Gigabyte DS3 Northbridge Heatsink Recommendations

jucestain

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 2, 2007
Messages
82
Hello, I have a DS3 with an E6600 and the north bridge gets ridiculously hot. I also have a Zalman 9500 cooling my CPU. I was wondering if anyone could recommend any north bridge heat sinks and know if they would fit on my board or not. I've been looking at a few and the Zalman NBF 47 and the Thermalright HR-05 seem to be good choices but was wondering if anyone with a similar setup has an experiences with these or would like to recommend a different product. Thanks a bunch,

-Juce
 
I have the thermalright and like it a lot. The fit is decent. It still has the ability to swivel a bit, but is tight on pretty center. If I don't have a fan blowing at it though, it gets real hot real quick. Then again, I currently have the thing on a bench so I'm sure standard case airflow would be decent. Then again I haven't tried any other northbridge solutions so I don't know. I'm using an apogee waterblock.
 
Is your signature correct, is there an F9 BIOS for the DS3 Rev2 that I don't know about yet?
 
Is your signature correct, is there an F9 BIOS for the DS3 Rev2 that I don't know about yet?

Yeah F9 came out a few days after F8. A lot of people say it's the best bios so far, but based on my experiences, F7 is best. I got it from gigabyte's website I think.
 
I have the thermalright HR-05 SLI. I got the SLI version because I also have a Zalman 9700 cpu cooler and the non SLI version would not fit beside the 9700. However, the SLI one sits parallel with and slightly less than an 1/8" from my vidcard. Being parallel also puts it edge on to the front 120mm intake fans in my Antec 900. Not the best arrangement for a passive cooler I'm sure. I did see some pics of an Antec 900 with a 9700 rotated so it faced upward and into the top 200mm fan. If my measurements are correct then I could also rotate my 9700 upwards, which would allow the non SLI one to fit although it would be right in the 9700's intake. With a 70-80mm fan on the HR-05 blowing thru and into the 9700, it might work out pretty good.

As an alternate I'm also looking at the Thermaltake Extreme Spirit 2 which seems to have had some decent reviews. It just doesn't have the same visual appeal as the hugeness of the HR-05, heh. :D
 
Just a question, if you had a Thermalright HR-05 SLI and had an 80mm fan on it, which exhausted the warm air to your HSF which in this case is a Zalman 9500/9700. Wouldn't your CPU Temps go up somewhat?

Or if the exhaust was facing your GPU wouldn't your GPU Temps rise? Because I can't see a way of mounting the HR-05 so that the exhaust would go towards the back of the case where the Exhaust fan usually sits.

Has anyone tried mounting a ZM-NBF47 with a 9500/9700? Not sure if it fits. is it possible to check your northbridge temps or is it unsupported with the DS3 boards ):
 
You are correct. You can't mount it exhausting to the back with a 9700. At the moment, mine is passive and I have concerns with the proximity to the vidcard, so I'm pondering rotating the 9700 to point up where my antec 900's 200mm blowhole is. I'm also curious as to what an 80mm blowing the warm air from the nb chipset into the fan for the 9700 would do. I'm thinking that the efficiency of the 9700 would do ok coupled with the 80mm blowing in and the 200mm sucking out of it. Good solid airflow, albeit a degree or two warmer. I dunno about the ds3 having an nb thermistor. I'm still to new with this rig to ahve gone checking for it. :)
 
I've got my E6600 running at 9x378 (1.45V) which I'm pretty happy with. I ran orthos for 6 hours and the average temps were around 65 C, but it never failed or had any errors. I'm actually thinking about going with a tuniq tower 120 now, since 65 is a little bit too high for my taste (it averaged at 65, but I sometimes saw it spike up to 68). But, from the pics I've seen of the tuniq tower, it looks like it would be impossible to add an aftermarket heatsink to the north bridge... What to do, what to do....

