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north bridge going nuclear

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Infinite66

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2012
Hello everyone, i have a gigabyte 990fx ud3 and the north bridge heatsink is SCALDING. To the touch. Everything in my system is at stock speeds. I used to have a hyper 212 heatsink on the CPU with two fans so the NB was able to breathe a little. I've since added a custom liquid loop so the heat only grew. My board has no sensor for the NB and I've looked on several programs. Hwmonitor etc I've been using a laser temp reader to measure. I have decent air flow in my case, but regardless, the NB should not be as hot as it is at stock speeds when the computer is at idle. It hovers around 76C at idle and goes above 100 under load. I'm afraid to do anything with it then. I've replaced the thermal paste with IC diomand and although temps went down a little, its still red hot. Is it worth getting a new heatsink? Or is my board just toast? I did get this board on clearance at microcenter. This may be the reason...any help is appreciated.
 
Just get a RAM cooler (yeah, a RAM cooler) to do the job your heatsink was doing before, cooling the motherboard.

I'm using corsair low profile vengeance ram, nd the NB is closer to the CPU than the ram anyhow. Aftermarket NB sinks are cheap, I was just wondering if this heat issue is commonplace.
 
Yes, it is a common issue. A RAM cooler, with fans, should give enough air for the NB not to go nuclear. Or you could put a 120mm on top of you graphics card and call it a day.
 
+1 on adding fans. A 120mm pointing toward the NB or anything that can provide airflow. This is a "problem" with running watercooling, you end up with zero airflow around the CPU socket. ( VRM's, Memory, NB )
 
I run a fan in the case side blowing into the nb and vrm area.
on my coolermaster 942 it has a video card support and i bolt one to that and it helps quite a bit.
 
I still think they should come up with a Hyper 212+ mini for all of us NB overclocking fans. Could easily be doable and I bet we could push well past three gigahertz on the phenom II platform. That would be awesome.

I've tried some of the other aftermarket NB heat sinks and they all suck. Or at least the popular ones.
 
Being sure...

...just to be sure, I numbered the heatsinks in a pic of your mobo by the name you are using for it. Which heat sink is the HOT one?
RGone...

FXA-UD3.jpg
 
Everything in my system is at stock speeds. >> Have you checked to see what voltage is being applied to the CPU_NB? 1.1875V is about stock voltage. I run mine at 1.2875 on CHV and the NB does not get nearly as hot as you are seeing.

laser temp reader 76C at idle and goes above 100 under load >> Since it is done with hopefully a good laser gun and read at the heatsink, we can be pretty sure it is running hotter than it should be for any reason.

I was just wondering if this heat issue is commonplace. >> I would say not to the extent you are seeing. Obviously the NB heatsink is making good contact OR it would not be so hot to be read externally to the laser temp gun.

gigabyte 990fx ud3 >> Now if someone comes in and admits/says that board has a bad habit of over-driving the NB then okay. You have a normal situation. My other branded mobo does not run the CPU_NB nearly that hot. Not even at 4.8Ghz and CPU_NB running 2600Mhz with 1.287V on the CPU_NB.
RGone...
 
Everything in my system is at stock speeds. >> Have you checked to see what voltage is being applied to the CPU_NB? 1.1875V is about stock voltage. I run mine at 1.2875 on CHV and the NB does not get nearly as hot as you are seeing.

laser temp reader 76C at idle and goes above 100 under load >> Since it is done with hopefully a good laser gun and read at the heatsink, we can be pretty sure it is running hotter than it should be for any reason.

I was just wondering if this heat issue is commonplace. >> I would say not to the extent you are seeing. Obviously the NB heatsink is making good contact OR it would not be so hot to be read externally to the laser temp gun.

gigabyte 990fx ud3 >> Now if someone comes in and admits/says that board has a bad habit of over-driving the NB then okay. You have a normal situation. My other branded mobo does not run the CPU_NB nearly that hot. Not even at 4.8Ghz and CPU_NB running 2600Mhz with 1.287V on the CPU_NB.
RGone...

Thaks for the input. I decided to get one of those pcie cooler cards to place right under the heatsink as well as a fan blowing directly on it. If this becomes insufficient and the board dies, oh well, I got the thing on clearance for $50. Thanks again, ill make sure to check the voltage. I forgot to ask, how much thermal paste should I be using? Ive seen varying opinions.ranging from using a ton, to using the tip of a knife to apply a small drop in the center of the NB chip. I used the more paste method. Can too much thermal paste INCREASE temps?
 
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That's the culprit right there...you never use too much paste.
It's meant to fill in the cracks in the contact between the heatsink and the NB. Use a small rice grain sized drop and let it spread with the heatsink's mounting pressure.
 
That's the culprit right there...you never use too much paste.
It's meant to fill in the cracks in the contact between the heatsink and the NB. Use a small rice grain sized drop and let it spread with the heatsink's mounting pressure.

Sigh, now I feel like an idiot. Should have listened to my gut feeling when I was applying the thermal paste. Felt wrong putting that much but I did it anyway! Ok thanks. Time to pull apart the board... Again. Last question is should I apply any extra pressure to sink to ensure it goes on right? It uses spring anchors to stay attached rather than clips. Of should I just put it on and leave it be for a little while?
 
I don't feel the springs in some boards do much if at all pressure wise, let it be and monitor temps. If they lower that should be it, if not you can improvise some sort of custom washer thingy or zipties to tighten it more.
 
I don't feel the springs in some boards do much if at all pressure wise, let it be and monitor temps. If they lower that should be it, if not you can improvise some sort of custom washer thingy or zipties to tighten it more.

Sounds like what I was going to do. I'm gonna buy one of those zalman NB coolers and teat it. If not, its just a quick trip to microcenter. Thanks again for all the help.
 
I ran that same motherboard for well over a year and the stock NB sink gets hot but mine never got into the 90+ range even when overclocked. Simply adding a fan to that area of the case is some way will remedy your temp problem.
 
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