north/south bridge heatsinks

[MidNiteMysT]

i never really understood what chips are north bridge, and south bridge or w/e but i do know theres heat sinks for em. i know my mother board already some 2 big heat sinks so im guessing that those the the north/south bridge chips. my question is, should i replace em for a zalman heat sink, or maybe take em off and put artic silver 5 grease or just leave it as is? and should i get those mini heatsinks to put on the bare chips on the motherboard? you can see them in this picture.
thanx.
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/cv2/pix/D925XECV2_lg.jpg

incase you couldnt figure it out from the picture title, i have a intel D925XECV2 motherboard.

 

[imported_Kensai]

If you can, just pull em off and use AS5 on them. Doubt the Zalman NB sinks would be as effective as Intel's Northbridge sink.

 

[MidNiteMysT]

i see... and what about the other question?

"and should i get those mini heatsinks to put on the bare chips on the motherboard?"

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: Kensai
If you can, just pull em off and use AS5 on them. Doubt the Zalman NB sinks would be as effective as Intel's Northbridge sink.

by the way nice pic high quality.

 

[Operandi]

Intel knows what they are doing, leave the board as is; no new heatsinks, no AC5, nothing.

 

[Lazien]

Personally I would put AC5 under the northbridge heatsink only since it has the memory controller in it. If You overclock it could hot. The only other thing that gets hot on motherboards are the rectifiers and they already have build in heatsinks so Your all good bro. Dont put any heatsinks on the other chips since they really wont get hot anyway.

The Zalman heatsink is basically the same as the ones currently on Your motherboard. I believe Zalman still only makes aluminum NB Heatsinks so You wouldn't gain anything by swapping it.


Lazien

 

[BillyBobJoel71]

mobo companies would only put heatsinks on the chips that need them, like northbridge and cpu. the south bridge doesn't get hot enough.

 

[MidNiteMysT]

ok, i guess everyone agrees that i dont need to replace/add heatsinks to the mobo. but adding heatsinks to some of those big chips wouldnt hurt right? im pretty sure i wont be adding any heatsinks to em anyway, just curious.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: SuperTyphoon
mobo companies would only put heatsinks on the chips that need them, like northbridge and cpu. the south bridge doesn't get hot enough.

The southbridge has a heatsink on it.. It gets fairly hot...

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: SuperTyphoon
mobo companies would only put heatsinks on the chips that need them, like northbridge and cpu. the south bridge doesn't get hot enough.

You'd think they would. Some companies put heatsinks on things when they can still make a profit and be competitive. Corporations can and will cut corners if they want to.

"Do we really need a heatsink on there," asks the manager.
"Yes, this chip gets hot and should have a heatsink," says the design engineer.
So the manager asks again, "But do we really need that heatsink there?"
"Well, I suppose, if you keep room temperature below 25C, it should be able to work. But if someone doesn't have air conditioning and it gets hot during the summer then it might-"
The engineer is cut off by the manager: "They should know to have air conditioning in the
summer. Ship the product without the heatsink. There's no money in the budget for it."

Example is the voltage regulators near the CPU socket - those things have a lot of power passing through them, and they can get quite hot, but they do not have heatsinks. I assume it is within their tolerance though, which is why motherboards aren't bursting into flames everywhere, so you should be fine.


End story - that motherboard looks like it has all the cooling it needs. Take the heatsinks off and put another thermal compound on if you want to and feel comfortable doing so, but there's no urgent need to. Same thing applies to the other small chips - only put heatsinks on them if you are really really bored some day, or if you have a mental disorder (like I've got) that compels you to stick heatsinks to things.

 

[JEDIYoda]

Why do anything to the stock heatsinks?

I truthfully doubt that arctic silver5 would make a bit of difference.

As was stated earlier Intel knows what they are doing.
Those heatsinks on your board are plenty big enough; Even if you overclock!!

When is enough enough?

 

[Lazien]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda

When is enough enough?

BAH!!! There is never enough when it comes to overclocking...or cooling so one can achieve ever higher overclocks.

I saw a thermal picture of a motherboard and the rectifiers, north bridge, voltage regulators and cpu were the only things "hot"

I really wouldn't worry about sticking heatsinks to the chips personally.


Lazien