Oh yea... thanks for the replies.
 
you could always try a Scythe Infinity, or a Noctua U12 They offer similar performances to the Tuniq Tower
 
nb.jpg

You know, I just superglued this 50mm fan to it, and it keeps temperatures completely in check without adding any audible noise. I think the hottest it gets is 42 C with everything under load, which is perfectly acceptable. Currently I'm running the FSB at 476mhz, so this board is pretty much up there in terms of the strain on the northbridge.

I know this is not elegant, but the fact is that there is just not enough clearance to mount a big-assed aftermarket NB cooler on this board and use a big CPU cooler. You can see how cozy that 50mm fan is with my Zalman 9700 (it's actually touching). I looked into several aftermarket northbridge coolers and they all would have interfered with something else. One of my biggest gripes with this board is not enough clearance for the wimpy, worthless stock northbridge heatsink.

If you do a pro super glue-ing job like I did, nobody has to know it's a ghetto mod ;)

BTW, jucestain, my Zalman 9700 keeps this board at a stable 50C under load, and that's with my E6300 OC'ed to all hell. If your 9500 is loading at 65C, you might want to check up on some stuff. There is really very little difference in cooling power between the 9500 and 9700, so the difference between our load temps should not be that high even if your ambient temps are a few degrees hotter. You might want to check your case airflow as well as consider redoing your thermal paste and reseating that 9500!
 
I know this is not elegant,

I beg to differ, it was inexpensive, effective, nicely done/workmanship, looks fine, and solved a space issue that was problematic.

Thats pretty damn elegant as the term applies to engineering solutions.
 
Well thanks :) Now I feel all warm and fuzzy.

'grats on the new member status btw
 
Which direction does the fan air blow, down on the heat sink or up and away from the heat sink? I am going to order one of these myself, I have the same setup as you.
 
BTW, jucestain, my Zalman 9700 keeps this board at a stable 50C under load, and that's with my E6300 OC'ed to all hell. If your 9500 is loading at 65C, you might want to check up on some stuff. There is really very little difference in cooling power between the 9500 and 9700, so the difference between our load temps should not be that high even if your ambient temps are a few degrees hotter. You might want to check your case airflow as well as consider redoing your thermal paste and reseating that 9500!

Yea... I'll definitely double check. I made sure to apply a rice sized amount of AS5 and spread it to a thin layer on the entire cpu. I'll check the base of the 9500 to see if it's making complete contact with the CPU. I took a couple pics of my comp to show the cable management and stuff. It should be getting decent airflow.

http://www.octavewebdesign.com/computer/flow1.jpg
http://www.octavewebdesign.com/computer/flow2.jpg
http://www.octavewebdesign.com/computer/flow3.jpg
http://www.octavewebdesign.com/computer/flow4.jpg

But, also... I had to increase the voltage of my E6600 to 1.45 to get it to run stably at 9x378. At 1.4 volts it averaged at about 60C if I recall correctly. But, from the reviews I've seen of the tuniq tower 120, I think I might switch as soon as Newegg gets some in stock. They're basically sold out everywhere.
 
yup, same here. That hs is pretty beefy anyway, all it needs is a little extra airflow.

Yeah, when I had it on my bech, I just rested a downblowing 120mm on top of the video card and cpu block pointed at the stock heatsink for the nb and it kept it plenty cool.

I mean the way it gets so hot as it is, it is definitely doing it's job pulling it up. When I took it off, the thermal compound wasn't too shabby either. Better than the hard goop they used in the old days
 
mm just wondering how you guys are getting your Northbridge temps? Are you guys using Speedfan or what? If so which Temp is the Northbridge temp? Thanks guys
 
I'm using speedfan and I know the 2nd temp is the cpu, so i'm guessing the first one is NB. I put a Jing Ting on mine and its still around 48-50c while gaming, and it's stock voltage.
 
From what I understand, the temp reading will not be for nb but somewhere else.
 
zinn, that was the best idea ever. i too was looking for an alternative cooling solution for my ds3 nb. i found a spare 40mm fan and epoxied it right on. schweet. it's a little beefier than a 50mm but i have it connected to a fanbus and it moves quite a bit of air for its size.

