Intel Northbridge cooling

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mrmylanman

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 13, 2008
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Hey all,

I have the Intel D945GCLF2D motherboard (Atom 330 with the 945G chipset) and I was wanting to go fanless and put a better heatsink on both the processor as well as the northbridge.

The trick is that both have the clip mounts, rather than push pins, which confuses me, as I am not sure there are many aftermarket coolers out there for that mounting solution. It is in an Apex MI-008 case so I don't have much in the way of room to work with but I was hoping there would be something better than the stock heatsink at least, because it doesn't have all that much surface area as well as a loud fan.
 
I am not aware of any. Best I can do is this http://download.intel.com/design/processor/designex/320530.pdf which will tell you anything you want to know about your current HS and its mounting (Mechanical drawing at end of documents). There is a host of other information about the thermal design and some considerations Intel documented that you may want to consider if you do find something that would work.

One thing I noticed is the fan is a 40mm x 10mm unit. It might be easiest to go with a thicker fan that would move more air at a lower rpm.

There are some low speed 20mm thick fans in this listing.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010110573 1372726520&name=40mm

Another possible option is an adapter to use a larger slower fan that pushes as much or more air than the stock one.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=172&products_id=4350

Not sure how that board/cpu mounts in the case. If the fan ends up vertical you want a sleeve bearing or maybe a ball bearing unit, if the fan lays flat/horizontal you need to look at ball bearing units only. (in general - there are some modified bearing designs but thats a whole different post. )


Last thing, it susprises me the fan is loud, is there an option for EIST in the bios that is disabled by accident ?
 
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The motherboard sits flat. Thanks for the tips, I may end up just getting a new fan first and see what happens. The Scythe ones seem popular.
 
BlueFireIce said:
If it will fit, maybe something like the HR-05 (or any good HS) plus some thermal epoxy...But it will be on there for good. :D
Click to expand...

Haha I wish that would fit. That would definitely be more than enough. Here is a pic of the inside, I do not currently have measurements of how much room I have, but it is tight:

dsc_0254.jpg


I can always get some angled SATA cables and that would make the PSU the limiting factor on heatsink height.

I wonder if this would fit:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=197&products_id=3493

The Atom gets a little bit toasty in my set up, if I heat test it, it ends up shutting down unfortunately.
 
That's a bit pricey if you ask me, there is also this option. But you can add a fan later if you want. Hmm..Now that I look, it might not have the right wire clip.
 
I've used this CoolerMaster chipset heatsink in the past... It looks a lil' dinky and blingy but it actually does work rather well compared to most stock heatsinks, probably because it's made of copper and has more fins. Not sure if the clip will fit properly in between those fins though... But hey, it's no costlier than those generic Zalman heatsinks you were looking at and comes with the fan.

BTW is it me or does the heatsink on Intel's PDF (linked above) have a lot more fins/surface area than the one in your pics? I count 10 on the one in their spec sheet, and like 6 on the one in your pic. Could be worse though, you should see what passes for a heatsink on some of the Atom-powered netbooks.
 
Oh wow, I just glanced at the drawing and did not realise the fan was mounted inside the HS so the thicker fan idea is out. That is very tight. Screws up several of my ideas.

Any chance of some adapter and a slim DVD/CD drive to give some more room ? Just tossing out ideas as anthing to give you more room to work looks like it would be a big help.

Good luck.
 
Well right now the drive that is in the way there is a hard drive, and I plan on using the bay above it for another hard drive as well, so any gain in room would be short lived. (This is a home server of sorts).

That cooler master may be promising, I was hoping to get rid of fans although if they are quiet fans they can't hurt.
 
Thank you for the help that probably will clear the PSU, but the SATA power cable will probably become an issue with that I think. I took another pic to show what space I have to work with maybe that'll help some more I hope.

DSC_0263.jpg
 
Well, seeing from the top, I think the HR-05 will work, I mean the fins would be right up against the PSU wires (85.8mm wide) but you should be able to push or zip tie them out of the way. the fins are only 20mm thick, so it should not hit the PSU or the HDD cables, at most I would think you might have to get a angled SATA cable. So if you have 105mm from the top of the chipset to the top of the case you should be able to fit the cooler no problem.
 
It'll be pretty close but I have the height. I may go ahead and order that then. I kinda want to get a more powerful cooler for the Atom as well, however the Atom is pretty much under the PSU (you can barely see it sticking out in the above pic). That one may be more difficult.
 
Do you have a wider view of the image above? I can't tell how the cooler is on the Atom or it's placement and whats around it very well, but it looks like the Porter-N881 or the HR-05 SLI might work, the HR-05 SLI might be to much offset though and I can't tell if there is enough room to have the cooler sitting a bit sideways and clear the HDD and PSU or if there is even enough spacing between the chipset and the CPU.
 
There's not enough spacing between the chipset and the CPU. Here is a view with the PSU removed:

dsc_0248.jpg


It ends up about halfway under the PSU.
 
Is there another place you can mount that other drive, like in the bay? Or do you have a drive that goes in there? I was thinking the SLI cooler might be offset enough to clear onto the other side of the PSU but if it did the HDD would be in the way. If not then even one of those copper HS's listed would be MUCH better, looking at the HS (if you can call it that) with no fan, it should not be hard to one up that at least.
 
Yeah I guess I'll get a small one. The other drive bay will be occupied by a third hard drive so if I moved it, it'll only be a temporary fix.
 
I think the small HS will do just fine on the Atom seeing how little power draw they have, the only other option I think would be to really go over board and get some specialty PSU, like a PICO sized 200w+ PSU, then you would have all the room in the world.
 
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