NF7-S northbridge/southbridge cooling

[LesPaul]

I'm thinking about how I could improve my chipset cooling... I thought about maybe buying a better northbridge cooler, and using some thermal adhesive to attach the stock NB cooler to the southbridge. Do you think there's room to fit that stock NB cooler under a Radeon 9800 and clear the AGP slot?

Also, is the stock NB cooler glued on with thermal adhesive or is it just the goop and those cheesy pins holding it on? I'd hate to ruin the chip trying to pry that off if its glued on. Anyone done this without putting it in the freezer (i'd rather not put my board in the freezer...)

Thanks for any input.

 

[NewBlackDak]

It's just goop, but unless you're voltmodding your chipset voltge you'll be wasting your time. The stock cooling is more than enough even OCed. The southbridge could use a small passive cooler, and sometimes stops the sound distortion that people have reported.

 

[Tiamat]

If your SB Cooler is less than 16mm, it should not have a interference problem with your GPU. I just made one out of an old p2 slot hs and its about 1"x1"x14.35mm.
Sorry for mixing of units, but i see an inch very easily, and i measured only the 14.35mm

Im currently looking for some thermal pads to use... but not sure if i should buy this akasa shinetsu stuff or not. I dont want a permanent fix to the SB just in case it causes an interference problem.

 

[LesPaul]

yeah, good idea.. It'd be nice to get stick something on the SB that wouldn't be as permanent as an adhesive, just in case a future upgrade causes problems with room and not being able to fit.

I've got a couple passive heatsinks laying around off of old pentium II's, but I'd have to cut down the fins cause they're all about 2-3 inches tall. I'd really like to pull off the small/thin heatsink off my GF2 use that on my SB, and stick one of those larger passive PII heatsinks on the GF2, but i'm scared of ruining the GPU by prying off the HS since its been on there for so long. Even though its old and crappy, I don't want to ruin that video card because its going to be going in my Linux box.

 

[Insane3D]

You could do something like this

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
You could do something like this

That would be nice But i have a Thermalright SLK947U with 92mm fan, so i had to use the zalman NB cooler. Also, i plan on buying a video card that is double slot thick. So, i ended up taking a PII slot cooler (those black aluminum beasts) cut it up into a 7 pin x 7 pin matrix, and grinded the tops down from 20mm to 14.3mm tall

I just have to find suitable thermal pads...

 

[LesPaul]

yeah insane, i'd do that, but with my 9800 + VGA Silencer, it woudln't fit. I've got a very tight fit there.. I'll probably just do what tiamat did with a PII heatsink, cause I got a couple just layin around. Tia, if you find some good non permanent pads that will stay stuck on there, lemme know

 

[Granorense]

Originally posted by: Insane3D
You could do something like this

Very nice, I may do that with mine!!!

 

[Tiamat]

Originally posted by: LesPaul
yeah insane, i'd do that, but with my 9800 + VGA Silencer, it woudln't fit. I've got a very tight fit there.. I'll probably just do what tiamat did with a PII heatsink, cause I got a couple just layin around. Tia, if you find some good non permanent pads that will stay stuck on there, lemme know

Right now, im looking at these: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/akshintherin.html

Nobody replied to whether or not these pads are trustworthy. While doing a search, this one was the only one i could find from an online reseller.

 

[Spikey217]

Originally posted by: Tiamat

Originally posted by: LesPaul
yeah insane, i'd do that, but with my 9800 + VGA Silencer, it woudln't fit. I've got a very tight fit there.. I'll probably just do what tiamat did with a PII heatsink, cause I got a couple just layin around. Tia, if you find some good non permanent pads that will stay stuck on there, lemme know

Right now, im looking at these: http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/akshintherin.html

Nobody replied to whether or not these pads are trustworthy. While doing a search, this one was the only one i could find from an online reseller.

These are pretty good. I used them to stick small ramsinks to my video card. It stays on well and I know its working because the ramsinks get fairly warm. I haven't tried removing them yet but I'm sure I won't run into any problems there.

 

[Tiamat]

Thanks Spikey217. It seems this place has good resellar ratings as well. Does this stuff rip easily? or do you basically take blade, cut it to size and stick it on like double sided tape?

 

[Spikey217]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
Thanks Spikey217. It seems this place has good resellar ratings as well. Does this stuff rip easily? or do you basically take blade, cut it to size and stick it on like double sided tape?

You have to cut it to size and stick it on like double sided tape.

 

[LesPaul]

sweet, thanks man!

edit: ouch.. shipping is rough.. 3.85 was the cheapest for priority mail.. ups ground was $6, just for a 1x5 inch piece of tape! lol. Oh well, this stuff looks pretty good for what i need.