Passively Cooling the NorthBridge

[cmcquistion]

I was wondering if it would be possible and worthwhile to passively cool the northbridge of my Abit KG7-R motherboard. Here's what I've got in mind. I've got a few great big heatsinks that used to be big ol' socket A heatsinks until I managed to break the fan on them. (one with my finger... ouch.)

Anyway, I've got access to a bandsaw and drill press, so I was wondering if I trim one of these big aluminum heatsinks to fit on the Northbridge, will it yield better cooling than the heatsink and fan that is on there now.

Watercooling is also an option, but kind of a pain. If passive cooling will do a good job, it will be far easier.

Any opinions or hard data appreciated.

[Yodums]

See if the crystal orb will fit the north bridge.

Basically a northbridge you can take an old small heatsink possibly a 4x86 heatsink and with a fan and it can be your north bridge and use Arctic Allumina Adhensive to stick it on if clips dont work.

To really extreme cool the northbridge when its not that necessary is not worth it unless your planning to cool other things as well along with it like CPU, GPU, HDD..

Yodums

[cmcquistion]

I really want to go with a passive heatsink if possible because I'm trying to eliminate noise from my system.

I'm watercooling the CPU right now and I'm working on an extension to watercool the video card. Would running another waterblock on the northbridge in series with the AGP be a good idea? I don't want to heat up the northbridge or the AGP.

Any suggestions, watercooling or passive cooling?

[Silversinksam]

This is what I use on my Northbridge as its really quiet and only costs $3.95 (normally 19.95 at Tennmax) Its good for cooling low end GPUs and Northbriges.


http://www.mpja.com/pictures/12813.jpg

MFG: TENNAX VOLTAGE: 12VDC CURRENT: 350mA NO. OF BLADES: 7 12V Mini fan/heatsink for Pentium I class IC's. Includes mounting clip. 4" leads with 3 pin connector. Sq: 2" Thk: 3/8" WT: .1

http://www.mpja.com/product.asp?product=12813+FN

[chawken]

With a bit of modding, I was able to mod the blue orb to fit. That should be sufficiant to cool the northbridge.

[Voodoo Rufus]

I passively cool my KT266 N/B with and old monster P200MMX passive heatsink, and the sink is cold. Passive cooling works good for chipsets. I think the main reason you see fans is marketing and the fact that it takes less space than a real heatsink. All SocketA sinks are designed for a fan, so the may not work well for natural convection. I use a heatsink from a Volcano 2 cooler on my Kyro II and it runs about 5C higher than the old fan on it, but it works.

[cmcquistion]

My goal is to cool the Northbridge WITHOUT using a fan. Can this be done with a big ol' heatsink?

If not, will a waterblock in series with the GPU be a good solution? If it is, should it be placed before the GPU or after? Which one gets hotter?

[Yodums]

Whats wrong with adding a fan?

I mean those old heatsinks are very quiet.

Yodums

[Voodoo Rufus]

YES, yo ucan run a 760 with a passive heatsink. Look at the MSI K7 Master board. It has a 440BX style heatsink on it. Any big old heatsink will work great on your northbridge.

Fans are EVIL! Silence is golden.

[cmcquistion]

You rock, man! Now a more asinine question is this... Will the thickness of the bottom plate of the heatsink pose a problem.

Specifically, most northbridge heatsinks are rather small and the bottom plate is fairly thin, maybe a sixteenth of an inch.

The big socket A heatsinks, however have bottom plate thicknesses or 1/8" to 3/16". I don't know enough about heatsinks to know if this thickness will impede heat removal or not.

Anybody know if this matters or am I just worrying over nothing.

[Voodoo Rufus]

It won't hurt. If anything it will help to have a thick base because the Athlon cores need a thick base to allow the heat to spread across the entire sink.