How hot a chipset heat sink should be?

[Peroxyde]

Hi,

CPU: Q9550, standard, no overclock

Mobo: Asus P5N7A-VM
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article892-page2.html

Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2
http://www.testseek.com/labs/reviews/review-of-arctic-cooling-freezer-7-pro-rev-2-cpu-cooler/?p=2694

Case: Antec Sonata Designer 500
http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjI=

The computer was running perfectly with CPU E8400, stock CPU cooler. I replaced it by the Q9550 and also substitute the stock CPU cooler by the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 hoping for a better cooling with reduced noise.

I am not a power user, no games, no overclock. The computer runs Linux & virtual machines. As it's the first time I assemble such a big CPU cooler, I would like to make sure everything is alright. Bios screen shows that CPU temperature is around 37 degrees Celcius. The cooler & its heat pipes feel a metallic cold when touched.

While monitoring the CPU temperature, I happened to touch the heat sink of the chipset beside the CPU cooler, it is shockingly hot. If I touch it firmly, I cannot hold for more than 5 - 10 seconds. Is it normal that a chipset could be that hot and is there any harm to leave it to its current passive cooling?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Rubycon]

Depends on your tolerance to hot things. That could be 120F or 150F if you have calluses on your hands! Sounds normal actually.

 

[dawza]

I have this MB in my HTPC, and can confirm that the chipset heatsink gets blazingly hot. The temperature, as reported by Speedfan, was 80-85C at idle and hit 90-95C at full load. While chipsets can tolerate high temps (most are rated for 100-105C), I still felt uncomfortable, and installed a Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II.

The new heatsink dropped the temps to 50-55C idle and 60-65C load with the fan running at 5V (essentially silent). Even with the fan turned off, temps only increase by 10C or so.

The system was perfectly stable with the original heatsink, though. My motherboard is also in a case with terrible airflow and fans running at 5-7V, so I am sure your chipset temps are a bit lower than mine were.

I suppose the best advice I can give is that you are almost certainly OK with the stock heatsink, but a $15 aftermarket heatsink would definitely put your mind at ease.

 

[Peroxyde]

Depends on your tolerance to hot things. That could be 120F or 150F if you have calluses on your hands! Sounds normal actually.

It's not for my hands that I am worried about I am surprised that an electronic component could get that hot during its entire lifetime. Wonder if there will be any harm in the long run.

 

[Rubycon]

It's not for my hands that I am worried about I am surprised that an electronic component could get that hot during its entire lifetime. Wonder if there will be any harm in the long run.

Electronics can run at very warm (HOT) temperatures for thousands of hours. It's in the design of Safe Operating Area. (SOA) Once you cross that border, however, catastrophic failure often occurs instantly. SOA is NOT the same thing as TJMAX of a CPU, however. SOA is usually for discrete high power semiconductors.

In summary just because there is an ouch factor it does not necessarily mean anything is wrong. If you lick your finger and touch it and it sizzles, then yes something is wrong!

 

[Jeff7]

A hot heatsink is better than a cold one - it likely means that the motherboard manufacturer actually made sure that there was a good interface between the heatsink and the chipset.

This is what you don't want:
A cool heatsink sitting atop a very hot chip.

 

[Rubycon]

A hot heatsink is better than a cold one - it likely means that the motherboard manufacturer actually made sure that there was a good interface between the heatsink and the chipset.

This is what you don't want:
A cool heatsink sitting atop a very hot chip.

LOL @ EPOX.

Yes some of the spring clips actually just hold it there with no pressure mounting. That combined with TIM that looks like CHEESE. D:

 

[ShawnD1]

Depends on your tolerance to hot things. That could be 120F or 150F if you have calluses on your hands! Sounds normal actually.

A heatsink should always feel too hot to touch. This means the heatsink is removing a lot of heat.

A carpet floor and a concrete floor are the same temperature but the concrete feels much colder because it conducts a lot of heat. Copper is one of the most heat conductive materials there is, so it should always feel hot.

 

[Rubycon]

A heatsink should always feel too hot to touch. This means the heatsink is removing a lot of heat.

A carpet floor and a concrete floor are the same temperature but the concrete feels much colder because it conducts a lot of heat. Copper is one of the most heat conductive materials there is, so it should always feel hot.

Of course it should feel hot however if it's getting too hot it means the input (Load) is too high or something else is going on with the chipset. (excessive voltage, for example)

 

[alyarb]

yeah, geforce9300 IGP is going to be hot. perfectly normal. for 65 nanometer it always was a burly northrbidge, and an nforce MCH would get hot even without the GPU integrated.

 

[Peroxyde]

Report and conclusion of chipset temperature issue.