DSC08680.jpg
 
could someone guide me on how to remove the current northbridge hs and replacing it with a new one ?
 
could someone guide me on how to remove the current northbridge hs and replacing it with a new one ?


If you look at the pictures above you will see the NB is held on with 2 spring loaded plastic pushpins at opposite corners (they show up white colored. Here is the problem, you need to be able to get to the back of the board and with needlenose or some other small pliers, squeeze together the part of the pushpin that extends thru the board and is exposed on the backside and the pins will pop right out. Heatsink lifts right off after that, if it doesnt seem to want to fall off, gently gently gently twist it side to side till the heatsink compound looses up and it will come off.

Follow instructions with your aftermarket cooler to install but I recommend replacing any supplied hardware with a spring compression mounting method as shown in http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1157232
 
If you look at the pictures above you will see the NB is held on with 2 spring loaded plastic pushpins at opposite corners (they show up white colored. Here is the problem, you need to be able to get to the back of the board and with needlenose or some other small pliers, squeeze together the part of the pushpin that extends thru the board and is exposed on the backside and the pins will pop right out. Heatsink lifts right off after that, if it doesnt seem to want to fall off, gently gently gently twist it side to side till the heatsink compound looses up and it will come off.

Follow instructions with your aftermarket cooler to install but I recommend replacing any supplied hardware with a spring compression mounting method as shown in http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1157232

do i need to install a fan on it ?
 
do i need to install a fan on it ?

depends on what you decide to go with. the thermalright hr05 is pretty massive and as long as you have decent airflow, it'd work more than fine just passively.
 
how do you attach that fan to the thermailright hr 05 sli

wdn was referring to putting that fan on top of the stock heatsink blowing down. However, you can attach that to a hr05 too with the provided zip ties.

as for putting that on the stock heatsink, you can use glue. Zipties may work as well. Or possibly screws as well, if it can jam in between two fins.
 
will the hr-05 fit next to a Tt big typhoon on my ds3 you think ?

If you post a pic, it'd help us determine that more. If not, maybe a hr05sli would fit better. It'd dominate the top pcie x1 though
 
sorry, but can someone explain what the nb heatsink does? I don't actually know what its purpose is lol.
 
lol, makes sense, but I don't even know what the northbridge is. :D I really should know this (goes googling).
got it! how do you check the temps on it? and what are recommended temps for it (I also have a ds3)
 
If you post a pic, it'd help us determine that more. If not, maybe a hr05sli would fit better. It'd dominate the top pcie x1 though

DSC08680.jpg
[/QUOTE]


there ya go. actually not my pic but picture a big typhoon there, heh
 
sorry, but can someone explain what the nb heatsink does? I don't actually know what its purpose is lol.

The job the NB holds is communication between the CPU, graphics bus, memory, and south bridge.

The south bridge communicates with the pci, pcie (1x4x6x), sata, ide, atapi and the codecs (on the ds3). The south bridge also talks to everything the NB doesn't.

Most NB's now get hot mingling with all that high tech stuff.. thus the need for a cooler on it.
 
I just got this board and just noticed how hot that heatsink gets. So, you can just superglue a fan to the stock one? With regular old superglue?
 
I use a product called Amazing Plumbing Goop to glue the Sunon fan onto the Northbridge heatsink It is more rubbery and flexible than super glue and clings better. The stuff is very strong. It is for sale at hardware stores for about five dollars a tube

amazing-goop.jpg
 
I've got the Noctua NC-U6 on mine, but I need to reposition the heatsink by rotating the mounting arms... kinda screwed up since I put it on when I had a hangover, so I ended up putting it on in the position that it is now currently.

Temps on my NB before were 69C (no overclocking, HTPC setup), now they're down to 46C with the Noctua, so pretty good improvement.

Also anyone thinking of using the NC-U6, be careful when unsecuring the pushpin from underneath the board... the way the mounting arm is designed acts as sort of like a catapult, and if you release one pushpin, it causes the whole heatsink to pop at an angle toward the remaining secured pushpin.

htpc02qk4.jpg
 
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