Do north bridges really need a fan?

[Grub]

My Northbridge fan is giving out...The tell-tale vibrations and rattles have been going on for awhile now. Something happened the other day though that makes me wonder why it is there in the first place. I was adding a case fan to my pc and while running a heat load test I noticed that a wire had gotten tangled in the fan and heatsink. I paniced and immediately untangled it and the fan started up again. I put my finger on the heatsink to see how hot it had gotten. To my suprise, the thing was barely warm. It is a KT 266 chipset. The fastest I run my fsb is 148 Mhz (MOBO crashes after that). Do I need a fan on this? Is this just a marketing tool for MOBO manufacturers to make their boards look cool? I would gladly go without the fan if I am able to.

Is there a synonym for thesaurus?

 

[bum_jcrules]

Short answer,

No

Long answer,

No.

However, I will always side with more cooling verse less. It is all physics. The cooler you run the faster the internal speeds can get towards maximum efficiency. Less heat = less internal resistance = better overall performance.

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[Grub]

I agree with you that more cooling is almost always better, but my concern is ergonomics. My computer is in the kitchen and when someone calls for me I can't hear them over the fan noise. So, any fans that are unnecessary I want to remove.

Is there a synonym for thesaurus?

 

[Quetzacoatl]

I personally would just leave the fan on, it's doubtful it puts out more than 25 or so decibels of noise, which is probably drowned out in the noise created by your CPU fan anyway

Soon enough, Intel will make the i845s...imagine dual channel Sdram...*shudder*

 

[bum_jcrules]

Bingo! Your CPU fan plus intake and exhaust fans will cause al lot more noise than a little NorthBridge fan.

Now if you want help quieting down your machine... that is another issue.

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[HammerBot]

Less heat = less internal resistance = better overall performance.

Huh? Do you also think a clock runs faster if you cool it?

 

[Guest]

Actually temperature is a very large nuisance that clock makers have battled since the beginning.

Digital clocks are most certainly affected by temps due to the fact that they must use some type of oscillator circuit to derive time. As we all know no oscillator circuits are perfect with respect to temp. If the error of the oscillator circuit were such thet the frequency got higher as the circuit was cooled, then the clock would run fast.

Mechanical clocks would also be affected but for different reasons. I just saw this show on PBS last night talking about how the old time clock accuracy depends greatly on the dimensions of pendulums. Unfortunately pendulum length changes with temp. There are also many other things besides this to consider, like bearing lubrication viscosity.

BTW, I tend to agree that cooler in general is better, but obviously there are exceptions to that.

 

[HammerBot]

LOL. Ok, taking it to the extremes and using very accurate measurements the clock is affected by its temperature (as well as its velocity ). But c'mon cooling the NB does not increase performance. Stability perhaps, Long term reliability yes. But not performance.

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[Guest]

"(as well as its velocity ). "

among many other things like: gravity intesity, atmospheric pressure, humidity... the list goes on and on. Creating a good clock is not a trivial matter.

For the most part I agree with what you say. From what I remember, there are cases where users can only get the higher FSB overclocks with better north bridge cooling. So, you (the user) may not be able to notice the performance increases directly. You would certainly notice performance changes from faster FSB clocks.

 

[Flyboy]

If the northbridge is the culprit preventing a successful overclock (due to overheating), then wouldn't cooling the NB *indirectly* increase performance? I think this is what knewton is getting at. Of course cooling a CPU, chipset, or any other chip doesn't directly increase performance, BUT if it keeps temperatures down then higher overclocking is possible. Why else are overclockers spending $$$ for water and peltier coolers? The CPU is not always the bottleneck. Granted, usually, the memory or CPU go before the chipset, but some claim that the chipset is overheating in the P4S8X motherboard.

 

[Grub]

Knewton...I saw the same show...Longitude. THaT WAS WAY COOL!!! THey really shafted that carpenter dude. He was brilliant in an obsessive sort of way. There is actually a book out by the same name that inspired that episode of Nova. I read part of it, but I can't afford books anymore. Usually I just go to Barnes and Noble and sit by the fire and read a chapter or two. It's funny, but a book is now more expensive than a stick of memory is. A few years back, people would have laughed if you told them that this would be the case.

Is there a synonym for thesaurus?

 

[Guest]

It was a good show. He got shafted. I guess times haven't changed all that much. I may have to check that book out, thanks for the tip.

PBS is cool.