Chipset cooling, important?

martindemon · Jul 10, 2002

I will buy a Abit IT7 which i think have only passive cooling. I plan using air cooling for now (Alpha+Panaflo for CPU.) I also plan overclocking at 166 FSB. Now i know the chipset controls the memory. So if i overclock, it must heat somewhat more.

The questions are:
Will the passive cooling be fine with this overclock? Does it really heat that much? Must i add yet another fan? I Hope not... But i would like to be safe (very stable.) Do you think my objectives are too much for this cooling? Do i have to endure a crying baby turbo fan on my CPU to go from 2.4 to 3GHz?

attack · Jul 10, 2002

well it should be ok, that's not really an extreme OC. I would try toi find a small fan like 40x40mm put that on, and use some AS epoxy and reatach the old heatsink. on my 8k3a the heatsink is passive and put on with double sided tape! I took it off AS epoxied it back on, and screwed a 40x40 fan on it and it run really close to ambient temps right now. Before it would run pretty warm...i'd say 40c judging by touch.

It shouldn't be in dire need of it, i'd try to run it at your goal and if something is holding you back thenm definetly go for a fanm and epoxying the heatsink on.

JFettig · Jul 11, 2002

if my kt333 heatsink was just touching the corners of the chip to the heatsink, i tont think its all that important...

Yodums · Jul 11, 2002

Chipset usually get hot at stock because there's barely any contact since manufactures slap on the pad very fast, or use no thermal paste at all. Your best priceless beat is to lap the chipset heatsink (Very fast since it is so small), add a 40mm fan there, and add Arctic Alumina to the chipset, and it'll make it run very cool. Don't use Arctic Silver since it is conductive, and capacitive (That's why I recommended Alumina -- it's not).

Silversinksam · Jul 11, 2002

Yodums said:
Chipset usually get hot at stock because there's barely any contact since manufactures slap on the pad very fast, or use no thermal paste at all. Your best priceless beat is to lap the chipset heatsink (Very fast since it is so small), add a 40mm fan there, and add Arctic Alumina to the chipset, and it'll make it run very cool. Don't use Arctic Silver since it is conductive, and capacitive (That's why I recommended Alumina -- it's not).

That is not the case with the IT7, they slop on plenty of that white thermal paste. (whether you replace it with arctic Silver or not is up to you, but Abit didnt forget to use thermal paste with the IT7)

It took me half a day to get my waterblock to go onto my IT7 northbridge as its got crazy 'hooks' instead of traditional holes in the mobo. (Had to go to the hardware store twice lol)

If you want my advise just glue(silicone) a 40mm fan onto the passive IT7 Northbridge heatsink if your going for a high FSB.

Tiger · Jul 11, 2002

Arctic Silver since it is conductive, and capacitive

I am not sure that this is true. I have personally tested ASII and found that it not conductive and the manufacturer says it is non-conductive. Do you have a source for this info.

JFettig · Jul 11, 2002

sss's nb is still on fans, i feel L337

mines on water

JFettig · Jul 11, 2002

Tiger said:
I am not sure that this is true. I have personally tested ASII and found that it not conductive and the manufacturer says it is non-conductive. Do you have a source for this info.

epoxy is

Tiger · Jul 11, 2002

Sorry I didn't see a reference to the use of the epoxy.

glass · Jul 11, 2002

martindemon said:
I will buy a Abit IT7 which i think have only passive cooling. I plan using air cooling for now (Alpha+Panaflo for CPU.) I also plan overclocking at 166 FSB. Now i know the chipset controls the memory. So if i overclock, it must heat somewhat more.

The questions are:
Will the passive cooling be fine with this overclock? Does it really heat that much? Must i add yet another fan? I Hope not... But i would like to be safe (very stable.) Do you think my objectives are too much for this cooling? Do i have to endure a crying baby turbo fan on my CPU to go from 2.4 to 3GHz?

since your going aircooling with your cpu i'd take my 0.2cents and say that provides enough airflow for the NB too.

FIZZ3 · Jul 11, 2002

martindemon said:
I will buy a Abit IT7 which i think have only passive cooling. I plan using air cooling for now (Alpha+Panaflo for CPU.) I also plan overclocking at 166 FSB. Now i know the chipset controls the memory. So if i overclock, it must heat somewhat more.

The questions are:
Will the passive cooling be fine with this overclock? Does it really heat that much? Must i add yet another fan? I Hope not... But i would like to be safe (very stable.) Do you think my objectives are too much for this cooling? Do i have to endure a crying baby turbo fan on my CPU to go from 2.4 to 3GHz?

