, the board seems to be running fine. I don't have any intention of using the PCI slots or the PCIe 16x slot so I may replace the chipset cooler with something larger.

hi guys.. quoted this from newegg http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813151155

i jus changed the NB fan on my k8nf9 to a passive one... any better ways to cool it?

anyone heard of or using the TT Extreme Spirit II?

[eoctanker]

just got my Asus A8N-SLI Premium mobo today. I looked at it real quick and saw that the HS for the northbridge (located between the plugs and the cpu) had some bent fins. How much damage is too much? I sent a message to Buy.com and am waiting for a reply. Should I go with it or fight the RMA routine?

[Firetech]

It's hard to tell without seeing a photograph of the damage but even then I suppose the deciding factor is whether you think you can straighten the fins yourself without causing further damage.

[eoctanker]

Yea, I figured that myself. Since I don't have the other components all ready to install, I got the RMA# and will be sending it back to Buy.com for a replacement. Buy.com was very good, I sent them a brief description and they gave me an RMA within an hour. Lets see how long it takes to get the new mobo. Buy.com also needs to think about their packaging. The factory mobo box was placed inside a brown box that was cut down to the right size and mailed with no extra padding between the factory box and the mailing box. That is why it got damaged. I am sure FEDEX put heavy boxes on top... oh well, I will report on the new mobo when it comes in. Free shipping both ways by the way!

[Firetech]

Here's hoping you have better luck this time