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Need help Cooling Northbridge on GA-870A-UD3

Need help Cooling Northbridge on GA-870A-UD3
« on: December 07, 2010, 06:17:47 pm »
Just built a new rig with a GA-870A-UD3 and the north bridge seems awful hot @ 76-80c. I would like to cool this thing off  with an after market cooler as well as the south bridge but have run into two problems.

1. The mounting holes for the North bridge are a larger non-standard size and therefore the aftermarket coolers I have tried do not fit. The push pins fall right through the holes.

2. On the south bridge there are two components mounted tho the board that get in the way of mounting this cooler.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835708006&cm_re=Enzotech_SLF-1-_-35-708-006-_-Product



I was just wondering if anyone has an idea which air coolers I could get that would work on this board.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2010, 06:25:39 pm by DeadMedic »
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Dark Mantis

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Re: Need help Cooling Northbridge on GA-870A-UD3
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2010, 06:30:53 pm »
Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

To deal with the Southbridge first, there shouldn't be any real need to cool this seperately as it shouldn't get that hot. The Northbridge is a different matter and can become quite hot at times. I am sure that you can find some larger plastic bolts/nuts to use to attach the cooler. Sometimes you just have to be a bit flexible in your thinking.
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Re: Need help Cooling Northbridge on GA-870A-UD3
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2010, 03:49:13 pm »
For the NB, why use push pins? Granted, I wanted to do the same at first as I had very little room to maneuver ( due to large CPU heatsink ) but experienced the same problem with their size. Ended up doing it the hard way but now my heatsink is mounted by screws and I can be sure it'll be in contact with the NB at all times.

I'll agree with DM that you shouldn't need any cooling for the SB. If you're set on it, look for something that mounts like Thermalright HR-05 IFX/SLI. That way the screws / push pins should clear these MB protrusions.

In the end, I guess I'd just go with a small fan near the heatsink. It's the cheapest and easiest to do. I went with a heatsink for the experience of it and I want that board to run for a good few years, so I decided for something more permanent than a makeshift fan.

Re: Need help Cooling Northbridge on GA-870A-UD3
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2010, 08:48:43 am »
Hey did you find a heatsink for the northbridge? I'm looking to buy but I don't have a ruler to measure out the size.

Thanks