P4P800 - no active cooling hinders overclocks?

LtBlue14 · Jul 7, 2003

P4P800 - no active NB cooling hinders overclocks?

i'm wondering if this is an issue people have been having with the board. no one seems to touch their northbridge or think about the fact that all they have is a heatsink - no fan - on it. anyone found overclocking with the passive northbridge cooling to be a problem? this goes for the P4C800 as well. this fact might persuade me to get an abit instead

JohnMK · Jul 7, 2003

The evidence I've seen indicates that actively cooling the northbridge doesn't improve overclockability of the Asus boards.

Even without an active cooler, these things overclock just as well as other board brands. Think about it for a second. How big is the heatsink on the Abit board? Damned small. Does it need a fan? Hell yes. How big is the heatsink on the Asus board? Huge.

Overclocker456 · Jul 8, 2003

JohnMK said:
The evidence I've seen indicates that actively cooling the northbridge doesn't improve overclockability of the Asus boards.

Even without an active cooler, these things overclock just as well as other board brands. Think about it for a second. How big is the heatsink on the Abit board? Damned small. Does it need a fan? Hell yes. How big is the heatsink on the Asus board? Huge.

Sorry to say but you are 100% wrong... Cooling the Northbridge will give you a higher overclock if the chip can do it. A great example is a 2.4C... A chip like that needs a VERY high bus speed and the northbridge can get hotter than the CPU..

batotman · Jul 8, 2003

Overclocker456 said:
Sorry to say but you are 100% wrong... Cooling the Northbridge will give you a higher overclock if the chip can do it. A great example is a 2.4C... A chip like that needs a VERY high bus speed and the northbridge can get hotter than the CPU..

Sorry to say but YOU are 100% wrong. On these boards active cooling does squat. The heatsink is cool to the touch and mine never goes over case temp which is 77F. Slap a fan on it and no change....already tried it lol.

JKeefe · Jul 8, 2003

Stop *******g at each other. Geez.

It is entirely possible that some NBs don't max out on the P4P800's, while some do and could benefit from active cooling. Chill. Blow a fan on it and see if it helps. If not, oh well, no harm done.

Read the front page guys. Ed posted this here on June 16th:

Unlike the IC-7, the P4P800 comes with only a passive heatsink. This thing gets hot at default speed, and at 280+, you'll literally get burned by mine with any prolonged contact.

However, placing a fan on it didn't seem to help maximum performance very much (though it cooled down the heatsink considerably); I could only get an extra MHz FSB from it. Then again, when you have a motherboard out in the open in a cool room with a water-cooled CPU, that represents more ideal conditions than can be found in the average case.

As a precaution, if nothing else, a simple fan remains a good idea.

And then later in the article he said the most important thing:

Others have also looked at the P4P800. Here's what one reviewer had to say:

"In terms of overall board stability, the P4P800 was rock solid up to 300 MHz PSB but completely failed above 302 MHz bus speed. Kyle from [H]ardOCP had emailed me about stability problems above 250 MHz he experienced with his board unless active cooling was added to the MCH, we did not see anything like this, moreover, the MCH heatsink never got anything but lukewarm to the touch. Whether there is a story behind this or it is just coincidence is completely beyond our knowledge and we won't comment further."

That paragraph bothers me, and it should bother you. One person can't get above 250MHz without additional cooling. Another hits 300MHz with a lukewarm heatsink. I get 290MHz, but the only place you'd call my heatsink lukewarm would be in the neighborhood of a blast furnace.

This tells me there's a lot of variation among these Springdales, which means there's a level of risk associated with them. Not a big deal running stock, and probably not one running a modest overclock, but a much bigger deal when you are pushing the envelope.

TC · Jul 8, 2003

It has already been stated by quite a few people, Ed included, that active cooling for the 865/875 boards is an absolute must for anyone wanting to do serious overclocking. There is a huge thread in the abit section devoted entirely to removing the stock cooler and adding third party options. Personally I first bought a P4C800. I noticed that my northbridge was literally so hot I could barely keep a finger on it. I was also experiencing random reboots with my 3.0C only clocked at 220 with the ram at 5:4. I put a 40mm fan on the stock passive heatsink and I have since been running 235 rock solid. I just bought a P4P800 and I ordered a thermaltake tiger 1 to go with it. In a nutshell - if you want the best overclock possible you definitely need better cooling for the northbridge.

texasfit · Jul 8, 2003

Yes - active cooling on the northbridge helps. Just pop the heatsink off, clean it, add some ASIII or Ceramique and a 40mm fan.

