Northbridge cooling

[daveyj27]

Hi there. I was just wondering if anyone here has swapped the standard hsf on the KT7A Northbridge for a Crystal Orb (or any other decent chipset cooler)? Also, has anyone bothered to do anything about the lack of any cooling on the Southbridge? I know it doesnt really need any but adding a passive or preferably active heatsink wouldnt go amiss.

[Kynoch]

I have the Zalman Silent Chipset cooler on my Northbridge, and that cools it down perfectly without the aid of a fan, if the PC isnt overclocked and has decent case cooling the Zalman will suit you fine, This makes the case abit quieter and produce less vibrations, as for the southbridge putting a passive heatsink onto it will not make any differences really.

[daveyj27]

I know that cooling the S/bridge wont give any material gains, I`m really doing it for the looks. I`ve got a modded windowed case with cathodes and I`m tarting the guts up a little. I shouldnt really use a passive (Zalman or other) on me N/bridge because even though my airflows good (see signature), I do overclock.

[Kynoch]

If you are just wanting to tart the southbridge up a little, using the blue anodised heatsinks from the thermaltake memory cooling kits would be cool, although you would need to buy some epoxy or frag tape to attach the heatsink to the southbridge.
And now i know you overclock i would suggest getting an Active cooler rather than a static one, In your sig you say you have a Abit motherboard, the thermaltake blue orb, and crystal orb will not fit onto the northbridge mounting holes properly because the distance between pins on the coolers is 4mm too short.
There is a tutorial on a site though that shows you how rto mod the cooler to fit onto the board, ill try to source it for you, or find the topic that had this problem addressed in it.

[ 22 July 2002: Message edited by: kynoch ]

[The Pimp]

The Frag tape supplied with the TT Memory Cooling Kits, is sufficient to hold a cut down Heatsink as this is what I done on my old KT7A-RAID board (even put a heatsink on the HPT controller) :D Didn't do anything in regards to cooling etc, but made it look nice along with the rest of the blue bits.

[daveyj27]

Thx for the replies peeps. I`m really not a believer in frag tape so I use Arctic Alumina epoxy as a rule for permanent bonding. Kynoch, i`tll be blinding if you can source that article about modding the Orb to fit an Abit. Its no big deal if I cant use the mounting holes though, I`ll just use the Alumina.

[The Pimp]

KT7 Blue Orb fitting
http://pages.prodigy.net/webvanguy/blorb/Page1_frm.html

[Kynoch]

Nice one darren thats the one i was gonna post up. :)

[daveyj27]

Thx for the link Daz, that looks simple enough to do. :D

[Oddjob]

Nice litle mod there on the Blue Orb. I'd suggest though Davey that you lap the base of the Orb before you install it. In my experience the standard of finish on heatsinks is poor. Most store bought heatsinks are very uneven. To gain the most benefit you need to increase the contact area. Only way to do this is by lapping. I don't really think this is vital in the Northbridge chips case as the heat it produces isn't that great. It's more of a perfectionist point of view in this case. Try a quick lap of the heatsink and you'll see just how much it's warped. Then decide if another 5 mins effort is worth it. I've lapped Northbridge sinks so flat that they stick to the chip by suction afterwards. After looking at that mod I'm kinda tempted ot do it myself. I'm using a 8.5cfm Sunon 40x20 fan on my original lapped heatsink at the moment and its doing a fine job.

Oddjob

Just found this you may be interested in Davey. Looks real mean IMHO. http://2cooltek.safeshopper.com/51/364.htm?740

[ 31 July 2002: Message edited by: Oddjob ]

[daveyj27]

Cheers for the link Oddjob. I like the look of the Vantec sinks but I`m gonna go for the Zalman passive chipset coolers (the gold version as opposed to the black). They look the b******s!! :)
I always lap my sinks too. The latest one I did was a Crystal Orb for my gfx card. The quality of the base was bloody awful with lots of pitting and roughness. Twenty minutes later with 4 different grades of wet `n dry it had a finish I could use as a mirror. :)

[Spacerider]

But thats where artic silver comes in. Its desgned to fill the microscopic valleys on your cooler so you shouldnt really need to sand them if you use it

[daveyj27]

I werent talking about microscopic valleys mate, I was talking about miniature grand canyons on the base of the CrOrb. It was terrible. Thats why it needed lapping.

[Spacerider]

"Minature Grand Canyons" Ahahahahahah, man, thats a killer line lol