What temp should my Northbridge be at?

[Goose]

I was concerned about my CPU temps after installing a new HSF, so i felt around the bottom of the heatsink and, by accident touched the heatsink on the Northbridge to discover it was really hot!
I used a laser temperature gun (unsure how accurate it is) to see the temperature and it's telling me its 70-80 C. To me, this seems really high, but it does feel very hot to touch, too hot to hold my finger on there for more than a few seconds.

My e6600 CPU is currently overclocked to 3.3Ghz and i didn't change the voltage, could this be putting the northbridge under massive strain and making it so hot?
Also, should i turn off the onboard sound? will that be making it hot?

I put a desktop fan on it for now, but are there any good northbridge HSF's out there that would be worth using?

OC info:
FSB 367 x 9.0
CPU 3.3Ghz
Motherboard: Asus P5B
RAM: Geil PC 6400 @ 734Mhz 5 6 6 15


Help is much appreciated.

[Goose]

The desktop fan has brought it down to 60C after about 5 mins.

[Clunk]

Load up something like Asus Probe and see what it says for the NB temp.

It shouldnt be anywhere near 60c.

You need to take the board out, and remove the heatpipe assembly, check that the NB heatsink part is sitting flush on the NB, you'll probably find that it is like this, or worse...



In which case, carefully scrape off the old Thermal stuff with the edge of a credit card, then clean off the remainder with a cotton bud/ TIM cleaner or Isopropyl alcohol.

Then you need to gently bend the heatpipe back, and you might need to do this a few times until you get it to sit flat, reapply the paste each time so you can check the contact.

If it is still that hot after you do that, then either the board is faulty, or the heatpipe cooler is faulty.

You can either RMA, or replace the heatpipe cooler, with a Zalman passive heatsink and a set of ramsinks.

[Goose]

Right,
I could find the temp reading on ASUS Probe, unless it was the MB reading, which was just 45C, but the heatsink was definatly hotter than that.
I took off the heatsink, it was similar to the one in your pic, except it didnt have any copper. Also, the spread on the paste was even and correct. But, as i had taken it off i thought i better take the old stuff off and put on some new stuff (OCZ Ultra Silver 5+). However this wasn't as easy as i expected. Using 3 different types of nail polish remover, some sand paper, tissues and a wire brush i managed to finally get it off and cleaned up. I then fitted the heatsink back on and it's just as hot

Now i have a desktop fan blowing onto it and its at 44C, but if i take that off it goes up to 60-65C

A lot of the aftermarket NB coolers wont fit on my motherboard because of my CPU cooler being so big.

[SHare]

I may be wrong but if the heatsink is getting hot to the touch then contact and conduction must be fine. I'd start by setting it back to stock and buying an active cooler for the NB, if its getting too hot overclocked with passive cooling then its telling you something.

[Clunk]

Right,
I could find the temp reading on ASUS Probe, unless it was the MB reading, which was just 45C, but the heatsink was definatly hotter than that.
I took off the heatsink, it was similar to the one in your pic, except it didnt have any copper. Also, the spread on the paste was even and correct. But, as i had taken it off i thought i better take the old stuff off and put on some new stuff (OCZ Ultra Silver 5+). However this wasn't as easy as i expected. Using 3 different types of nail polish remover, some sand paper, tissues and a wire brush i managed to finally get it off and cleaned up. I then fitted the heatsink back on and it's just as hot

Now i have a desktop fan blowing onto it and its at 44C, but if i take that off it goes up to 60-65C

A lot of the aftermarket NB coolers wont fit on my motherboard because of my CPU cooler being so big.

So, the contact was fine, not like the one in the pic?

I may be wrong but if the heatsink is getting hot to the touch then contact and conduction must be fine. I'd start by setting it back to stock and buying an active cooler for the NB, if its getting too hot overclocked with passive cooling then its telling you something.

The thermal paste that Asus use is like cement, so if one corner is touching, it will still transfer some heat, but a lot of the heat from the NB die just accumulates in the gap between the heatsink, and cant get away, so everything just gets hotter.

If its 60c still, and you are running at stock, then that sounds like the board is faulty to me.

The hottest that my P5B got with the stock heatpipe cooler was 46c, and that was overclocked.

[Goose]

Using the temperature gun, its giving me a reading of 79C. I cant touch it for more than a second because its so hot.
That is with it overclocked, ill try setting it back to stock now and tell you the results.

The conduction was good before, its good now also.

And yeah, the stuff ASUS use is like cement! It took me ages to get it off.

[Clunk]

I really dont think that it is 79c. If the heatsink is 79c, that means that the Die is even hotter, and the thermal cutoff would have kicked in by now.

[DougMcDonald]

I've got the same board and my northbridge also gets hot.

Running at 333x9 for 8 hours under load, it will hit 55 easily.

The temp monitor on speed fan warns me this is too hot, but same situation as Goose, dno how to cool it.

I did buy a passive zalman heat sink, but I wouldn't have expected it to do any better that the heatpipe on there.

Am contemplating taking the pipe off and having a look at the contact, but I don't really have the time at the moment, I'll have a look at the weekend maybe

[Agrippa]

Quick question: is MB temp the same as NB temp?

[Clunk]

Quick question: is MB temp the same as NB temp?

Yes.

[Agrippa]

Cheers. Thought so, but its nice to be sure.

[GSte]

What's a safe voltage to give the P5B deluxe northbridge? Trying to get my RAM OC stable, but don't know how high I can safely go on the northbridge......

[Clunk]

What's a safe voltage to give the P5B deluxe northbridge? Trying to get my RAM OC stable, but don't know how high I can safely go on the northbridge......

Both of your boards seem to run much hotter than mine did, not sure if its because mine were revision 1 or what?

Its doubtful that you will kill the NB with the maximum voltage, as long as the heatsink sits flat on the NB, and you have adequate airflow through the case.