If you're aircooling, the nb will be cooled a bit by the flow from the cpu hsf, as was mentioned. I'd stick with the passive sink- it should be good enough. But I would make sure the contact is good (lapping works on rough, el cheapo 40mm sinks) and that it is properly furnished with good thermal paste. Only if the OC was to give problem would I consider adding a fan.

attack · Jul 11, 2002

regular ASII is conductive also. I got some in between my RAM chip pins and it wouldn't work took me a syrenge and a long time to get all that $&^% outa there. I use alumina for eveyrthing but cpu...and with epoxy i use regular epoxy since i'm extremely careful now!

Tiger · Jul 11, 2002

ATC9001 said:
regular ASII is conductive also. I got some in between my RAM chip pins and it wouldn't work took me a syrenge and a long time to get all that $&^% outa there. I use alumina for eveyrthing but cpu...and with epoxy i use regular epoxy since i'm extremely careful now!

This instance doesn't necessarily indicate that ASII is conductive it may in fact have been acting as an insulator and preventing conduction between the RAM module and the socket.

oc jason · Jul 11, 2002

Tiger said:
I am not sure that this is true. I have personally tested ASII and found that it not conductive and the manufacturer says it is non-conductive. Do you have a source for this info.

hence the word "Silver" ......silver is conductive

attack · Jul 11, 2002

Tiger said:
This instance doesn't necessarily indicate that ASII is conductive it may in fact have been acting as an insulator and preventing conduction between the RAM module and the socket.

I think I did a bad job of explaining where i got it...I was trying to put the ASII on the chips themselves then put on heatsinks, the heatsinks moved around before i could put the clip on and as it slid it built up on the edges and got into the gaps between the pins that go into the PCB, no onto the larger pins that go into the DIMM slot.

I am fairly certain that ASII is conductive, i've heard of people getting it on bridges of there CPU cores and ruining the CPU, as well as others with videocards etc. All in all it's really safe, but if you get it on something you didn't intend to i'd get it off before you fire anything up.

ZeroAquaduct · Jul 11, 2002

My recommendation is to treat everything as conductive. AS2 and AS Epoxy has been advertised as "non-conductive" before on several online shops, but it turns out to be false. Now Alumina is advertised as "non-conductive" and many people agree. But I say don't take the chance. If you got an expensive mobo or video card, be careful not to get it on the bridges.

Silversinksam · Jul 11, 2002

maskedgeek said:
sss's nb is still on fans, i feel L337 mines on water

I was recommending he just slap on a 40mm fan

Mines on h20

"It took me half a day to get my waterblock to go onto my IT7 northbridge as its got crazy 'hooks' instead of traditional holes in the mobo. (Had to go to the hardware store twice lol)"

I was merely commenting to the fact that getting a Chipset h20 cooler is a little tricky on an IT7

The Overclocker · Jul 11, 2002

Tiger said:
I am not sure that this is true. I have personally tested ASII and found that it not conductive and the manufacturer says it is non-conductive. Do you have a source for this info.

you are right, i have also tested artic silver 3 and found it is non conductive, it is also very rare to find a product which is conductive and capacitive because the eletrons spred out more on a conductive median, reducing the capacitance of the substence.

because we are talking about cooling a chipset, there is a lage spce to be cooled, i cannot see a problem with useing a conductive thermal grease on a chipset because:

1. it is very hard to get it on the pind underneat because there is a large gap

2. most good motherboards are sprayed with a clear laquer which makes the boards moisture and short circuit proof, the only time this is different is where components such as northbridges and southbridges are used an the pins can be connected underneith.

putting a fan on the northbridge is easy and has good effects, by putting a larger heatsink and fan on my northbridge i have got the FSB up to 170MHz cas2 with SDR ram

Tiger · Jul 11, 2002

oc jason said:
hence the word "Silver" ......silver is conductive

Here's the simple test which I carried out over a year ago and was also done by Hoot if I remember rightly.
Take a a piece of card and put a bead of ASII on it. Take a multimeter and set it to read resistance. Place the probes into the ASII and see if you get a reading. I didn't even over a microscopic distance.

Holst · Jul 11, 2002

Using watercooling on my 8k3a+ i had some slight northbrige overheating as there was no airflow over it.
I just bunged a 80mm fan over the memory and northbridge and i got stable again.
Im not sure if it was cooling the memory or northbrigde that helped, probably both.

As for getting AS2 on your memory it causes problems because its slightly capacitive, its not particually conductive.
Memory is pretty sensitive to electrical charge/static and adding some unwanted capacitance between the pins on the memory may cause instability.
Had you got conductive AS2 Epoxy on them you probably would have killed your memory (as many people have)

Chipset cooling, important?

Member

Member

Hey! I showered! Senior

Senior Member

Moderator/ Silver Paste Taster©

Member

Hey! I showered! Senior

Hey! I showered! Senior

Member

Member

Member

Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Member

Moderator/ Silver Paste Taster©

Member

Member

Member

Similar threads