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G31 heat sink very hot on GA-G31M-ES2L

W

wjgollatz

Senior member
I have a well ventilated case, and the copper or copper colored heatsick is very hot to touch. I only noticed this when taking off the side door to see exactly what fan in my case was making a noise. It is still feels to be the same temperature ten minutes after halting some F@H applications. I do not have a video card installed. The Southbridge chip beside the PCI slots has barely any heat. I have a E5200 installed, and that is at 21C, and the stock fan at 857 RPM.

Should I replace this? There are 2 spring loaded clamp things that keep it on the motherboard/chip. Or should I find a find a fan that can attach to the heatsink? Seems that airflow through the case, is blocked by the RAM that is between the G31 chip and the front of the case.

Link to product and pics on Newegg.com
 
well are your temperatures within spec? check speedfan. if they are within spec, that just tells you that the heatsink is successfully removing the heat from the chip and that its working fine. you do not need to change it.
 
I can only tell if I am in spec for the CPU, there is no fan or the northbridge, or temp monitoring for the northbridge chip.
 
speedfan dosn't give u any temp readings other than CORE?
what about Temp1? Temp2?

the g31 is the graphics chipset, if its overheating... you'd see huge artifacting and shutdowns/reboots. if you haven't seen any of that i'd say youre good to go
 
I'm sorry, I read speedfan and "speed of the fan," I didn't know it was an application. I downloaded it and,

Temp1: -55C
Temp2: -2C
Temp3: 21C (I know this one is for the CPU)
HD0: 31C (hard drive of course)
Core0: 41C
Core1: 41C

under load the CPU goes to 34 and the Cores go to 50C.


 
Originally posted by: wjgollatz
I'm sorry, I read speedfan and "speed of the fan," I didn't know it was an application. I downloaded it and,

Temp1: -55C
Temp2: -2C
Temp3: 21C (I know this one is for the CPU)
HD0: 31C (hard drive of course)
Core0: 41C
Core1: 41C

under load the CPU goes to 34 and the Cores go to 50C.
Click to expand...

temp3 should be your northbridge (g31) temp. it is very cool

the core temps are your CPU cores, those are well within spec too and very cool

you're doing fine
 
I am not sure about that though. The EasyTunerPro 5 software that that comes with the motherboard reads the same fan speed, and same temp as Temp3 in Speedfan for the cpu temperature. So I am assuming that Temp3 is the CPU. Air blowing away from the heat sink fan is cool. I was starting to think the core temps were reading the cpu cores, but that would mean that the gigabyte software is wrong. Unless there are actually three temperature sensors for the CPU, and the motherboard/bios prefer to use the one sensor that is cooler (on top?)
 
Originally posted by: wjgollatz
I am not sure about that though. The EasyTunerPro 5 software that that comes with the motherboard reads the same fan speed, and same temp as Temp3 in Speedfan for the cpu temperature. So I am assuming that Temp3 is the CPU. Air blowing away from the heat sink fan is cool. I was starting to think the core temps were reading the cpu cores, but that would mean that the gigabyte software is wrong. Unless there are actually three temperature sensors for the CPU, and the motherboard/bios prefer to use the one sensor that is cooler (on top?)
Click to expand...

Core0 & Core1 are your CPU temps, as LOUISSSSS stated. I have the same board (in it's first revision) and my temps are like yours.

I use HWMonitor for my temps (instead of speedfan) but they both read the same. HWMonitor allows me to see max highs across a set activity, which I prefer to keeping a full text log.

 
OK then. Then why is the Gigabyte software (EasyTune5 Pro Build 2007.12.21) controlling the CPU fan based on Temp3? Is there a major flaw in the software? It specifically lists the CPU temperature as the same temp at Temp3. in the PC Health/Hardware Monitoring window. In the settings windows, I can set the alert, and the alert will only trigger when the CPU threshold warning is set below the CPU temp (same as Temp3). Did something change, do I have a malfunctioning motherboard?

Using F@H - I was able to switch the core affinities and see small but distinct changes in the speedfan temps for Core0 and Core1 that reversed themselves when switching the core affinities again.

So - what is up with the Gigabyte software?
 
On both this motherboard and my old GA-965P-S3 board, the northbridge temp was always incorrectly reported as CPU Temp. I'm not sure why, that's just how BIOS read it....and the bundled EasyTune software is reading the info the same as your BIOS...hence your issue.

