Northbridge Cooling

[mihurka]

I just got MSI's Neo2 board with 875 chipset. It runs great and is stable when heavily overclocked, but I have an issue with Northbridge temperatures. It idles at about 60C and at full load goes anywhere between 63 and 65C. This worries me. I don't want to go to watercooling or anything even more extreme, but definatelly want to do something about this. Any experience, ideas about bringing the temperatures down at least 10C?

 

[scottchen]

dropping the temperature by 10C is impossible unless you use watercool, I'm using P4P800 with the Thermaltake Tiger chipset cooling, it basically is a better designed heatsink with a 5000 rpm fan on it.

Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G Asus P4P800 OCZ Gold 2x256 3700EL memory @ 256mhz 2.5-3-3-7 Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 SB audigy 80G Maxtor Diamond Ultra ATA-133 hdd 450 Enermax PSU

 

[error_911]

unless you're planning on using a TEC or a modified phase-change cooler, how the hell do you plan on doing this? i mean, it would help quite a bit (though probably not as much as cooling your CPU to that temp would)

<b>don't hold strong opinions about things you don't understand</b>

...<i><b><A HREF="http://home.graffiti.net/error_911:graffiti.net/specs.html" target="_new">system specs</A></b></i>

 

[mihurka]

Is it really impossible? My stock P4 heatsink kept my cpu at just above 60C at full load. I replaced it with Zalman cooler, the gigantic all-copper CNPS7000A. Now at full load, with even more overclocking, the cpu stays at 50C even when my apartment is hardly ever below 80F. I am hoping to find equally effective cooling solution for the Northbridge. I am hoping someone out there knows the answer.

If you have nothing constructive to say, please don't post anything here.

 

[scottchen]

Oh you mean cooling CPU by 10C I thought you meant cooling north bridge by 10C. well CPU the best air cool is SLK900U with 92mm tornado which is what i'm using keeping my 2.4C at 3500mhz, with idle temp of 26C and load of 38C.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Gold 2x256 3700EL memory @ 256mhz 2.5-3-3-7 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

 

[phsstpok]

Looks like the MSI's northbridge HSF is pretty decent but if you want a lot better I've heard of people mounting small Socket A/Socket 370 HSF on their northbridge. It would be kind of hard to mount unless you just use a thermal adhesive. It would also be a bit noisy.

By the way, is the MSI 875 Neo2 new? I only see the 875P Neo and 865 Neo2 series at MSI's site.

I think a decrease of 10 degrees is possible.

<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>

 

[mihurka]

I did mean the Northbridge, just gave the cpu example. But at any rate, that's really amazing cooling you've got, considering it's air cooling. What's your system/ambient temperatures?

 

[mihurka]

My mistake, it is exactly 875P Neo-FIS2R. I was lazy and didn't look it up and took info from memory. That's a good idea you're talking about.

I've done some more research and came up with an idea... Has anyone tried using Zalman's passive Northbridge cooler in conjunction with the fan/bracket combo also by Zalman?

 

[phsstpok]

Yeah, even the best aftermarket chipset coolers (that I have seen) are pitiful compared to any Socket A/370 HSF.

Taken to one extreme, I can't remember where I saw this (probably Scottchen here at THG) but one person installed dual Tornado fans, one on his CPU and one on his northbridge. Very noisy but probably about the best you can do with air cooling.

You could use the Zalman/Zalman combination that you mentioned but Zalman products formerly didn't have a reputation for overclockers' pieces. (That was until the CNPS-7000 series of CPU HSFs became available).

The Zalman bracket, a decent fan, and a plain old CPU heatsink for your northbridge might be worth a shot, though.



<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>

 

[scottchen]

No i have 1 tornado on cpu 92mm and 1 tornado on my zalman passive for graphics card 80mm. But the 92mm blows soooo much air on the chipset cooler, so even at 320FSB my north bridge heatsink's still cool.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Gold 2x256 3700EL memory @ 256mhz 2.5-3-3-7 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

 

[phsstpok]

LOL! It was just a joke. I picked you because you were the only person who I knew was using a Tornado fan. I didn't know you had a Tornado on your graphics card though. ROFL!

How do you stand the noise?


<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>

 

[mihurka]

I like Zalman for the sake of my ears. The tornado is amazing at how much air it moves, but the noise it produces is nowhere short of amazing as well. I am on a search for a copper heatsink from one of the older processor formats, hoping it will be small as well as a good, quiet fan that will move a substantial amount of air without being too large. Thanks for all your help.

 

[scottchen]

Yeah true zalman's quiet but doesn't give me the performance i needed.

-Intel PIV 2.4C @ 3.84G -Asus P4P800 -OCZ Gold 2x256 3700EL memory @ 256mhz 2.5-3-3-7 -Sapphire 9800pro @ 490/780 -SB audigy -80G Maxtor Diamond Plus9 Ultra ATA-133 hdd -450 Enermax PSU

 

[Crashman]

If you want a better fan on your stock cooler, I have some 25mm thick 40mm fans, they spin around 6000 RPM and have enough airflow that you could actually use them to dust your PC too! I've never had a use for these things, but if you're interested...

I think I'd get a low profile socket 370 cooler, drill a couple small holes in it where your mounting holes are, and screw it on with self tapping screws. I'd run the srews in without mounting it first, so you could get the threads in and have a good feel for tension when you mount it (you would want low tension of course!).

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[pIII_Man]

i agree...the low profile coolers that were used on 1U piii servers would do the trick


Proud owner of DOS 3.3

 

[Guest]

The Zalman passive chipset coolers work very well, and allowed me good overclocking results. I Arctic Silver adhesived one to my last motherboard. With that and the built in divide by 5 this particular mtherboard featured I was able to run my AXP1600+ with a 166MHz fsb at CAS2 settings for almost 2 years before I finally replaced that motherboard last month (finally got an NForce 2). No fans required and the thing stayed luke warm the whole time. With a fan it could cool almost anything. I got mine for like $6.

An old socket 5/7 heatsink could do the same thing, as has been mentioned.