How bad is it for the north brdige...

[Confusedracoon]

if the thermal paste isn't in 100% in contact with the chip and heat-sink?

Ok, i upgraded to a coolmaster elite 430, and noticed my north bridge temps had gone up by nearly 20degrees C, it is now idleing at about 51C. This morning i took off the heat sink and re-applied some thermal paste, getting the retention hooks back in was abit tricky as i have a Zalman cnps9900nt cpu heat-sink and its pretty large, Thus i think, unsettling the paste i had just re-applied.

the mobo is an asus P5KPL/1600 and my north bridge heat sink Never got over 35C in the older case

has any one got any tips for applying thermal paste? I know for a cpu chip you put a small pea sized bit on and then spread it with, say an old credit card, but for chip sets, im assuming its less then that.

Oh yeah, FLY, thermal paste really doesn't taste good. >.<

 

[o1die]

My old northbridge ran at that temp. You'll know it's too warm when you burn your finger touching the base of it. I would leave it alone.

 

[Confusedracoon]

i burnt my self on it yesterday, which i had never done before...i always checked my hard ware when doing bits and bobs inside the case to check that everything was below the "potential frying an egg temps" but like i said, i upgraded to a elite 430 from a stock case with a big 25cm side fan, and i touched the head sink of the north bridge and BAM ouch, so i moved my thermometer to side in-between some of the NB heat-sink fins and its sat, like i said about 20C hotter at around 50C idle. if its not a huge problem then i will leave it, im currently waiting for an xfx 750i mobo to arrive and i hear they are warm running. As my entire system is now about 10C hotter then it was before the case change disappointed really