Will pc run fine without Northbridge heatsink

[bobbe23]

Hi,

Not sure if this is correct section to post in. My specs are as follows:

AMD 3800+ X2
Asus A8N-E mobo

I recently purchased a second hand MSI 3870 OC gpu to replace my 7900GT. The card is working fine (tested in another pc).

In order for the card to fit in the mobo the Northbridge heatsink must be removed entirely. Since my pc is not overclocked I wanted to know if removing the Northbridge heatsink would cause the pc to overheat and possibly blow the board.

Socket 939 mobos are hard to come by these days and buying a new mobo and cpu is out of the question at the moment.

Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

bobbe23

 

[rolli59]

With out the heat sink the north bridge will overheat and destruct! They run hot in the first place!

 

[swifty_morgan]

Agree, you'll have nothing in short order.......... better take care of that/.

 

[ko888]

There is no Northbridge chip on the A8N-E. The chip you're talking about is the nForce4 Ultra chipset/MCP (Media Communications Processor).

There is a reason why there is a heatsink with a fan attached to that chipset. It's because the chip package itself cannot dissipate all the heat produced during its operation to the surrounding air due to insufficient chip-to-air surface area. Remove that heatsink and fan and you will run into stability problems very quickly.

 

[nukemaster]

Does your "Chipset" heatsink not have a very low profile heatsink(designed to fit under the video card without touching it) with a fan on it?

Maybe someone put a big one on there before you bought it second hand.

If someone did this, you may need to get a low profile heatink for it

Something like this should work. Does not have to be this one, but something around that size.
http://www.enzotechnology.com/slf_1.htm

There are also some tower type coolers that will fit and get the heatsink away from the video card, but they are not cheap.
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_page/product_page/chipset/hr05_sli_ifx/product_chitset_cooler_hr05_sli_ifx.htm

What ever you do don't run it without the heatsink, it will die.

 

[bobbe23]

Thanks for all the replies.

The previous owner removed the stock heatsink and fan and replaced it with a Zalman heatsink.

When I removed the mobo I saw that the heatsink was barely touching the chip.

I removed the heatsink, sawed off half of it, applied new thermal paste and put it back on the chip.

GPU fits now and the MCH temps in the bios stays stable at 35 degrees Celcius

 

[bobbe23]

Thanks for all the replies.

The previous owner removed the stock heatsink and fan and replaced it with a Zalman heatsink.

When I removed the mobo I saw that the heatsink was barely touching the chip.

I removed the heatsink, sawed off half of it, applied new thermal paste and put it back on the chip.

GPU fits now and the MCH temps in the bios stays stable at 35 degrees Celcius

 

[bobbe23]

Thanks for all the replies.

The previous owner removed the stock heatsink and fan and replaced it with a Zalman heatsink.

When I removed the mobo I saw that the heatsink was barely touching the chip.

I removed the heatsink, sawed off half of it, applied new thermal paste and put it back on the chip.

GPU fits now and the MCH temps in the bios stays stable at 35 degrees Celcius

 

[nukemaster]

Sweet, pictures please? I always like seeing a chipset cooler cut up a bit.

 

[swifty_morgan]

hard to believe nvidia has chips that cool.......... glad you were able to figure out a solution.

 

[bobbe23]

Thanks for all the replies.

The previous owner removed the stock heatsink and fan and replaced it with a Zalman heatsink.

When I removed the mobo I saw that the heatsink was barely touching the chip.

I removed the heatsink, sawed off half of it, applied new thermal paste and put it back on the chip.

GPU fits now and the MCH temps in the bios stays stable at 35 degrees Celcius

 

[bobbe23]

Thanks for all the replies.

The previous owner removed the stock heatsink and fan and replaced it with a Zalman heatsink.

When I removed the mobo I saw that the heatsink was barely touching the chip.

I removed the heatsink, sawed off half of it, applied new thermal paste and put it back on the chip.

GPU fits now and the MCH temps in the bios stays stable at 35 degrees Celcius