Motherboard Cooling

Well My first question is does overclocking your CPU raise the NB chipset temps at all or a lot. I have this very skimpy heatsing on it right now that came with the mobo(ASUS K8V SE Dx) and will lower temps get me a better OC.

Also I was looking at the thermal pictures and saw hot mosfets, will cooling these down increase OC potential or will they burn up with high overclocks upwards of a 500Mhz OC.. Thanks for the answeres

it depends. what cpu are you using? i know a prescott makes the NB nice and toasty

I think nbridge cooling is overrated, now I know some guru overclockers are gonna get pissed at me for saying this but I've been running mine at 1.7v which is the max allowed for months on end now and it does not run very hot at all.

yes but have you lapped your northbridge? on the nf7 series the NB cooler usually make very poor contact with the NB chipset, it could be simply poor thermal contact in your case.
i say if in doubt, a properly applied hs can't hurt

Mine heated up alittle when i was overclocking my old pentium on a Abit SE-6, so I stuck on a cheap active cooled heatsink.

Don't know about the AMD boards, but I am not taking any chances. I plan on sticking a Thermalright NB-1 on with some AS5 without the Delta fan. I have a side case fan to take care of teh air flow across it.

For a few bucks I think it is worth having decent cooling for it. It basically runs everthing vital on the board.

subtotal said:

yes but have you lapped your northbridge? on the nf7 series the NB cooler usually make very poor contact with the NB chipset, it could be simply poor thermal contact in your case.
i say if in doubt, a properly applied hs can't hurt

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I cuncur. I've got a swiftec MCX-159P with a modded delta clone 60mm screamer. With that my 3.0 prescott runnin 3.75Ghz on H20 has my NB warm. With the stock pos NB cooler the Nb would get so hot I could'nt get near the speed I am now.

kooga_magnum, you do know the chipset voltage on the NF7 undervolts right? So it's nowhere's near 1.7v. That's why with that pos stock cooler it has it isn't warm. Trust me I've had 4 NF7-s's .

Well my CPU is an AMD64 3200+ Hammer. I do not know my NB temps but I have learned overclocking does make it hotter and ASUS puts some very very skimpy NB hs on it. Well I am getting good OC/to cooling results with my Zalman HSF (I think) and I am not shure my max OC stable yet because I have bad RAM that will not allow me to hit over 2.26 Ghz right now so its at 2.2 untill I get better RAM, I had my RAM timings higher but it keept crashing after about 5-10 mins of gameing so I put it back to stock too..I saw some guy hit 2.6 on air with an AMD64 3000 and I am not shure of his cooling methods but my Zalman gets a lot of airflow to it.. and am able to get my 200 mhz oc with 1-3C increase and I will probably take off my HSF some time before I get new RAM and re-do my AS5 application as right now I have it kinda commin out the edges of the HSF because I over applied so that could help. I am not shure I will hit 2.6 Ghz as someone told me I should not rase my Vcore over 1.6 V but 2.6 would be very nice but I would be happy with 2.4, im guessing a 400 Mhz OC wont increase any MOSFET temps to a dangerous level like those people trying to hit 4.0 Ghz with their 3.0 Ghz P4s on air. So if it is good to put a NB HSF on then could I use an old 500 Mhz Celeron aluminum heatsink I got out of a gateway, cut it down if needed and put a small fan on it, will this decrease my temps or would it be adviseable to just leave it alone as I do not have a temp scensor in there to see if I am getting an improvement or not. I should add my stock temps on my CPU are 30-32C and never excede 45C in any games I play and I am not worried about my CPU life span because they will soon be cheap as dirt.. Thanks

There's an easy way to answer many of you questions.
1. NB coolong. We assume that there's thermal paste and that it's at least good. Stress NB as much as you can, like by using high FSB, overvolting and such - to be under load similiar or higher to load under OC you plan. If you comp doesn't hang - touch NB heatsink. If you think that it's too hot - it's too hot. There are some good coolers, but you need to know if you need replacement and if so - how much power is needed. Eventually you may end with replacing paste with AS5 or Arctic Ceramique. Forget Zalman NB cooler - ASUS has better.

2. Mosfets - overclocking CPU and mem and overvolting CPU and NB and mem will make mosfets warmer. Similiar - overvolt, stress thing (Prime 95 or CPUburn).
If you consider them too hot, they're defineitly too hot. A good way to chill them is old P4/Celeron heatsink. Get one, cut, stick with some double sided tape (I think that 3M preduces proper tapes).

In both cases, check temps under normal conditions and "OC". This way you can find what to expect - where temp rises and how much. Have dry fingers, not to short anything

kooga_magnum said:

I think nbridge cooling is overrated, now I know some guru overclockers are gonna get pissed at me for saying this but I've been running mine at 1.7v which is the max allowed for months on end now and it does not run very hot at all.

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Dude, you dont touch the heatsink and say your NB is not hot. Thats not how you measure temp of your chipset.

The answer is YES. When you overclock by FSB your chipet wil get hotter and even hotter if you up your chipset voltage, especially with nF2 boards.

I don't know better way to check temp except for digital temrometers. Finger is more accurate than any computer sensor I think.

um sorry but i just have to ask...
were are u geting thermal photos???
i want thermal photos of my P4C800-E

but ya i think NB cooling is a MUST.
i also added a SB heatsink.
i think the mobo needs good cooling all around lots of chips there hmh i need thermal pics.

The thermal pics were from a post I saw here on cooling of someones rig showing crazy hot temps on the mobo. Wish I had a thermal camera! Well we will see what this Zalman HSF for my CPU can stand up to the test of a large oc, maybe when I get my AS5 applied correctly and all dust cleaned out should help a few C but its holding up ok. I will look into a chipset HS when I am ready to buy cooling for this system but I dont really have a big budget right now thats why asked if my old Celeron HS would work well on the NB...

any heat sink will work if its big enuf and if it can be mounted.
you probable need AS adheasive for mounting a heatsink like that on ur NB(or SB)