Quiet, cool CPU == toasty northbridge?

Cooling Processors quietly

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theycallmebruce
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Quiet, cool CPU == toasty northbridge?

Post by theycallmebruce » Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:56 am

Hey all.

So, I installed a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme in my machine. My CPU is running a good ten degrees cooler, and with one less fan in my machine. Great!

However, my north bridge chipset is now getting very hot (63 degrees C!!). Previously it was under fifty.

This is the second time I've installed a CPU cooler without a fan, which has resulted in the chipset getting extra hot. Seems that the vertically facing fans on the stock coolers have the side effect of cooling the northbridge too.

Is this a common problem? How do most people solve it?

jhhoffma
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Post by jhhoffma » Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:12 am

By using larger NB heatsinks and/or directing more airflow around them.

You may want to try rigging up some ducting to see if you can increase directional airflow around the NB.

Maybe post you're specs too so people know what you're dealing with.

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Sun Feb 10, 2008 8:51 am

However, my northbridge chipset is now getting very hot (63 degrees C!!).
63C is fine for a chipset. most of these are rated to 100C. if your system is stable then there's no problem.

tehfire
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Post by tehfire » Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:25 am

Yeah, it's always been a thought that top-down heatsinks (like the standard Intel and AMD ones) do an excellent job cooling both the Northbridge and any VRM components around the socket. In fact, Intel guidance states that top-down airflow is a necessity.

In having many machines with tower heatsinks (Like the Ninja and your TRUE) both overclocked and not, I can say that components definitely do get hotter when running towers, especially when they are low-airflow, but as the poster above me said, most chipsets are designed to work all the way up to 100C. If you're going for an overclock or something you may want to put some ducting or otherwise improve the airflow of your case, but for nearly all uses your chipset should be fine.

theycallmebruce
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Post by theycallmebruce » Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:09 pm

Thanks for the reassurance folks.

I played around with a few different fan locations, and I'll probably install another quiet fan in there anyway just to get a bit of airflow over the chipset anyway, for my piece of mind.

cpemma
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Post by cpemma » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:35 am

With my P182 case I think the 120mm fan I fitted to the location at the back of the upper HDD cage to help cool the passive graphics card is in a nice flowline with the rear fan, N Bridge piggy in the middle. :)

http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/ima ... /p182n.jpg

derekva
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Post by derekva » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:10 pm

If you don't mind spending $30 or so, you can get one of the Thermalright HR-05 variants to replace your NB heatsink. I put one in on my i975Xa-YDG and it works great.

-D

theycallmebruce
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Post by theycallmebruce » Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:17 pm

Yeah.. on my first PC with the toasty chipset, I bought a Zalmann heatsink which, while much larger than the factory one, still got to the same temperature (it took longer to do so).

Heat pipes really do seem to be the way to go, and I bet you're right, that the HR05 would do the job.

There's one main issue with that for me unfortunately, on both of my boards:
clearance (CPU heatsink, graphics card).

My current solution has been to experiment with fan positions. I am going to try suspending a fan "midship" in my case on elastic and hooks to see if I can cool it down.

wwenze
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Post by wwenze » Sat Feb 23, 2008 3:50 am

theycallmebruce wrote:Yeah.. on my first PC with the toasty chipset, I bought a Zalmann heatsink which, while much larger than the factory one, still got to the same temperature (it took longer to do so).
If it hits the same temperature eventually it suggests something else is bottlenecking the heat transfer rate; it took longer because of higher heat capacity of the heatsink.

And surface area of heatsink has increased, so...

Get some airflow over there dood. :P

It's the same for me, getting bigger heatsinks for NB or HDD did not decrease their temperature by much, if there's no forced airflow.

bob8701
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Post by bob8701 » Wed Feb 27, 2008 7:06 am

passive cooling does not help the NB cooling too much, I usually add a 4*4 fan on the Nb heatsink( cheap way) or change to aftermark heatsink.
Thermalright make some excellent one

JimX
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Post by JimX » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:23 am

I always had HSFs blowing down to the board. My trusty SI-120 was recently replaced with the copper Ninja. So, I did this:


Image


Image

The fan is at an angle, blowing to the Ninja and to the board. The fan holder acts as a spring, pushing towards and lightly touching the IDE cables. Everything is now cool, it even blows a bit of air to the RAM.

BTW, the fan included with the Ninja turns at 715rpm at 12V. Perfect!

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