Northbridge heat! Nforce 4 Ultra passive cooling

2 heat related questions for my new computer:

I replaced the northbridge heatsink (one of those small annoying fans) with a zalman passive northbridge heatsink. The thing is hot to the touch.. 2 seconds is the maximum I can put my finger on there. I don’t know how hot these active heatsinks get (why are they called heatsinks it’s a fan in a cage?) but I am slightly worried… to hot? Not overclocking! Also any way to measure temp because in speedfan I don’t see anything hotter then 40C (or the bios)

My cpu is cooled by the Zalman CNPS 9500 LED at the lowest noise setting and the cpu goes up to 50C under stress… that’s ok isn’t it? (Keep in mind guys I am low noise not overclocking and my barton ran 55C normally)

thanks for input

I've heard that the nVidia northbridges always run hot and have trouble because of that...you might want to try an active cooler such as the swiftech or thermalright copper ones. 50°C is fine for any CPU in existance.

I have searched for the same thing regarding the chipset. Basically people said you will see instability before damage. I've also heard numbers thrown around like up to low 60's, but like you said, there's no way to measure it really without a probe. I have the Zalman on mine, and with no direct air on it, it would get too hot to touch for more than a second. Now I have an very low speed 80mm (barely moving air) sitting in front of the open PCI slots and blowing across the video card and chipset. I measured the heatsink with a temp gun and get about 58 as the highest and at that temp, I can leave my finger on it all I want. It's still hot, but doesn't burn at all.

Don't know if any of that helps.

i install a 120mm fan or 80mm fan... shouldnt hear it really...
thanks for the input appreciated

Try Everest Home Edition to check your temps. I've never been impressed with Speedfan myself.