Intel 440BX at 124MHz... Heat an issue?

[Hemitboy]

I have an Epox BX3 with Intel 440BX chipset and a Celeron 800. I can overclock it to 124MHz easily and it runs fine for hours. I even stress tested it for 10 hours without a failure. My question when running at that bus speed the 82443BX Host bridge/controller gets pretty hot. Is this a problem? Has anyone else with a 440BX chipset noticed this? And has anyone with a 440BX chipset run it at 124MHz for a while without noticing damage? I noticed in the datasheet that the 82443BX is supposedly capable of handling up to 105C without a heatsink but I don't want to screw up my motherboard. Any information would be great.

Epox BX3
ATI Xpert98
Celeron II 800 (SL4TF)

 

[most deaf]

if your does not have a heatsink allready get one , a old 486 cooler will do fine, leave the fan on, i didn't trust my 440bx at100MHz with my celeron

 

[Storm]

If it's all stable then it aint a big deal... but cooling never hurt anyone! So a bitta thermal paste and a lil' 486 cooler will ensure total stability and a cooooool chipset

 

[coobolt]

I've been running a BX board for some month now @ a minimum of 144MHz FSB
(sometimes as high as 163MHz)
The board is a Abit BE6 II 2.0 and sure stuff are warm ("the greeny", caps, IC's)
But no stability issues...

But one should know... Before I made a blowhole. I blew 2 caps, located next to
the power regulator... I guess that was because heat.
Make sure ou have airflow...
I just resoldered the caps and all is fine... (better caps of course)

 

[Mictlan]

When you start to overclock your box the cooling need to go this way:

1.-Cool your CPU
2.-Decrease internal cas temperature. This can be done with more air comming into the case or arranging your cables to ensure a good air flow thrue your case.
3.-Cool your Northbridge.

Cooling the Northbridge is a extreme measure. First check your case. Add an intake fan with and output fan to your case. Arrange your data cables. Round them if needed. Check that your inside case temperature is no more than 3-5°C higher than your room temperature.

Put some good thermal paste between your greenie and the Northbridge, If still hot, change your greenie for a HSF. But first you need to check that the HSF of the CPU won't get in your way.

 

[Shadow ÒÓ]

I'm a firm believer in "if it's more than slightly warm to the touch, it needs more cooling".

It's not just a stability issue........you may actually see improvements in performance if it's cooler.

Speaking of cooler........moved post to cooling. =)

 

[Mord-Sith]

shadow you actualy wait till somthing gets warm before you cool it ? What kind of overclocker are you ???

 

[bdf24]

When my BE6-II was still alive (God Bless i'ts soul) even at stock speed with watercooling on the CPU the chipset would get so hot you could'nt touch it! There was'nt any room to mount a fan directly on the chipset. So I mounted one on the waterblock blowing down onto the chipset HSF. It cooled it down to the touch and allowed far better stability while overclocking my PIII 800 to 1008mhz. With out the fan on there I got blue screen errors and lockups. With it on was 100% stable.

 

[ken257]

I have 2 BP6's that I use as servers. These are dual cpu mobo's that use Celerons and the 440BX chipset. Even though I was only running 102fsb and 80fsb on these the chipset temps were in excess of 150F! Duals put a heavy load on the chipset. The solution was to lap the greenie, these things were far from flat. Use some AS grease and add a 486 cpu fan. The result is they now run at about 100F thats a 50F reduction in temp. I didn't have stability probs b4 the mod but I don't like things running hot.

 

[Hemitboy]

I was able to obtain a small, 486 size, cooling fan as well as a large case fan. I mounted the 486 fan on the 82443 Northbridge and the installed the case fan to pull air into the bottom front of the case. From what I can tell it looks as if the processor is running 6C to 11C cooler and the system temp is about 1C or 2C cooler. I was surprised at first about the CPU temp change but then it made sense. The 82443 is directly beneath the heatsink for my Celeron and now that it has a fan blowing air on it, it isn't radiating a that heat onto the processor's heatsink. I'll have to try some thermal paste for the northbridge's heatsink and see if I can keep that even cooler. I also checked with tech support from Epox and Intel and was told that 43C/109F is a normal operating temp for my motherboard and the Celeron running at 50C/122F was nothing to worry about.

Celeron 800@992
Epox BX3 rev 0.5