Northbridge Very Very Hot! Help!

bloc97

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Sep 12, 2010
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Hello, I have a ASUS M4A88T-M Motherboard. When I had the stock Heatsink for my CPU, the fan could blow some air to the Northbridge Heatsink by the sides, but now, since I changed to a Retail Cooler (Arctic Alpine Pro 64), there is no more air that is circulating on the northbridge.

In idle, it is hot, my fingers hurt only if I touch the base of the heatsink and put it for 8-9 seconds.
But when I stress the IGP for around 30 minutes, it burnt my finger when I tried to touch it.

I do not have a temperature sensor on the Northbridge.

I tried reseating the Northbridge Heatsink, it did make the "heatsink" cooler, but I am afraid that I may have reduced the thermal transfer.

I am not worried about it getting hot, however, I am afraid that the heat would shorten its lifetime or even break it.
Is that a normal temperature for a Northbridge?

Also, the Southbridge is a little bit hot too, since it has a tiny heatsink, but I am not worried about that as much as I am for the Northbridge.

Thanks is advance! :)
 

aicom

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Mar 29, 2012
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Seems about par for the course. If you imagine how much heat a GPU can put out (especially one that old) with passive cooling and things can get pretty hot. It's probably just fine though as long as there's some circulation of air inside the case, similar to passively cooled GPUs.
 

HugoStiglitz

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This is also an issue with CPU only water cooled rigs, you are significantly reducing the airflow over the motherboard (Dependant on rad placement) I’m sure there are aftermarket air coolers that do the same.
Ensure your case has good airflow (front to back) add a side panel fan if you can (blowing in)
 

bloc97

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HWMonitor just keeps bluescreening my computer, and AIDA64 or Speedfan Says that there is no sensor in the northbridge.

Can someone tell me what is the max temperature for the AMD 880G chipset/northbridge?

Thanks again. :)
 

bloc97

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I am just worried that I am currently breaking my Northbridge...
I have two ultra-silent fans in my computer and I don't really want to add a northbridge fan, because it would then add noise to my computer...
 
Case cooling:
I usually recommend a 12cm case fan at the BOTTOM-FRONT and one (or two) at the TOP-REAR.

In general you want to force the air to flow from BOTTOM-FRONT to TOP-REAR to keep heat moving.

You should have no issues if your case is properly cooled. I've been recommending the ANTEC ONE (has two 12cm top-rear fans) to people and recommending they add a bottom-front fan.

CASE FANS:
- 12cm (usually)
- quiet, low-flow (i.e. 16dB 500 to 800RPM)
- non-variable
 

JackMomma

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After liquid cooling my system I started to notice my NB temps going thru the roof with the lower airflow thru my case, but eventually learned it was normal on my ASUS Sabertooth X58 for the NB to go up to 100c. I know that it isn't directly comparable to your northbridge, but just wanted to share a comparison (it burnt me while figuring it out). I put an 80mm fan on top of it to help it cool quicker though.

With speedfan while i was figuring all this out tho, I did have to read my NB temps from an 'AUX' labeled monitor in the program until i updated it.
 

tha_vice

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100 degrees celcius is the boiling point for water, most CPU thermal specs have melt downs at 80c +, I would seriously consider investigating why it's getting so hot/ and or consult with the manufacture and ask them if it's normal / Buy an aftermarket solution...could be too much thermal paste or bad heatsink seating.