A7N8X at 200 fsb, stable, stock northbridge heatsink....

[pelikan]

I havn't done anything to the northbridge heatsink. It gets some air flow from the 80mm fan on my slk-800 because it is narrow, so the fan hangs off the side and blows air over the northbridge. And my case is well ventilated. But I'm a little concerned about developing problems in the future. Anyone have input as to whether I'm probably okay, or if I should pull the heatsink, apply as3 and maybe a fan?

 

[chizow]

You should at least pull the HS and apply some better thermal paste. The phase change pad on there is terrible, it barely makes any contact (only on the edges on mine). Requires you to remove the mobo, but its worth it I think.

Chiz

 

[mechBgon]

On my 8RDA+, I found that my northbridge is rather concave, so it took quite a bit of thermal compound to fill the gap properly. Do a test-fit, then take the heatsink off and make sure the thermal compound is showing full contact, not just in some places. If necessary, add more in the middle until the excess marshmallows out from the edges. A thick layer of thermal compound is still better than an air gap.

 

[THUGSROOK]

slap a 40mm fan on it.
or does it already come with one?

 

[dannybin1742]

i've seen people artic epoxy a socket a hsf to it, that seems to work very well

 

[mechBgon]

It comes with the really tall Asus passive heatsink. But check out this lil' 40mm "tornado" fan: http://www.xoxide.com/40santorfan.html Over 10000rpm! (edit: looks like 11500rpm, 42dB and about 15cfm, from Sanyo Denki's spec pages here)

 

[THUGSROOK]

same passive sink thats on my board im sure~

i use as2 and a quiet 25db 40mm fan on the stock HS.

the stock HS is actually very good

 

[chizow]

I AS epoxied a crystal orb to my NB and moved my stock HS to the MCP-T. Had to bend a few of the fins for my RAID card tho

Chiz

 

[pelikan]

Thanks everyone for the input. I will pull my mb, get some as3 under that heatsink and add a fan.