Chipset overheating? Or is something else going wrong?

[Robbie Hanson]

Hey guys,

I'm currently running this:

Gigabyte 880GA-UD3H
Phenom II X6 1055T @ 3.2 (stock voltage)
2x Gigabyte HD6850
Antec HCG-750 750w
Antec 300 case

I'm experiencing heat within the case to the point that it's physically hot, not warm, to the touch. All internal components, including the heatsink, feel cool--EXCEPT the northbridge heatsink, which is hotter than blazes and which I can barely touch. Temperature seems fine in Coretemp, Speccy, and Speedfan; 48C, 46C on hard drives, 55/51C on GPUs, 39C on CPU. Is it normal for a chipset to run this hot?

Cables are managed -reasonably- well, considering the non-modular PSU, all fans are functional and quiet, and there's a strong draft of hot air out the exhaust fan on top. I'm just at a loss; this thing's a radiator at the moment and raises my room temperature 15-20 degrees F. I'm fairly certain it shouldn't do that at idle.

Any suggestions? I might be able to pull the CPU/GPUs and re-paste the northbridge heatsink, but as it's already hot I feel it's getting adequate conduction. I'm at a loss and would appreciate any thoughts you guys have.

 

[michalrz]

Yes, chipsets can run hot to the point of burning a finger. I've ran some motherboards with blazing hot northbridges and nothing 'bad' happened, they were stable even after years of use. But it's probably not optimal for longevity. You can try an aftermarket chipset cooler, like one of those little tower things companies sell.
You can also mount a 40mm fan using screws if the stock heatsink allows it, but that silly turbo3d thing slapped onto yours will probably make it difficult. Don't use hot glue, the fan might fall right off at those temperatures.
I see your case has a place to for a 80mm fan on the side, try to populate that if you already haven't.
Your hard drives do run hot though, you might need better case airflow.
Or, do nothing, because it's fairly common and usually alright (chipset-wise) unless you're stressing your system constantly.

 

[Robbie Hanson]

Mmm, thanks for the quick response.

Again, that's at idle. Gaming temps only raise the GPUs 10-12C in Bioshock Infinite, for example, and I rarely play anything remotely strenuous. Same for the CPU; it's always under 70C even running Prime95. The internal hard drives never go warmer; however, even at that they are significantly cooler than the exterior of the case; a external drive I had on top actually shut itself off due to heat, which worries me somewhat. In addition, I'm tired of my room sitting at near 100F if I have the computer on for more than ten minutes.

No way to fit a fan onto the northbridge heatsink, as the GPU takes up the slot directly below and my CPU cooler (90mm Sunbeam), though small, is directly above. I do have air moving past the heatsink, but either it's not enough or something else is wrong.

I don't have a side fan, but I don't really know if additional airflow would help; the case appears to have the heat directly transferred from the mobo.

Is it just normal for a case to be this hot? It seemed to be fine for the first year or so after I built it, but the last year's just been horrible in terms of heat, and this summer's going to be unbearable at 100+.