Passively cooling nForce3 chipset

[NotoriousWES]

Would this heatsink here be enough to passively cool my nforce3 chipset on my Gigabyte k8ns-pro motherboard?

The stock fan is dying and I am going to have to replace it soon. I am hoping that I will be able to passively cool it, thus avoiding any fan failure in the future (and any unnecessary noise). Whatever I use, it has to be less than 10mm high because the chip is stupidly placed, and the back of my video card goes over one of the corners.

 

[Operandi]

The nForce3 runs pretty cool, that should be fine.

 

[NotoriousWES]

So i shouldn't worry if I attach it using thermal adhesive?

Also, is there anyway to tell what temp the chipset is at without using an external temp probe/monitor?

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: NotoriousWES
So i shouldn't worry if I attach it using thermal adhesive?

Also, is there anyway to tell what temp the chipset is at without using an external temp probe/monitor?

I don't think it would be a problem; all of the nForce3 systems I've put together used pretty small passive heatsinks that were not very big. I don't know how warm they got exactly but not nearly as hot as the passive sink on my nForce2 which has a heatsink about 3x the size of the nForce2 boards.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: NotoriousWES
Also, is there anyway to tell what temp the chipset is at without using an external temp probe/monitor?

Only if the board has a sensor for that. AFAIK, most boards don't, but the chipset usually won't get hot enough to burn out unless your cooling straight up sucks and there isn't a heatsink on it.