nforce2 southbridge cooling

[oldman420]

i was feeling around my nf7 mb yesterday and when i touched the southbridge chip it was hot enough to burn my finger this has got to be a bad thing as heat = instability
i went out and got a ramsink and applied it and that even gets pretty warm to the touch
i havnt seen any change in performance but still feel better
my nf7-s is starting to look not oem now i have replaced a installed nb/sb coolers
is heat a issue on nforce 2 nb chips and did i do the right thing here?

 

[MDE]

DFI puts a SB heatsink on the NFII Infinity IIRC, so it's not just our imaginations (I put a SB heatsink on my NF7-S).

 

[Vette73]

Nivida says it is not needed, BUT some poeple with Asus and abits nForce2 boards have had problems with sound while overclocking and put a heatsink on the southbridge and that helped.

So it SHOULD not be a problem, but does not hurt.

 

[Megatomic]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Nivida says it is not needed, BUT some poeple with Asus and abits nForce2 boards have had problems with sound while overclocking and put a heatsink on the southbridge and that helped.

Yes, I'm one of them. Back when I had an Epox 8RDA+ I had some sound problems in games. Turned out that my SB chip was screaming hot even in a well cooled case after 30 minutes of gaming with hardware accelerated sound - after 30 minutes sound would start to stutter and would eventually cut out on me. So I put a NB cooler from an old dead ASUS board on it and magically the problems went away.

So, when I moved to the Abit NF7-S which has the same MCP-T SB chip I naturally mounted a heatsink there as well. As a result I never had a sound problem.

I definitely recommend cooling the SB chip, it can only help.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Like nuke dude said, it only helps I always recommend removing the NB cooler and replacing the T.I.M. with Ceramique' or the like, and adding SB passive cooling, particullarly if you intend to pump up the vdd chipset voltage. The Vantec copper iceberg kit is my personal weapon of choice for nF2 cooling.

 

[Megatomic]

Yes, I also improve my NB cooling. I use AS Ceramique too, but my weapon of choice is the Zalman NB47J. It's silent (completely passive) and inexpensive.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Megatomic
Yes, I also improve my NB cooling. I use AS Ceramique too, but my weapon of choice is the Zalman NB47J. It's silent (completely passive) and inexpensive.

I just can't embrace the silent cooling fad that has swept the enthusiast community. I like white noise, heck I can't sleep without my ceiling fan on! I still believe it originated from kids stuck in dorms and bedrooms@parents homes with their PCs running all night doing file sharing. If you see it as a challenge to cool effectively while keeping it quiet I respect that But I see people post that the noise bugs/irritates them, even just the rush of a fan, not necessarily a high pitched whine or some other reasonable reason for wanting it quiter. To me, that is an indication that they are too high strung and need to enhance their calm

 

[Noid]

I used an old chipset cooler from a VC.
Just used a sticky pad to stick it on ,,, and a molex to 3 prong converter to power it up.
(still quiet)

 

[Megatomic]

Lol, I never tried to analyze the issue like that. The thing is, for me my case is 2ft away from my head. Loud whiny fans (I tried tornados a long time ago) were really annoying so I began my quest for quiet cooling so I could overclock peacefully.

CPU: Alpha PAL 8045 w/ Vantec Stealth 80mm fan (just about silent)
GPU: Arctic Cooling VGA Silencer R3 (just about silent)
NB: Zalman ZM-NB47J (dead silent)
SB: generic blue anodized heatsink to match NB (dead silent)
PSU: Antec True380 (very quiet)

Even my hard drives are quiet: Maxtor DM+9 with FDB motors

With this setup I can run my 2500+ @ 3200+ and overclock my 9800P to 400/720. This is the extent to which I went to enhance my calm.

 

[oldman420]

good i at at least feel better " and that chip must too"

 

[prometheusxls]

When I had the NF2 I slapped an old passive Northbridge sink on my south bridge with a bit is AS3. It helped my FSB OC by 5 MHz or so.

Edit: I had the Epox 8RDA+...

 

[oldman420]

well my board fried yesterday morning.and by the way that cooling did help stability at higher clock speeds.
one of the transistors to the south of the dimms fried was this a defect or did the added stability let me push it to the max ei melting point?
if it was a defect and not my fault i will rma the board but if it was my fault then i will eat it. i already got a new board.

 

[Fern]

I think you should rma it for that frred transistor. I don't remember you posting anything about hard mods to your board. Seems only adjustments you made were through BIOS, board outta be able to take those.

Fern