Heatsink under the CPU?

[tallest1]

I'm running a quiet CPU (minus the HD's) but a tiny fan over a tiny heatsink below the CPU started making noise. I pulled off the fan and everything much quieter now but I AM feeling a bunch of heat 1.5cm from the heatsink. I have an Epox 8KTA3 not-overclocked. What component is that and what happens before/after it overheats?

 

[SnowPunk98]

Im guessing you are talking about the northbride, is it a little square? Are you overclocking? You should be fine without the fan but I would leave the heatsinnk on it

 

[Egrimm]

It sounds like the northbridge. When overheats the computer freezes or crashes. It's the northbridge that connects the cpu and ram and the southbridge, which runs all the other things.
As you aren't oc'ing it'll probably do without a fan, but there probably is a reason why it was there in the first place.

 

[Sundog]

<< but a tiny fan over a tiny heatsink below the CPU started making noise. >>


Call up Epox support and they will mail you out a new northbridge HSF...

 

[FlowerMan]

I'd replace it with a non-critical application heatsink like the Thermaltake Blue orb or the Crystal orb. Or you could just put a new fan on. Your call.

BTW, you could have figured out what that chip was by finding this: ftp://ftp.epox.com/support/motherboard/manuals/mu-8kta30012.pdf, then checking out pages 10 and 13