GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 Northbridge to Hot ???

[Trimble Bracegirdle]

I just started running a new C2D system with the popular GIGABYTE
GA-965P-S3 Motherboard .

I'm shaken by just how hot the hintsink on the NorthBridge gets within a
very few minutes.

To hot to touch for more than a few moments ..

I've not had a Northbridge I felt I needed to worry about before so maybe
this is OK ??

I'm not overclocking (yet) ..all the voltages are set to 'Normal'.

Does the N/B stay at a fairly constant Temp. ? or like CPU etc. depend on
how hard the sys, is running.

I have the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on the CPU & this stands right up
against & slightly over the

N/B heatsink ..tho not in a way that provides much cooling..

This makes it difficult to install a fan there ....

But do I really need to ??? GIGABYTE have clearly designed the NorthBridge
like this ???

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") Mouse

 

[kony]

I just started running a new C2D system with the popular GIGABYTE
GA-965P-S3 Motherboard .

I'm shaken by just how hot the hintsink on the NorthBridge gets within a
very few minutes.

What does the bios or software monitor say about it's temp?

To hot to touch for more than a few moments ..

I've not had a Northbridge I felt I needed to worry about before so maybe
this is OK ??

Depends quite a bit on how hot it really is, but it does
seem too hot. Any instability?

I'm not overclocking (yet) ..all the voltages are set to 'Normal'.

Does the N/B stay at a fairly constant Temp. ? or like CPU etc. depend on
how hard the sys, is running.

It can vary some based on what the system is doing but it
does not vary by nearly as much as the CPU would, though if
the CPU is running hot(ter) from a lot of work and that
increases the local ambient temp, it will likewise increase
the temp of the other parts in that ambient environment
some, and drop their temps when CPU is idle. IOW they
respond to ambient temp changes as much as anything else.

I have the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on the CPU & this stands right up
against & slightly over the

N/B heatsink ..tho not in a way that provides much cooling..

This makes it difficult to install a fan there ....

But do I really need to ??? GIGABYTE have clearly designed the NorthBridge
like this ???

It looks like they designed it to work best with the typical
shorter, side-venting (CPU) heatsinks. We can't say if it
needs anything done without knowing exactly how hot it is
(and if that temp report is accurate), but if you wanted to
add a fan that would be possible, it looks like their sink
is a bit like the cheap old socket 7 sinks, I would try to
put a 50 x 15 mm, low RPM dual ball bearing fan on it if
possible, even reducing it's RPM further for best noise
reduction. It would require adding screws, maybe even
drilling holes for those in the sink.

In more difficult situations it can be necessary to add
L-brackets screwed to the side of a sink to mount the fan,
or of course just buying a replacement fan/sink combo as a
finished product but I tend to disfavor those as they're
usually louder than necessary and their fans can be quite
short-lived and even proprietary to the extent it take more
work and is more annoyance in the long run to deal with that
finished product instead of just attaching a good standard
sized fan to the original sink.

You could seek another passive 'sink instead but it may not
help much since the problem may be that there isn't enough
flow past it because of the CPU 'sink design.

 

[Trimble Bracegirdle]

Thanks your helping me a lot.
I am running dual channel..
The system is all brand new from parts. I've only run it for a few
hours so far..& nothing demanding.

The Northbridge seems to stay pretty much the same constant temp.
The to hot to touch for more than a sec or so test can tell more IMO
than a lot of detectors can be relied on to.
I can't tell yet weather this M/B has a detector on the N/B.

I've dug around my cupboards & dragged out of long retirement
a small fan 40mm fan in a 50mm case with plastic clip-ons which
look as tho they might fit straight on the N/B heatsink .
Will try it tomorrow.
This fan was made for service on a Pentium 1 'Classic' CPU .
Incredible to think that little thing was all that was needed back then.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse

 

[Paul]

I just started running a new C2D system with the popular GIGABYTE
GA-965P-S3 Motherboard .

I'm shaken by just how hot the hintsink on the NorthBridge gets within a
very few minutes.

To hot to touch for more than a few moments ..

I've not had a Northbridge I felt I needed to worry about before so maybe
this is OK ??

I'm not overclocking (yet) ..all the voltages are set to 'Normal'.

Does the N/B stay at a fairly constant Temp. ? or like CPU etc. depend on
how hard the sys, is running.

I have the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro on the CPU & this stands right up
against & slightly over the

N/B heatsink ..tho not in a way that provides much cooling..

This makes it difficult to install a fan there ....

But do I really need to ??? GIGABYTE have clearly designed the NorthBridge
like this ???

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") Mouse

Intel generally writes a thermal design document for its recent chipsets.
On my current motherboard, the Northbridge is 10-12W, while for the 965
family, it is 19-28W. The number seems to climb with each generation.

The 28W number is for the chipsets with built-in graphics, while the 19W
number is for the P965. So at least you're using the "low powered" one
The power level will depend on how many interfaces are "switched on" -
most users would be running dual channel, so both memory interfaces would
be running. And if you overclock the chipset (raise FSB), the power number
will only go up. Especially if the motherboard has some fancy Vchipset
adjustments that the BIOS is cranking.

http://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/designex/31305503.pdf

Notice in that document, how Intel uses a double sized Northbridge cooler,
*and* they assume 150LFM flowing over the heatsink fins. If the Gigabyte
heatsink is smaller than the Intel one, or your CPU cooler doesn't blow
very much air over the Gigabyte heatsinks fins, then yes, the heatsink
will get hot.

Having worked through some numbers before for something like this, my
conclusion was that a fan should be used. By placing a fan on the Northbridge,
you're not relying on some aftermarket cooler to blow in the appropriate
direction.

Paul

 

[Trimble]

Me again .
Its just had its 1st 2 hour gaming session (with GOTHIC 3 at everything
high)
I now have the E6600 2.4 Ghz CPU set up to 3.0 Ghz ..the DDR2 RAM is
running at 880 Mhz....just a very little extra voltage on CPU & 1.8 v.Mem
(+.02 & +0.1 ).
I have the machine along side me without case cover .
The Northbridge doesn't seem any hotter same the 'Finger Touch' test
than when the sys. is just sat with the startup BIOS screen.
So I don't know..?
I spent lots of worry time Re: the CPU heating & the Arctic 7 on it
is barely getting warm.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") Mouse

 

[Jon Danniken]

I've dug around my cupboards & dragged out of long retirement
a small fan 40mm fan in a 50mm case with plastic clip-ons which
look as tho they might fit straight on the N/B heatsink .
Will try it tomorrow.
This fan was made for service on a Pentium 1 'Classic' CPU .
Incredible to think that little thing was all that was needed back then.

You can also just use a couple of nylon wire ties to hold the fan down.

Jon