Should I add Northbridge into the water circuit?

[Boli]

"Quick" question: I'm running dual Black Ice Micro ATM (that's a 80mm rad) using 4x80mm on push-pull arrangement.

At the moment all I'm cooling is my CPU I would like to cool my Northbridge with the same... just plugin it into the water circuit.

Can my rads hack it?

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I have space for a 120.2 (with four fans) though the mesurements won't fit exactly as I will be using exsisting fans/hole at the top of my case and I didn't plan the measurement for this. but a bit of fiddleing and its entirely possible. (Papa's got himself a brand new drill!)

I'm going to get a new motherboard in the new future and I was wondering if it was worth investing in a new rad to cool the northbrodge or can the dual 80mm rads handle the load?

I'm just thinking surface area to heat disapation wise I will be overclocking it a bit but not overly much as I am constrined by the chip. I would posts some acurate temps but my temp sensor melted so you'll have to contend with:

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Before OC: cool air from rads, at 12v the fans pushed the temps down to 42*C idle 45*C load, normal temps where around 50*C with running the fans on a lower voltage. the air turned lukewarmafter a long period of time. This is with an ABIT motherboard so I expect I was closer to 35*C than 50*C

With OC(temp sensor melted in an ealrier failed attempt): mainly lukewarm air from rads, so there is a definate increase of heat output by the chip, though the temp of the air never exceeds lukewarm unless the room is abonimally hot in which case everythgn is warm So an estimate of 55*C -60*C (40*C - 45*C allowing for ABIT 15*C higher readings)

Now from experiance I know that the chip I had can handle 65*C for long periods of time (that was before OC and watercooling) as that is what I ran it on almost continusouly for 3 months.

So given this deluge of facts is it better just to save my money and keep with the large passive HS on the Northbridge or will I get better OC if I add it to the loop?

~ Boli

[DMOS]

At the moment you aren't pushing your north bridge too far, 140FSB isn't a tall order. If you were trying for over 200fsb and failing, then it might start to be worthwhile to cool it in a more exotic fashion. I would save the money instead. However, if you just wanted to say you have a water cooled NB, then your setup can probably handle it. If it was one of those BIMs, then no, but since you have dual, it would probably be good. A NB isn't going to add a large amount of extra heat to the loop.

[Boli]

I'm hoping to push for 200FSB on my new mobo/ram combo when I get them (ABIT NF7-S 2.0 PC3700) which I should get easily even with such a poor chip though my speed won't improve THAT much, I may hit 2gig at most but would this extra heat thorugh my NB be better added to my WC circuit or should I keep with my Zalaman?

~ Boli

(PS I'm hoping for a better chip though the supply has dried up, as will the cash flow)

[zoson]

Boli, as you can see I have the NF7-S mobo, running very close to 200mhz. Also, when I first got the board, I was running with a Blackice Xtreme, and a Blackice Micro in one loop. The two rads could not keep the water cool enough for the northbridge, and effectivly kept my northbridge running at about 90F (sorry too lazy to convert to C) when my computer was running with silent fans. Of course with higher speed fans cooling was better, and kept the temp down at about 80F.
This is WITHOUT my northbridge overvolted or anything.

I am now running with a large (respectively) passing heatsink that I pulled off an ASUS A7M266-D motherboard (dual athlon). It keeps my northbridge running at about the same temperature as the watercooler when my fans are on silent, and cools even better than the watercooler did when the fans are turned up!

So, you would DEFINATELY need a much larger radiator to cool your northbridge effectively.

If you're looking for advice, find an old 486 aluminum heatsink with a quiet fan, epoxy it on and forget about watercooling your northbridge - it's a waste.
-Zoson

[msv]

Zoson, was Your two BI rads in serie or parallell?
My main problem with my BIM is the puny 1/4" barbs, choking every kind of water flow.
With all respect, if Your BI rads where in serie You would most likely have had better temps with the BIX alone, without the flow restricitng BIM.
Boli: My experience with the BIM has led me to purchase a DD heater core. Two parallell BIMs are better than one, so probably they will handle the north bridge as well, but if You´re going for high overclock a bigger rad will serve You better.
regards
Mikael S.

