Adding Zalman passive heatsink to A7N8X Deluxe motherboard South Bridge

[jader]

I have one of the Zalman ZM-NB32 passive heatsinks that I want to put on the South Bridge chipset of my ASUS A7N8X Deluxe mb. It seems I've read that some of the static noise when using this board may be due to a South Bridge getting too hot, so I'm hoping that this heatsink will help with that problem. I think I'm going to use some type of thermal tape to place the heatsink on the chipset, just in case I want to remove it later. Any thoughts on doing this? Is it a good idea in general to put a heatsink on the SB? Seems like I read different opinions everywhere and I haven't seen a real, general concensus on this topic yet.

 

[OulOat]

Since you have the hs already, why don't you try it?

 

[jader]

Oh I'm going to. I was just kind of looking for some general "dos" and "don'ts" if there are any.

 

[godmare]

Originally posted by: jader
Oh I'm going to. I was just kind of looking for some general "dos" and "don'ts" if there are any.

The only 'don't' that really comes to mind with any heatsink is to make sure you've got good thermal transfer, otherwise you wind up insulating your NB, SB, gpu, ram, vram, cpu, etc., which is why I stay away from thermal tape altogether. Unforunately, that's probably your only non-permanent option, since I doubt there are mounting holes around the sb chipset. If you do decide to keep it, though, I'd definitely recommend replacing the tape with thermal adhesive to get better heat transfer.

I'v linked to this thread severla times for 8rda r chipset cooling advice, Insane3D said it so much better than anybody else plus he's got good step-by-step instructions and pics

 

[jader]

Thanks godmare. While I do wish that this motherboard had holes for push pins, it doesn't. So I do have to use some kind of adhesive method to install the heatsink. I do have some Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive, but don't want to go this permanent route until a bit later maybe.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: jader
Thanks godmare. While I do wish that this motherboard had holes for push pins, it doesn't. So I do have to use some kind of adhesive method to install the heatsink. I do have some Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive, but don't want to go this permanent route until a bit later maybe.

Go with the thermal tape first...if you feel the heatsink getting hot, its transferring heat. The NB and SB are insulated as it is; slugs are hidden behind those housings which are poor heat conductors to begin with. All you're doing is trying to dissipate heat faster from the housing which is in direct contact with the actual slug of the NB or SB. If tape gets that done go that route.

I went the permanent route and AS epoxied a Crystal Orb and the stock heatsink to the NB and SB respectively on my A7N8X-DLX. The end-result was no noticeable performance difference, but having epoxied a bunch of stuff onto my board prevented me from RMA'ing the board back to NE. Just an FYI.

Chiz

 

[JSSheridan]

I used a ZM-NB32J for my SB. I just used the adhesive that came with the HS and fixed it on. The HS is warm to the touch now, so I guess that it's working. I'm sure it could be better, but it's good enough. Peace.