A8N-SLI Premium & NB Heatsink

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willie92

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 29, 2005
Messages
296
Has anybody tried putting a heatsink on top of the main part of the heat pipe (that sits right on top of the North Bridge) of an A8N-SLI Premium???

I know the NB temps get pretty high and thought maybe that would be a simple, inexpensive solution.

Just curious if anybody has tried it...
 
Do you mean a fan on that heatpipe? I think Asus actually manufactures blower fans for that board... specifically for that very application.
 
No, I mean the rectangular collector that sits right on top of the North Bridge.

I've got the ASUS blower fan for the fins, I was just curious if a heatsink closer to the source of the heat would do any good.
 
It wouldn't hurt but how would you mount it securely? That would be an interesting test to see some numbers. :D
 
From my experience AS5 could hold a NB heatsink. The first time I used AS5 I actually ripped the CPU out of the socket when I tried to pull the waterblock off! It had been on there a year and I didn't realize just how much AS5 will stick! I bent a couple of pins on the CPU, but not too bad and was able to bend them back with a mechanical pencil.

Anyway, there are other mixtures of thermal compounds and glue that will secure a heatsink. But if no one had done it, I may have to give it a try! You know--for research sake and the good of the community!
 
willie92 said:
From my experience AS5 could hold a NB heatsink. The first time I used AS5 I actually ripped the CPU out of the socket when I tried to pull the waterblock off! It had been on there a year and I didn't realize just how much AS5 will stick! I bent a couple of pins on the CPU, but not too bad and was able to bend them back with a mechanical pencil.

Anyway, there are other mixtures of thermal compounds and glue that will secure a heatsink. But if no one had done it, I may have to give it a try! You know--for research sake and the good of the community!
Click to expand...

If you do take the plunge make sure you post back. :) Good luck!
 
I have actually done this- pics in the link here:

Link

I have made some additional changes since then, namely adding a 40x10mm Sunon fan runnig at 5V (pretty much silent) and replacing the 60mm fan on the VRM radiator with another 40x10mm fan @5V. To summarize the results with updated temps (the temps listed in the anandtech thread were during winter, and with a non-OCd HTT):

Heatsink on heatpipe (chipset block) only: minus 4-5C
+ fan on VRM radiator (60 or 40mm running at 5V): minus 1-2C
+ fan (40x10mm at 5V) on heatpipe (chipset block): minus 4-5C


As a result of these modifications, I currently idle at 48-51C (room temp of 22-25C) and load at 55-56C. I have never seen temps over 56C even under hours of load on a hot day without AC; before adding the 40x10mm fan to the top of the micropole, I would get up to 60C with full loading.

40x10mm fans were mounted with double-sided tape.

The VRM heatsink idles at 35-36C, and gets up to 45-46C on full load, with all of the modifications. It used to idle at 44C without a fan blowing over it.

All temps were measured with probes from the CoolerMaster Aerogate III. I inserted the probe as close to the NB core as possible.

I know of one other person who managed to mount a Zalman NB-32J with screws to the top of the chipset block, and IIRC saw a 6-7C drop in temps. I imagine that this would be a better solution, as the NB-32J is a larger heatsink than the Micropole southbridge, and was mounted with AS5 rather than a thermal pad/tape.

These temps are with an HTT of 265; A64 3000+ @2385. In my experience, going from HTT 200-->265 increased chipset temps by ~3C.

I imagine that with just a bare heatpipe, I would be at ~65C on full load, which is similar to what others with the A8N-SLI Premium have reported (those who have used a temp probe); Asus claims 70C for the heatpipe cooling solution.
 
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