What is a north bridge, and when, if ever, is liquid cooling it recommended?

[rfkrocktk]

I'm kind of new to overclocking and cooling, but I've just built my first rig from scratch and am really impressed with having a liquid-cooled CPU. However, I've noticed that some people water cool their GPUs (makes a lot of sense) and their north bridge. What is a north bridge and why does it generate so much heat that it needs liquid cooling? Most motherboards don't even have fans. When, if ever, should I liquid cool my north bridge?

 

[EarthDog]

Northbridge in intel land has been gone (moved to cpu essentially) for two generations now. 99% of people didn't need to atercool it to overclock. Inly with extreme fsb on extreme cooling was that NEEDED.

 

[wingman99]

Your Sandy Bridge 2700k has the north bridge built into the CPU, IMC integrated memory controller.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Like earthdog said, only helpful with really extreme fsb on older generation hardware. On more recent stuff, fsb can't be pumped up hundreds of megahertz like used to be possible.

However, you may still see pwm water cooling. The pwm section on good enthusiast boards usually has some sizable heatsinks that are passively cooled by case fans. These can be water cooled if pwm blocks are made for your motherboard. You are unlikely to get any benefit from this, as heat in this section doesn't typically affect stability of daily overclocks, but I think most people do this because it looks pretty cool.

 

[Conumdrum]

Don't need to cool the Northbridge anymore.

After repeating what other say, do you know we have a watercooling subforum with all sorts of important STICKIES IN YELLOW? If it's your first WC rig, you have a lot to learn. Please start there. The beginners sticky is just that, it gets you familiar with the basics, VERY informative, great stuff and very well written. But it is 8th grade info when you need to be to college level WC 101 to really get it right. You'll have to dig deeper and learn a lot.

Thankfully WC is a hobby and the more time you learn and read, the better you will do.

I made this long ago, and if you look at the bottom of the post and how many thanks it has, you can see how important really knowing what is right is.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6489396&postcount=3

This is the line that made the most diff to folks:

"BOOKMARK, CYA in a few weeks. I'd for sure read 20-30 posts from beginning to end here. We have new folks do the same as you, and you can see how we guide them on choices and whats good or bad. Don't rush it."

And this link is just one of MANY in the stickies.

 

[Conumdrum]

Like earthdog said, only helpful with really extreme fsb on older generation hardware. On more recent stuff, fsb can't be pumped up hundreds of megahertz like used to be possible.

However, you may still see pwm water cooling. The pwm section on good enthusiast boards usually has some sizable heatsinks that are passively cooled by case fans. These can be water cooled if pwm blocks are made for your motherboard. You are unlikely to get any benefit from this, as heat in this section doesn't typically affect stability of daily overclocks, but I think most people do this because it looks pretty cool.

Thanks IMOG. PWM meaning the Mosfet power sections that usually are to the left and top on the Mobo around the CPU. But Mobo blocks don't fit all boards. They create lots of water flow restriction. The gains are so small it's not worth it. It's expensive, troublesome if your not an experianced builder. One more chance for leaks and ruined parts that you can't RMA.

But, it looks good. Like diamonds on a tire. Pro builders do it for sponsored builds because they can. We have a few regular users that have done it here over the years, most won't admit it wasn't worth the cost.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

Agreed on all points there.

It sure does look good in pictures though!