[Boli]

This is my setup at the top... 2x3/8" piping is basically the same as 1x1/2" piping so no contrictions:



That is FOUR 80mm fans nesting inthere and they get contant cold air from 2 120mm fans on the roof just out of view. so no warm air from the case.

[msv]

Okaaayy...
With such a good looking installation I understand if Your´e hesitant to tear it out and start all over. And if flow resistance ins´t an issue, well, go ahead.
2 BIMs have almost the surface area of a single BIX.
For the moment I have an oversized Zalman passive heatsink for the north bridge, running 146 MHz FSB, hasn´t failed me yet. Still I strongly believe in water cooling everything that´s overclocked, so my plans for this autumn includes an NB WB (bragging rights ). I do plan to go higher than 146 MHz.
regards
Mikael S.

[Boli]

Righto basically if I want to WC my NB then I could easily add a third rad to the mix... even a fourth without any problems hung at the top attached to the dual 120mm fans, and from what you are saying adding a third 120mm rad to the mix would easilly be abel to cope with the NB but a fourth will be well on the way to ambiance.



this would require little pipe work and the ony problems with doing such a radical approach would be:

- The new rads would block some of the air flow from the old one, especially if I use a dual fan arrangement for each rad.

- I'f I put fans on both side (highly possible) then all that weight would be on four screws per rad.

- the cost of the thing... I have no capabilities to mess around wit heater cores so they would be Black Ice Pro, 1/2" (in series if I am using two) that's gonna be £50 per rad

but hey I would have a water cooled NB.

OK, since that is a job for the distant, not near future, I'd better reprase the question.

Would my Zalaman Heatsink be better than the stock fan on the NF7-S for high (200+)FSB?... the fan placements on the side of the case are no accident, and they force arir directly onto the RAM/NB area.

~ Boli

[bigben2k]

Originally posted by Boli
...

Would my Zalaman Heatsink be better than the stock fan on the NF7-S for high (200+)FSB?... the fan placements on the side of the case are no accident, and they force arir directly onto the RAM/NB area.

Not likely. An active (fan) cooling solution will always outperform a passive (heatpipe) one.

[pakman]

actually looking at his case and the fans on the side panel, I am going to stick my neck out and say the zalman passive NB heatsink will perform better than the stock NF7-S HSF IF those side panel fans are indeed pumping good cfm on the NB since the zalman has a larger cooling area than the stock HSF. Plus I think I a 120cm fan on the side is gonna push MUCH more cfm than a little 40mm fan on that stock hsf.

despite watercooling my NB, I am not 100% sold it is helping that much. Recently while reassembling my setup (epox 8rda+), I've slapped a compunurse probe (yes I know these have poor accuracy so take the readings with a full shaker of salt...) directly behind the NB and SB on the mobo. I was surprised but the NB is the hottest component in my system (well actually mosfets are steaming around 60c even w/ heatsinks on them...). The NB alone was reading nearly 54c (ambient 27c) when I had fsb up to 220 and vdd 1.87v. I figured out the problem. As mentioned by many, the nforce2 NB (even the latest ultra 400 steppings) are very concave. There was very little contact between my dangerden z-chip block and the NB in the center. I spent over a 1r sanding the NB until it was flat. Result was approx. a 7c difference. I didn't think of, but its something I should have done, is test an NB heatsink fan after the lapping the NB. I've got another mobo coming in later this week so I might get a chance to test it out.

[Boli]

Well without running my fans on my Zalaman NB heatsink is hot hot HOT, though not as hot as my RAM net to it with a copper heat spreader on. I burnt my finger on the RAM and my NB was just a bit cooler.

But when I turn the fans on... after a while the hot metal is actually barely warm. So I can honestly ay that those componants DO recieve a good airflow.

~ Boli