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My northbridge... it burns!

L

LuDaCriS66

Platinum Member
Okay, I don't get it. I used to have an Aeroflow TMD fan on my Epox 8RDA+ and 2400+ chip. The heatsink was warm to the touch... so it wasn't very hot at all.
Today, I finally got to put my watercooling parts together and now my heatsink is a lot hotter than before. It's hot enough for me to only touch it for a second before it would burn my finger..
what the heck? How did it get so much hotter? I'm running at the same speeds as before.
 
Which heatsink are you talking about? Northbridge or CPU?

I believe that due to the way a waterblock has the cooling medium (water) flowing through the middle, the middle is the coolest part and the outside is hotter.

Someone correct me if that hypothesis is wrong.
 
The Aeroflow blows air onto the NB heatsink (does on mine at least), so it's going to be hotter without that airflow.
 
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I was talking about my northbridge heatsink. It was a lot cooler before I put my watercooling in. Now it's extremely hot to the touch. You could fry an egg on it.

I guess I could reseat the heatsink but I've never removed it... It's the cheapo Epox heatsink stuck on the nForce2 chipset with a thermal pad ..
 
Originally posted by: LuDaCriS66
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I was talking about my northbridge heatsink. It was a lot cooler before I put my watercooling in. Now it's extremely hot to the touch. You could fry an egg on it.

I guess I could reseat the heatsink but I've never removed it... It's the CHEAPO Epox heatsink stuck on the nForce2 chipset with a thermal pad ..
Click to expand...

 
Originally posted by: MonkeyDriveExpress
The Aeroflow blows air onto the NB heatsink (does on mine at least), so it's going to be hotter without that airflow.
Click to expand...

Good point.. it did the same thing with mine .. but I don't know if it blew enough air to cool it that well. I think I'm gonna try to screw a fan on there somehow...

/edit

heh, I understand nick.. but it wasn't that bad previously. I'm gonna have to assume the Aeroflow helped it cool down..
Should I bother buying something like the vantec iceburg to cool the NB?
 
Is the comp stable? If so it's fine, it'll go unstable well before the NB burns. Just ensure you still have adequate airflow in the case. At worst one of those Zalman NB heatsinks might be more efficient at dissipating heat.

btw a hot heatsink means its a working heatsink.
 
try reseating the heatsink.
Click to expand...
Or not, the hotter it is the better it's conducting heat so it's probably ok. I've got one of those Zalman NBJ32 heatsinks on my northbridge and it get's pretty hot too. The easiest solution if you're worried about it is to put an active cooling solution on it, like mount a little fan on top of your existing heatsink or buy a new HSF combo.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7<br

LuDaCriS66 - what's your bus speed at?
Click to expand...

I'm running the board at 166.. so that's one of the reasons. I had it running at 200 a while back but I would get random reboots.

 
Anyone try mounting a fan onto a Zalman northbridge heatsink (NBJ32)? That would produce pretty superb air cooling -- the gaps in them are too big for standard screws though, not sure how you'd pull off the mounting, maybe some epoxy?
 
Or you can just hold a case fan there to see if that helps stability at 200FSB, if not, you really don't need to bother getting a dedicated NB fan unless you're a cooling fanatic.
 
Any chance your "original" warm to the touch baseline was flawed? Maybe your heatsink has always been that warm and you didn't know it...

P-X
 
Originally posted by: PrinceXizor
Any chance your "original" warm to the touch baseline was flawed? Maybe your heatsink has always been that warm and you didn't know it...

P-X
Click to expand...

Ha.. nah. I would put my finger on the heatsink every now and then to test it... I could leave my finger there for as long as I wanted. Now, I can't bare leaving my finger there for more than a second.
 
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