VIA 8363A (KT133A Northbridge) gets really hot. Why don't they use a bigger heatsink instead of installing a loud fan?

[Charles]

Intel i850 uses a very big heatsink instead of active cooling solution. This is good, since it can keep the system silent.

So far, I've only notice one KT133A that doesn't use a fan for the northbridge cooler (I saw it in the picture) that is MSI K7T-Turbo.

I'm waiting for Mike to post the review.

 

[LXi]

So it looks "cool", "elite" and "appealing" to overclockers and tweakers, personally I dont give a flying thing to chipset active cooling.

 

[Charles]

Soltek SL75KAV-X doesn't use any fan.

 

[Technonut]

The HSF does help with overclocking the KT133A. It is not just to "look cool" Quoted from Anandtech's KT7A review:



<< As an experiment, we decided to take away the HSF unit on the VIA 8363A North Bridge to see if we can still achieve the same kind of FSB speed. To our surprise when we tried to set the FSB speed to 147MHz with no HSF on the North Bridge, the system did not even POST. That proves our thought that the North Bridge can?t sustain the heat generated. Now the question is how much it is affected? We repeated our FSB tests and we found out that 137MHz was the maximum FSB speed we could achieve without any HSF unit on the North Bridge. >>





<< Several things can be inferred from all this. For starters, the North Bridge is really dissipating quite a bit of heat. Thus, a heat sink on the North Bridge seems to be mandatory for the KT133A chipset. With that in mind, the addition of a fan on the KT7A-RAID?s North Bridge doesn?t seem to be overkill anymore. In fact, it helps ensure that the heat generated by the North Bridge would not be a limiting factor for FSB overclocking. >>

 

[AndyHui]

Rather than the usual BGA Ball Grid Array for mounting the North Bridge of the chipset, the i850 uses an OLGA Organic Land Grid Array format which is essentially a flip-chip mounting, helping to keep it cool. That's why P4 boards can get away without using a fan.

 

[Charles]

Andy, I don't think that VIA 8363A need that kind of packaging. That's why Intel i850 southbridge looks even more like a CPU than a chipset.

Hmmm, I think NVidia's upcoming graphic chip should use this flip chip technology.

 

[AndyHui]

The problem with OLGA/flip chip is damage.....how many people have cracked the cores on their FC-PGA P3, Socket A Athlons and Durons?

 

[Insane3D]

I am replacing the HSF on the northbridge of my KT7A-RAID with a copper chipset cooler...I will test to see if there is any difference with attainable FSB speeds and a better HSF. I will be using this...

Chipset HSF

 

[Charles]

I would prefer to remove the fan! Hehehe