How important is the Northbridge Cooler?

D

dbaldus

Gawd
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Jul 12, 2005
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Just wondering what everyone's experiences have been like for this? Running an Asus A8V Deluxe mobo with nothing on the Northbridge. Have been thinking about getting a Northbridge cooler but wasn't sure how much/if any difference it would make. Any testimonies? Any suggestions on which one would be good to get? I'm going with air-cooling, by the way.
 
I've got an EVGA NF4 SLI board. The fan on the NB is stoopid loud so I unplugged it. Oh noes! The temp rose a whole 4C idle and 8C load. So... I leave it inplugged. The HSF is still attached it's just not active. Mind you I have excellent air flow in my case to move the hot air out. I don't overclock my FSB so I don't need a super cool NB. If/When I move to overclocking I'll probably get a HS for it but passively cool it.
 
I used to watercool the one on my ABIT AV8 mobo. When I redid my watercooling loop, I replaced my chipset block with a Zalman passive heatsink. My temps are close to the same as they were before. Here's the heatsink I put on it: link.
 
Abit ai7. My mb fan died so I just unplugged it. FSB is 128 (stock speed is 100). No issues. I would not worry about NB cooling unless you are overclocking hard.
 
What do you mean by nothing? I assume it has a passive sink correct?

I just throw my iceberg on my boards because I'm comfortable with the noise level. Haven't changed my nb cooler for performance reasons since my socket A days. Some earlier NF2's performed best with voltage up the ass, mine was volt modded to allow much more than bios with a little celeron heatsink epoxied on. Unless you have an extreme reason, since "nothing" would allude to at least not having a fan i.e. no noise, don't bother.
 
on my old Abit AN7, the fan died so I removed it.
Instead of getting another NB fan I left the rather flat heatsink in place and put a 80mm fan inside the case blowing towards it to circulate air more.
 
On my Abit nf7 it died so i unplugged it and left it attached. I would imagine on a newer board with an nforce 3/4 chipset you will need an adequate passive or small fanned chipset fan because they get rather hot.
 
I don't remember the model numbers of the last 3 boards I had, but their nb fans died, and I just removed the fan and called it good. Never any issues :)
 
It's pretty important if you OC, but not watercooling important. A good old copper heatsink and a small silent fan (Swiftech 159-CU anyone?) it's all you need. The NB just doesn't get hot enough to wc it, you won't see any real benefit. On the contraire, you'll just be adding unnecessary restriction and heat to your loop.
 
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