Yet more NB cooler help needed

[Coherence]

I recently replaced (for the third time) the NB cooler on my IC7-G mobo. When mounting the new cooler (Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II), one of the mounting loops broke off the board. (Poorly designed mounting method for this cooler makes it way too easy to overtighten the hooks.) Fortunately, the board had four loops, so I was able to use the other pair to mount the cooler.

Lately, my rig has been getting slow while gaming, or not correctly burning a DVD (DL coasters are expensive, too!), so I peeked into my case and discovered that the OTHER loop my new NB cooler was connected to had broken away, and the cooler is more or less just dangling off the motherboard. Worse, it is the loop on the same side as the one that had broken off while mounting it in the first place, which means I have no loops left for securing a cooler on that side of the NB.

So, am I basically stuck buying a new motherboard (and I'm sure it won't be easy to find an AGP board, nowadays, that will fit my existing P4C CPU and AGP videocard), or is there a decent stick-on NB cooler I can use? Or, can I use a good piece of thermal tape for this cooler reliably, without it being fully mounted to the board's loops? Since my case stands upright (as most do), I'm afraid the cooler might be too heavy for thermal tape.

Suggestions? Money is tight right now, so I'd rather not build a whole new rig, if I can avoid it.

 

[dawza]

Not sure how hot your NB gets, but here is a passive heatsink designed for cooling less-hot southbridges: http://sidewindercomputers.com/miso.html

Its main attractions are low cost and a good quality stick-on thermal pad; whether it alone will suffice depends on your thermal loads and case airflow.

Another more effective, but also more permanent solution would be to use thermal epoxy and glue a Zalman NB-32 heatsink to the NB. It is larger than the southbridge stick-on sink linked above, and should cool better due to increased surface area and the superior thermal conductivity of thermal epoxy vs. tape. The Zalman goes for $5-6 at most places, and you would then need to pay an extra $8 or so for the epoxy.

NB-32: http://svc.com/zm-nb32k.html

Epoxy: http://svc.com/arsiltherad.html

For either of these options, an additional fan could be directed at the heatsink to provide more cooling if necessary.

 

[imported_pendragon]

I've had the Zalman 32J on my Abit IC-7 for about 2 years and it works fine.
I used thermal epoxy as dawza mentioned.
No more worrying about replacing the fan. [I went through 2 Abit nb hsf's]
No more noise, and the temps have been the same as with a fan or lower.
The only dilemma when I epoxied was that it voids your warranty.
I'm past my warranty now and am glad I went with the Zalman.

 

[Operandi]

All you need is a good passive heatsink such as this Zalman. Unlike the one mentioned above the NB32J includes thermal epoxy so you'll be able to mount it without any mounting hardware.

If you want to make it removable you can mix in some regular thermal paste with the epoxy.

 

[Coherence]

Originally posted by: Operandi
All you need is a good passive heatsink such as this Zalman. Unlike the one mentioned above the NB32J includes thermal epoxy so you'll be able to mount it without any mounting hardware.

If you want to make it removable you can mix in some regular thermal paste with the epoxy.

Thanks for all the replies. I originally didn't consider thermal epoxy, since my Thermaltake cooler has a fan on it (though I hear it still works very well even without the fan turned on), and I would never permanently mount a fan-based cooler using epoxy.

I have a Zalman ZM-NB47J which I couldn't mount because it uses holes instead of hooks, so if I can find just the thermal epoxy, I may use that instead of buying a whole new heatsink.

If I can't find any thermal epoxy locally, then I'll order the NB32J.

Thanks again!