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Northbridge Temperature?

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Hello and Happy New Years Everyone! :bounce: 


Anyways... according to SpeedFan 4.41, my northbridge idles at 106C and runs up to 119C while gaming (Room temperature is 20-21C). It even seems like I might burn my finger if I touch the small northbridge heatsink for more than a second.

I think the temperature seems a bit high and I am worried about how long this could go on for... however, I have been running like this for almost a year and a half right now and I have not experienced any kind of issue yet...

So what's the maximum safe operating temperature for the northbridge of a motherboard generally?

What might happen if I am consistently running above the maximum safe operating temperature? Would I face stability issues/damaging of hardware?

What can I do about lowering the current temperatures if it is unsafe? - I already run my PC with the case side panel off.

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Motherboard Authority

Nvidia NB? They tend to run hotter then others.

Its pretty much the same as a CPU. Run it to hot, and the circuits will eventually fail. Only thing you can do is increase air flow. Either by cleaning the heatsink, or adding/changing fans.

I have already cleaned the heatsink and cleared all dust, but it did not help as there was very minimal dust to begin with.

Airflow is pretty limited by my OEM mid-tower case and the fact that It only has one fan (minus the CPU and PSU fans)... BUT I do run my computer laying on its side with the case side panel off to compensate.

I have a Nvidia GTX 285 for a graphics card.

At this point, I honestly don't know how I could get from 119C to under 80C... It doesn't look like I could easily install an additional fan either.
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Motherboard Authority

Have you tried with the side on? Its not about air, but the flow. It might need that side on for the flow to be right.

Seeing as you have the side off already, what will work is pointing a normal house fan at it. You should see all temps drop...

What motherboard are you using?

With the combination of my mobo, gpu, and cpu cooler there is a dead air zone over my northbridge. I originally had a nb temp peaking in the high 80's. I then installed a fan and brought that down to about 60C.

If you are not comfortable modding a fan mount inside your case I would recommend the Antec Spotcool.

4745454b said:
Have you tried with the side on? Its not about air, but the flow. It might need that side on for the flow to be right.

Seeing as you have the side off already, what will work is pointing a normal house fan at it. You should see all temps drop...


Since my case has no intake fan on it, (just an exhaust fan) airflow wont exist regardless of if the case side panel is on or off...

I guess I will try the normal house fan trick for a temporary solution... kinda troublesome though...

I was wondering... what if I just replace my motherboard before it craps out at these temperatures? I'm pretty sure aftermarket boards will have much better northbridge heatsinks than this OEM board and will run much cooler by default, right?

c_for said:
What motherboard are you using?

With the combination of my mobo, gpu, and cpu cooler there is a dead air zone over my northbridge. I originally had a nb temp peaking in the high 80's. I then installed a fan and brought that down to about 60C.

If you are not comfortable modding a fan mount inside your case I would recommend the Antec Spotcool.


I am using a Gateway OEM X58 MATX motherboard (Model TBGM-01) from a relatively good deal of a build I picked up a year ago. Heres a link: http://www.techpowerup.com/index.php?80615

My rig looks identical to the pictures on the link page with the exception of a GTX 285, and a better power supply. You can even see the small the northbridge heatsink in one of the pics.

I would definitely say that I have a "dead air zone" over the northbridge on my motherboard as well.

I will also look into your recommendation, thanks.



Judging by the photo's I would have to say that it is the exact same problem I was having. X58's already tend to run hot. Factor in that massive shroud over the cpu fan and I would say it is a dead air issue.

The massive shroud is removable, but I didn't find removing it to help.

But would you think the temperatures could be solved for good if I replaced the motherboard? Presumably an aftermarket motherboard with a much larger and better northbridge heatsink? Or must I add additional fan(s) to remove the "dead air space" even if I replace my motherboard?

I'm kind of leaning towards replacing my motherboard with something better anyways, as my current bios is very limited in options (Especially changing of memory speeds and overclocking).


Dude, if its hot buy a 4 dollar fan from your local hub, grab some tape and cardboard, use a Razor to make a mini mount, use tape to make a structure kinda like castaway with the boat. I do this in between my GPU's, and have 2 extra ones for my intake and out take, try to seal the system and use your head to think about flow with extra fans, superglue for the mount to the case to make a arena type air flow.

It works but its hinky, its nice while to save up and see how long it lasts.

But yes get rid of that Mobo and dont buy ***. Spend the extra 10-20 on the same class to get a better quality, and overclocking head room :) 
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