[SOLVED] Pros and Cons of Northbridge cooler

[zepcorpuz]

Hi, I'll get straight to the point. I want to put a northbridge heatsink and fan on the northbridge of my MSI 970 Gaming Motherboard. Because it reaches more than 65 degrees C underload.... and it idles at 65 at normal room temps. It is hot here in the Philippines.

My setup:
Motherboard: MSI 970 Gaming
CPU: AMD FX-8150
RAM: Team eiite (2x)4Gb
GPU: GALAX 1050Ti OC
PSU: 500 watts tru rated PSU
CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 LED

I've done my research and based on that, I found out that this board can handle more than 70 degrees. But I don't want to take any chances. As I am broke as hell, no money yet to upgrade my PC, and don't want to break it either, the only option left is to put/change the heatsink with a vertical heatsink and fan over the Northbridge.

Also, I've found out recently that this is a ghetto way of cooling the motherboard. Mostly done more than a decade ago by overclockers. I was still a child back then so I didn't know until recently.

Now I just want to ask the more experienced computer building enthusiasts/overclockers about the pros and cons of a northbridge heatsink. I would appreciate any feedbacks and suggestions and basically anything else regarding this matter.

P.S. Upgrade is not an option for me for at least this year (2019).

 

[Darkbreeze]

The excessive ripple from your cheap power supply is causing your VRMs/Northbridge to heat up far more than your high ambient temperatures or hardware configuration are. Assuming you didn't list the model because it's not a quality unit. What is the EXACT model number and brand of your power supply?

Granted, that's a 125w processor, but it should easily be capable of handling that CPU if you're not overclocking or even with a mild overclock.

A VRM/Northbridge home brewed cooler can work, we've definitely seen them used on FX platforms over the years, and I'm not recommending against that, but with sufficient case airflow and a good, clean, stable power source, I'd bet you'd be fine. I've run FX-8350's overclocked on that board without any trouble whatsoever.

If you don't have a a case with good cable management and at least two intake and two exhaust fans, preferably with the two intakes in the front or one in the front and one in the bottom, and two exhaust with one in the rear and one in the top rear, then the rest of it is probably just a waste of time as you need that airflow over the motherboard given the fact that your tower cooler removes any residual airflow the Northbridge and VRMs would have seen from the stock top down style cooler.

 

[zepcorpuz]

Thank you for your response, I forgot to include more details. Yes my PSU is cheap. My Case has no HDD caddies and has (x3) 120mm intake fans on the front, (x1) 120mm exhaust fan at the back, and (x1) 80mm fan that I improvised beside and a little below the 24pin connector facing the northbridge. I'm gonna add a photo of it haha

EDIT: How dumb I am. As I was taking a photo of the rig, I noticed the 80mm fan I installed was backwards. It was pulling hot air from the heatsink back to the front lol. I corrected it and now it went down by 5-7 degrees.

and here is the "right" way

 

[Darkbreeze]

So what is reaching 65°C at idle? The CPU or chipset? What are you using to monitor that to determine it's at that temp?

 

[CountMike]

That MB is more than a match for 8150 since it's one of very few good enough for FX 9590, North bridge is known to shoot above 100c if you raise voltage for more OC. 65c is nothing to worry about.

 

[zepcorpuz]

The Northbridge is the one reaching the high 65+ degree temperature. The CPU and other parts run quite cool within 28-30deg idle and around 35-45 degrees underload. And I did not OC anything too.

 

[Karadjgne]

The Northbridge chipset on those FX boards handled communications from your graphics pci-express slots and system memory. Not uncommon for it to hit mid 90°C or higher. So cooling is definitely a plus, especially with higher power/bandwidth gpus and faster than 1866MHz ram.

Generally, the Northbridge heatsink is nothing more than a square set of vertical fin array, looks like a square pin-cushion, so any breeze is a bonus. I've seen plenty of ppl use 20mm micro fans stuck to the top of the fins or upto 120mm case fans ziptied to the hdd racks.

But because of its function, and it's actual usage, you'll only be able to check the temps under load, you'll not magically lower temps as that chipset uses thermal adhesive tape or thermal pads, and not thermal paste with a giant cpu cooler/fan attached

 

[zepcorpuz]

The Northbridge chipset on those FX boards handled communications from your graphics pci-express slots and system memory. Not uncommon for it to hit mid 90°C or higher. So cooling is definitely a plus, especially with higher power/bandwidth gpus and faster than 1866MHz ram.

Generally, the Northbridge heatsink is nothing more than a square set of vertical fin array, looks like a square pin-cushion, so any breeze is a bonus. I've seen plenty of ppl use 20mm micro fans stuck to the top of the fins or upto 120mm case fans ziptied to the hdd racks.