I would advise you not to worry about it. Your temperatures are fine, even under load. If you aren't having any system stability issues (lockups/freezes/etc.) then it's not worth the effort. Bundled monitor software on boards have been notoriously inaccurate for *me* in the past...unlike specialized third-party software like HWMonitor/SpeedFan/CoreTemp/etc.
 
OK, I am just surprised that this motherboard has been around for so long without Gigabyte fixing it.

So what is the best software suited for this motherboard? In some research, I did see that different third party software reads temperatures differently, as well as voltages.

Can I even trust using the EasyTune5 Pro software or the BIOS for overclocking? If not, what should I use? I have never overclocked, and almost everyone says this motherboard, especially combined with a e5200 is great for overclocking, but I hope to do so in the future.

When I install a video card, will the Northbridge temperature still linearly correlate to the cpu core temperatures?

My hard drive reads the same temperature or hotter than the Temp 3 - Northbridge - but it is not unbearably hot to touch! Yes it is dissipating heat, but the laws of physics will define the chip as being at least as hot as the heatsink.
 
the Temp3 is probably you're CPu temperature at the IHS and the core temperatures are the temperatures from sensors on or within each core.

dont use easytune. use realtemp, coretemp, speedfan.

 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
the Temp3 is probably you're CPu temperature at the IHS and the core temperatures are the temperatures from sensors on or within each core.
Click to expand...

Internal heat sink?
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
the Temp3 is probably you're CPu temperature at the IHS and the core temperatures are the temperatures from sensors on or within each core.

dont use easytune. use realtemp, coretemp, speedfan.
Click to expand...

u mean the sensor under the cpu. 😛

Theres no sensor on top of the ihs, the sensor under the ihs is the DTS sensor, and that would be his coretemps. 😛
 
Unless you specifically know that a given motherboard actually has a NB temp sensor, you should assume that none of the temps are actually the NB. I don't have a gigabyte board, but my guess would be that the temp3 reading is the ambient, or motherboard temp. This is on the motherboard, but it usually is NOT the NB. The actual NB temp if you are using the graphics is probably 50C or higher.
 
A friend of mine advised that one should add a 40mm fan onto the chipset on the G31 mobos, and the 780G boards. They tend to run a bit hot.
 
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
A friend of mine advised that one should add a 40mm fan onto the chipset on the G31 mobos, and the 780G boards. They tend to run a bit hot.
Click to expand...

just bc the heatsink is hot doesn't mean the chip is hot...
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
A friend of mine advised that one should add a 40mm fan onto the chipset on the G31 mobos, and the 780G boards. They tend to run a bit hot.
Click to expand...

just bc the heatsink is hot doesn't mean the chip is hot...
Click to expand...

That depends how hot the heatsink is. Unless you've got a second component being cooled by that same heatsink, your chip probably isn't going to be any cooler than the max temp of that heatsink... unless your heatsink really sucks balls and your motherboard PCB has a better thermal conductivity...

Of course, just hot to the touch is different from hot enough to be bad for the chip.

edit: IMO the only real possibility for your chip to be cooler than your heatsink is if you stuck a peltier or similar device on it and measured the hot end of the peltier. of course, the peltier probably wouldn't be technically part of the heatsink, strictly defined.
 
Originally posted by: wjgollatz
I have a well ventilated case, and the copper or copper colored heatsick is very hot to touch.
Click to expand...

It is copper colored aluminum. Since you are using the integrated video, it will probably get hotter than otherwise. If you are able to touch it and not burn your fingers, then it is probably okay.
 
Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
just bc the heatsink is hot doesn't mean the chip is hot...
Click to expand...

When your finger gets burnt just by touching the surface of the heatsink, the chip underneath it shouldn't be having it any better. Even if others may say, oh, that's not the melting point yet. But still, heat on both the north and southbridges contribute to the overall heat of the system. So the question is how much heat it'll take before you need to send the board for RMA.

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
A friend of mine advised that one should add a 40mm fan onto the chipset on the G31 mobos, and the 780G boards. They tend to run a bit hot.
Click to expand...

The most sensible thing I've read so far. Just mount 2 small low speed fans on your NB and SB chip. Why chance it?
 
Relax guys! I assembled maybe a hundred PCs with G31-S2L. Not a single one came back burned or with any issues.

However if it makes you feel good, try attaching any king of fan to the heatsink. Yuo can try those tiny fans sold for older vga cards.
 
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