South-bridge high temperature / cooling options

[Andocromn]

i'm not sure what the ideal temperature for the south-bridge is... but i am fairly certain that 179 degrees Fahrenheit / 81 degrees Celsius is too hot. my preference would be to cool it with my existing water cooling system. can anyone recommend a water block for cooling a south-bridge? other thoughts?

I've cooled CPUs and GPUs with water in the past but nothing like this. the existing heat sink doesn't have screws which really throws me off. see pictures for details

 

[getochkn]

They make water blocks for more high end motherboards, or ones with waterblocks installed. Without even screw or tab holes, I don't know how a waterblock would even fit onto your board.

A small fan on top of that heat sink might help. Removing the heatsink and seeing if the thermal paste under it needs replacing. You could try a thermal epoxy to get a better bond if that metal rentention clip doesn't hold it down tight enough.

I would say if you want to cool it water wise though, you'd need a board that has a compatbile water block.

 

[rubix_1011]

Yeah, without mount holes, you aren't likely going to be able to mount a block. I'd go with the solution getochkn offered- get a fan to blow over it, or attach a small fan to the heatsink.

 

[Andocromn]

Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate the feedback. Replacing the thermal paste is a great idea for something I can try right off the bat. The thermal epoxy is an interesting idea but permanently affixing anything doesn’t really appeal to me, my mobo is also vertically mounted so if the epoxy came loose the block would fall and the chip would probably burn out. I’m not too keen on fans since the CPUs are already water cooled, there is also the problem of how to mount a fan. Most likely I’d have to get a fan / heatsink combo and at that point I am thinking a larger fanless heatsink would be my preference…

I did come across one interesting option I had not considered, however crude it may be. The photo below shows a universal waterblock mounted on a Northbridge using zip ties through braces for the z-clip. Although this is a rather “ghetto” example it’s given me some thoughts on how to accomplish mounting a waterblock with the z-clip’s braces.

Thoughts?

 

[rubix_1011]

I've seen worse, but just be aware that if there is enough tension on the metal clip and zip ties, the clip can act essentially as a knife and slice it's way slowly through the zip tie over time with the slight vibrations from fans, etc in the case and heating/cooling cycles. I would gather this would take a lot of time to happen, but it could.