Overclocker456 · Jul 8, 2003

TC said:
It has already been stated by quite a few people, Ed included, that active cooling for the 865/875 boards is an absolute must for anyone wanting to do serious overclocking. There is a huge thread in the abit section devoted entirely to removing the stock cooler and adding third party options. Personally I first bought a P4C800. I noticed that my northbridge was literally so hot I could barely keep a finger on it. I was also experiencing random reboots with my 3.0C only clocked at 220 with the ram at 5:4. I put a 40mm fan on the stock passive heatsink and I have since been running 235 rock solid. I just bought a P4P800 and I ordered a thermaltake tiger 1 to go with it. In a nutshell - if you want the best overclock possible you definitely need better cooling for the northbridge.

I couldn't have said it better myself...

Obviously batotman thinks he's cooling a intel 440BX chipset, not a springdale or canterwood that runs past 1000MHz..

batotman · Jul 8, 2003

Overclocker456 said:
I couldn't have said it better myself...

Obviously batotman thinks he's cooling a intel 440BX chipset, not a springdale or canterwood that runs past 1000MHz..

Hmmmm guess my p4c800 and p4p800 must be super chips that can get by on 440bx cooling.....moron.

Overclocker456 · Jul 8, 2003

batotman said:
Hmmmm guess my p4c800 and p4p800 must be super chips that can get by on 440bx cooling.....moron.

aawww poor baby got upset. Dude its ok we all make mistakes.
Listen if you don't think that cooling the 865/875 better helps the max bus speed these motherboards can do, I really don't care. It's your loss.

Just don't mislead others who don't know and are asking questions and what the right answers. (Unless you want to mislead people). Because it has been proven time and time again with the 865/875 chipsets. That cooling them better does help.

Here's a small example... (check the overclocking part)

http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=186225

sharac · Jul 11, 2003

All fine and dandy but does anyone have any suggestions on how to install a fan on stock heatsink (it has very soft fins and therefore securing a fan might be a problem).

Rashio_UK · Jul 11, 2003

hi,
i know this is abit off topic but could i ask a question?

now i know this question has already been asked but with all the new bios being released by companies now which is the better mobo?

ic7 or p4p800 or...?

thanks for your help

Overclocker456 · Jul 11, 2003

Rashio_UK said:
hi,
i know this is abit off topic but could i ask a question?

now i know this question has already been asked but with all the new bios being released by companies now which is the better mobo?

ic7 or p4p800 or...?

thanks for your help

P4P800... check the forum for more responses..

texasfit · Jul 11, 2003

Rashio_UK said:
hi,
i know this is abit off topic but could i ask a question?

now i know this question has already been asked but with all the new bios being released by companies now which is the better mobo?

ic7 or p4p800 or...?

thanks for your help

Would depend on who you were talking to at the moment :-/

JKeefe · Jul 11, 2003

sharac said:
All fine and dandy but does anyone have any suggestions on how to install a fan on stock heatsink (it has very soft fins and therefore securing a fan might be a problem).

For a 40mm fan, dabs of superglue at the corners should be enough to get it onto the heatsink securely.

modenaf1 · Jul 11, 2003

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Bobby · Jul 12, 2003

JKeefe said:
For a 40mm fan, dabs of superglue at the corners should be enough to get it onto the heatsink securely.

I was thinking about superglue but decided to use a glue gun.

Works fine and I can actually touch the hs now. It's still a bit warm but not nearly as warm as it was before I put the fan on there.

-Bobby

sharac · Jul 13, 2003

Hehe great and simple idea

/me kicks myself for being slow

markodude · Jul 17, 2003

Time to go buy a 40mm fan then, so far I am at 1066FSB, but maybe there is more to come. Putting this rig in a custom modded case as well so will add a fan then....

Ace-a-Rue · Jul 22, 2003

sharac said:
All fine and dandy but does anyone have any suggestions on how to install a fan on stock heatsink (it has very soft fins and therefore securing a fan might be a problem).

Can you visualize a low rpm 80 mm fan propped up or wedged btwn the backside of the VC and the cpu HS? It is sort of caddy cornered pointing at an angle towards the backside of the VC and the NB. It is dual purpose. If you need a picture, let me know.

P4P800 - no active cooling hinders overclocks?

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