I could not go very far with the passive cooling of the chipset. The GPU temperature is 86 degree Celsius (187 F), case opened. After about 1 hour, computer in idle mode, the computer shut down unexpectedly, probably a kind of emergency power off built into the motherboard. I restarted the computer a second time and same unplanned shut down.

This never happened before when I was using the E8400 with stock CPU cooler. I guess that was because the stock CPU fan at the same level than the chipset which benefited from the air moved by the CPU fan. The air flow from the new cooler doesn't touch at all the chipset which then heats more than before.

I can't believe Asus plays cheap by saving a few bucks on the chipset heatsink and joepardizes the reliability of the entire motherboard. I will definitely buy the Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II recommended by dawza in post #3. In the meantime, I came up with a low tech solution. Just hanging a fan with garden wire: http://tinypic.com/r/1filps/6

The fan doesn't touch the chipset. It's is "suspended" about 5 millimetres above the sink. GPU temperature drops to 48 degrees Celsius (118 F).

 

[dawza]

Your assessment sounds about right- it probably is an issue of lost airflow with the CPU HSF change.

If you think Asus went cheap with this heatsink, you were probably spared from experiencing the clusterf*** that was the A8N-E/SLI NF4 chipset HSF. A 5000+ RPM failure-prone 40mm fan, a "heatsink" thoroughly devoid of any surface area, and a very hot all-in-one NB/SB chipset made for some interesting user feedback. The kicker was that replacement of the HSF required MB removal to access the back. Oh, and there was no onboard temperature sensor for the NF4, so the only indicator your fan had died was a lack of fan noise and/or instability.

Asus clearly had their doubts about the reliability of that HSF solution, as the A8N-SLI-Premium came with a heatpipe/VRM radiator design.

 

[Zap]

TIM that looks like CHEESE. D:

I thought most of them looked like bubble gum?

I guess that was because the stock CPU fan at the same level than the chipset which benefited from the air moved by the CPU fan. The air flow from the new cooler doesn't touch at all the chipset which then heats more than before.

That's pretty much it. I don't think chipset fans are that common these days. They used to be pretty common, but the little fans are always dying and really noisy, so they aren't used much anymore.

 

[Rubycon]

I thought most of them looked like bubble gum?



That's pretty much it. I don't think chipset fans are that common these days. They used to be pretty common, but the little fans are always dying and really noisy, so they aren't used much anymore.

1) I've found more of the yellow stuff than the pink stuff. The yellow stuff looks like cheese and probably is as effective!

2) Thank goodness they've gotten away from active chipset coolers! Some fans were toast in a few short months.

 

[cbn]

LOL @ EPOX.

Yes some of the spring clips actually just hold it there with no pressure mounting. That combined with TIM that looks like CHEESE. D:

So that is a case of a contact patch (between heatsink and chip) being too small due to low pressure?

 

[Rubycon]

So that is a case of a contact patch (between heatsink and chip) being too small due to low pressure?

Well if the surfaces are perfectly matched to each other little pressure is required. This may happen in a world of fantasy but not real life! So TIM and retaining pressure is required to maximize transfer efficiency.

 

[Peroxyde]

Update #2:

Thank goodness they've gotten away from active chipset coolers! Some fans were toast in a few short months.

No wonder I could not find a chipset cooler. So my solution is just hanging a fan on top of the chipset, using green garden wires. The 40 mm fan I used initially was surprisingly noisy in spite of its small size. I have replaced it by a 120 mm fan running probably around 1200 rpm. This big fan makes less noise at it covers a bigger surface (the chipset and partially the ram modules). So overall better cooling and less noise.

One thing I have noticed now, is that I don't do any coaster with the DVD writer. Before I was aware of the chipset high temperature, I wasted DVD very often. I thought my DVD writer was dead or bad media. I was on my way to replace the DVD writer but now it works suddenly very well. So may be the chipset temperature had something to do with the failed DVD before.

 

[soccerballtux]

it's fine, you wouldn't believe the thermal gradient there is with heat sinks if I told you. 37C is perfectly fine.

 

[cyclo]

One solution would be to get one of those Antec Spotcool fans... the ones with the gooseneck. One end you attach to one of those motherboard to spacer screws and the other end has a fan that you could direct to an area that needs cooling (chipset). The fan has a 3 speed controller and it is about 80 mm in diameter which means it is quieter than those small fans that used to be attached to chipsets.

 

[Jash1123]

I have gigabyte b350 mobo and ryzen 5 1600 over clocked at 3.7ghz with coolermaster liquid 120 cpu temps are low but the heatsinks on mobo are quite hot on touch is it normal or should I remove the overclock?

 

[LTC8K6]

Your finger is not a thermometer.