Cooling Northbridge Chipset on DS3

[eojinlim]

I've noticed my northbridge is way too hot and wondered what are the northbridge cooling options at my disposal.

Also, does a heating problem on northbridge adversely affect overclocking?

 

[Markfw]

Yes, if you want 500 fsb, you need a fan on it. I have one on all mine, but installed into the case. (I cut a hole for the 120mm fan.)

 

[eojinlim]

What if I just wanted a 400FSB. Currently, I cannot go beyond 380 even with all the potential bottlenecking features in BIOS disabled, voltages all upped, and timings loosened.

How did you go about cutting a hole (where did you put the hole) for the 120mm northbridge chipset fan?

 

[zephyrprime]

You could get the thermalright sli chipset cooler. It's a heatpipe chipset cooler.

 

[thilanliyan]

I have the Thermalright HR-05 on my DS3. The stock heatsink was blazing hot after overclocking to about 425fsb and it kept locking up randomly. After changing the heatsink I got no lockups.

 

[lopri]

Thermalright HR-05-SLI is only $15 something @the Egg. The best spent $15, IMO. Make sure it'll fit, however.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: lopri
Thermalright HR-05-SLI is only $15 something @the Egg. The best spent $15, IMO. Make sure it'll fit, however.

OOS both the sli and non versions. SVC has them, but they are $25... Usually they are less than the egg.

 

[eojinlim]

I can't use newegg cuz im Canadian..
Would the Thermalright HR-05 fit on an S3 board with an arctic freezer 7 pro beside the northbridge?

 

[Markfw]

The SLI one probably would, but that doesn;t look like your 480 or 400 wall. You cooled it with a fan, and the temps dropped 15 degrees, right ? If so, thats not the problem.

 

[Duvie]

It really depends on your cpu cooler....IN most situations you wont be able to get anything with a rather high profile to fit...

here is what I did for 6 bucks....

get a 50mmx50mmx15mm fan....You can hot glue it to the stock heatsink or you can fasten it using ties and hooking it under the lip of the outside fins. You will see a notch that works perfect to holding it.

Before I do that I would unhook the heatsink and apply some AS5 to the chipset core and remove the gunk they have on it...


I have done this on 2 of my 3 boards....The other just has a case fan strategically blowing on it....

ON the E6400 and E6300 is it is a must cause the FSB is over 400...the E6600 uses a 9x and sub 400fsb but I do use the 4:5 memory ratio to keep my memory speeds high...

 

[eojinlim]

I dont think my temps are a problem...right now easytune states that my
system temp is 26degrees
cpu temp is 20degrees

As you can tell, I am running a pretty powerful fan.

Should I just sell my D3 mobo on ebay and buy another one instead?

 

[eojinlim]

Could you guys provide the BIOS settings for the e6400 on the DS3 board? A screenshot maybe? or just a lit of what you set the BIOS at.

 

[Markfw]

Its not your motherboard !!!! Sell it to me if you are convinced its a dud. I will give you $80 for it !

Its probably your settings, or your memory.

 

[Duvie]

Originally posted by: eojinlim
I dont think my temps are a problem...right now easytune states that my
system temp is 26degrees
cpu temp is 20degrees

As you can tell, I am running a pretty powerful fan.

Should I just sell my D3 mobo on ebay and buy another one instead?

Dont trust easytune and make no assumptions the system temp is your chipset temp...BECAUSE IT IS NOT!!!

Touch it...If it feels hot and most do even around 400 you will get a sense of the heat...


This may not be the issue but anyone with these boards and pushing them over 400 should start thinking about it...At 450 it is a must, IMO

 

[FightTest]

Unless you live in a hot environment and your case has poor ventilation it isn't your NB heat holding you back at 380FSB. I'm at 426FSB with nothing tacked onto my NB.

That said, here's the bios settings I used (that require changing) for 400FSB.

