Quick Q : Is this the Northbridge?

[Sheepish]

The fan has stopped working but the computer still works relatively fine (not sure if my Sata drive problems are related). Just want to know if the fan ive highlighted is for the northbridge so I can buy one tomorrow. If its not the northbridge what kind of fan/passive hs should i be looking at?

/edit
about the fan not working.. when i turn it with my finger is sounds as if its gone all crusty inside. Not sure when or why this happened.

Thanks,
~Sheepy

 

[chuckshissle]

You found it! That's the northbridge. So the fan is down, it should be fine as long as the northbridge is not hot. But if it's hot to the touch then that won't be good. But if your pc is running fine then I don't see any problems with the northbridge with no fan.

I don't know about your motherboard, but my Gigabyte northbridge is very hot. When my fan got down too, man the northbridge heatsink was hot enough to burn my finger if I place it for several seconds. If your northbridge does the same thing then you can get a better heatsink.

Northbridge fan gets broken really fast, since it spins at more than 4000 to 5000 rpm. Mine was doing over 5000, it only lasted for 3 months and started making noise so I took it out and used an 80mm fan.

If you want a good northbridge cooler, Thermalright has them and can be use as passive or you can install a fan.

 

[Sheepish]

Great, thanks Chuck. Looks like my mobo has done quite well to hold out for a year and a half with quite excessive use

Could I have permentantly damaged the northbridge by running it without a fan? Asus Probe reports 38/39 degrees Celcius once the computers up to speed for a while. Although i would guess if the northbridge were to be damaged there would be more symptoms than just a sata drive that fails to recognise and/or stops the computer booting.

Everything was fine with the sata drive last night. Its failed to be recognised a few times over the week since i bought it but its always reappeared after a few hours rest. Today my computer refuses to boot (xp loading screen runs indefinately) when the sata drive is connected. Northbridge problem or not?

Thanks again.