But because of its function, and it's actual usage, you'll only be able to check the temps under load, you'll not magically lower temps as that chipset uses thermal adhesive tape or thermal pads, and not thermal paste with a giant cpu cooler/fan attached

I am actually going to put thermal paste over the chipset as I change the heatsink to this beautiful northbridge heatsink coupled with an 80mm 2200RPM Hydraulic bearing fan

 

[Darkbreeze]

And how exactly are you going to keep it held in place? Besides which, it's completely not necessary. It's like trying to make water wetter. Why?

 

[Karadjgne]

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This would be far better. Comes in black or gold with fan options.

 

[jsmithepa]

Pro and Con? Anything can use a heatsink, whether it will fit is the question. So Con, maybe more work than u expecting.

 

[zepcorpuz]

And how exactly are you going to keep it held in place? Besides which, it's completely not necessary. It's like trying to make water wetter. Why?

If I am doing everything right, it should look like this

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This would be far better. Comes in black or gold with fan options.

Thanks, I actually decided between that and the vertical heatsink. I thought that the vertical heatsink can dissipate more heat because I will be using a bigger fan, an 80mm fan for it.
I'll let you guys know when I've added it, probably by next week.

Pro and Con? Anything can use a heatsink, whether it will fit is the question. So Con, maybe more work than u expecting.

Yes, I have actually done an extensive amount of work trying to fix this PC last month. Changing all hardware except the old CPU(Phenom II x4) because the PC was not POSTing and if it did, it was too slow and freezing on boot/windows installation. I ended up buying a new cheap mobo and replaced even my HDD with an SSD, and replaced everything besides the CPU, and in the end, I found out that it was my CPU that was actually failing. Now I'm back to this mobo which turned out to be working perfectly well with a "new" to me FX-8150. Changing the heatsink of this one is going to be a piece of cake.

 

[TJ Hooker]

You had to replace everything anyway, in 2019, and decided to stick with an AM3+ platform? Not the choice I would have made 😛

 

[zepcorpuz]

You had to replace everything anyway, in 2019, and decided to stick with an AM3+ platform? Not the choice I would have made 😛

Me too, but it was the cheapest option for me, saving up money for more important things 😀

 

[Darkbreeze]

I hope your graphics card is still going to fit with that heatsink on the northbridge. Pretty sure your secondary PCI slot is not full 16x speed, but is x8 speed only despite being a x16 slot.

 

[zepcorpuz]

I hope your graphics card is still going to fit with that heatsink on the northbridge. Pretty sure your secondary PCI slot is not full 16x speed, but is x8 speed only despite being a x16 slot.

That is what I am most afraid of, the new heatsink and fan not fitting in between the GPU and CPU heatsink. but my PCI slot is quite lower than the one in the example picture, sooo I reeeaaallly hope that it fits, cause if it doesn't, then I just wasted my money 🙁. Wish me luck!

 

[jsmithepa]

After seeing your pix, I'd say maybe a Con, careful with additional weight over the chipset's (2?) mounting holes, there is no backplate to strengthen things unless u fabricate your own. Lightweight coolers should be OK.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If anything AT ALL, I'd have just left the stock heatsink but changed the thermal paste under it to a high quality paste rather than an adhesive backed thermal pad, and slapped a home brewed fan on it. Any decent 40-60mm fan would have been more than enough to keep it cool. Probably, given the board model, it didn't need it anyhow.

And just like here, it's likely that you DID waste your money, but maybe you'll be luckier than everybody else who's tried it.

https://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/744513-AMD-Northbridge-Heatsinks

 

[CountMike]

I just mounted a 40mm fan over stock NB cooler on my GA-990XA-UD3 and it lowered it's temps by 20c even when turning at half speed. Couple of dots of glue fixed it in place.

 

[Karadjgne]

The nb on that FX is a little irregular, might not take well to a fan mount.

 

[zepcorpuz]

Thank you for the responses guys. I did a lot of thinking, and so I concluded that I will not be replacing the cool looking heatsink on my board, but I may just add a decent 40mm fan on it. I have cancelled all my orders online, and thank god I haven't wasted any money.

I am just going to spend it to buy a decent power supply. I am planning to buy a Seasonic M12ii Evo 520w 80 plus Bronze PSU tomorrow or on sunday which costs Php2500 ($48). It is pre-owned, but he rarely used it. He bought it brand new last year (still has receipt) , and he upgraded his unit thus the reason for selling his old PC parts.

 

[Darkbreeze]

That is probably a MUCH better use of that money than on that heatsink. I think you made the right choice. As for the Northbridge, I'm sure if you look around online you can find some good ideas for a home brewed fan mount arrangement.