Advanced Bios:
- Limit CPUID = Disabled
- C1E = Disabled
- TM2 = Disabled
- EIST = Disabled
- Virtualization = Disabled

PNP/PCI:
- PCI Latency = 32

M.I.T.:
- CPU Clock Rate = 8 (depends on your processor, 7 for 6300, 8 or 6400, 9 for 6600, etc)
- CPU Host Clock Control = Enabled
- CPU Host Frequency = 400 (Whatever FSB you want to run at)
- PCIe Frequency = 100
- CIA2 = Disabled
- System Memory Multiplier = 2.00
- DRAM Timing Select = Manual
- Timings = 4/4/4/12 (depends on your RAM)
- System Voltage Control = Manual
- DDR2 Overvoltage = +0.3 (depends on your RAM/timings)
- PCIe Overvoltage = Normal (default)
- FSB Overvoltage = +0.1
- MCH Overvoltage = +0.1
- CPU Voltage = 1.35000v



Using the same settings at 426 aside from CPU Voltage at 1.37500 and DDR2 Overvoltage at +0.4. Also of potential note I have 80mm fans in my case at: 1x side intake in vid card area, 2x rear exhaust, 1x exhaust at the top of the case. At 426 I idle at upper 30s and Orthos blend at low 50s. Also I disabled Smartfan and it dropped my CPU temps by a large amount and didn't make my case any louder. Though others might differ if they have quiet 120mm case fans, I didn't hear a thing over my 80s.

 

[eojinlim]

I will report back using the settings above, but I swear I had those settings.

Maybe it is my memory...-_-

 

[eojinlim]

When overclocking your system to 400FSB, did you just set all of those BIOS settings at once and boot up or did you gradually work your way u to 400FSB?

 

[eojinlim]

It appears that my system, can reach 3200mhz OC on every divider but the 1:1.....does this have anything to do with some sort of on-die memory controller on the cpu?

 

[thilanliyan]

Originally posted by: eojinlim
I can't use newegg cuz im Canadian..
Would the Thermalright HR-05 fit on an S3 board with an arctic freezer 7 pro beside the northbridge?

I bought it from NCIX. It BARELY fits on my DS3 with a Thermaltake Big Typhoon but I had to rotate it so the heatpipes are not sticking out and hitting the HR-05. I think it's worth it if you can get it on there. BUT the mounting mechanism is a bit of a bitch to install.

Do you have the S3 or the DS3?? Your sig says S3 but your thread title says DS3.

 

[Jjoshua2]

I'm getting a DS3, does the HR-05 or HR-05 SLI work with either the thermalright ultra 120 or the tuniq tower?

 

[eojinlim]

I think you'd get more responses if you made another thread. lol

 

[eojinlim]

Originally posted by: thilan29

Originally posted by: eojinlim
I can't use newegg cuz im Canadian..
Would the Thermalright HR-05 fit on an S3 board with an arctic freezer 7 pro beside the northbridge?

I bought it from NCIX. It BARELY fits on my DS3 with a Thermaltake Big Typhoon but I had to rotate it so the heatpipes are not sticking out and hitting the HR-05. I think it's worth it if you can get it on there. BUT the mounting mechanism is a bit of a bitch to install.

Do you have the S3 or the DS3?? Your sig says S3 but your thread title says DS3.

I have the S3 motherboard. So will it fit beside my very large arctic cooler freezer 7 pro? if not i need to look for alternatives

 

[eojinlim]

update: bought the thermalright hr-05 along with the ninja for my s3 board. havent received my ninja yet but hoping everything fits. anyone have similar build?

 

[Roguestar]

Try jumping straight to 401FSB instead of working your way through the upper 300s.

 

[eojinlim]

well, my overclock is definitely working. I have been able to reach an Orthos stable FSB of 500Mhz with loosened timings. However, i took it down a notch because i wasn't too satisfied with my northbridge absolutely ON FIRE to the touch.

Hopefully the HR-05 fixes that little problem.

On another note, I got an e6600 and plan to test that one out as well.