X58-USB3 Northbridge Temps and Cooling?

[TurboGT]

Here goes my first post...

Running a Xeon W3502 oc'd to 2.88 and I'm experiencing temps in the 50-60deg C on my northbridge. My questions are:

1. What are safe temps for this NB?
2. Has anyone seen or made any improvements to the cooling of this chip that I might try?

The stock heatsink has a heatpipe over to the regulators, but the sink itself doesn't look like it would be too easy to install a fan on...

Any ideas?

System Info:
Thermaltake  V5 Case
GA-X58-USB3 w/ Coolermaster N520
Xeon W3503 - for now... stable OC to 2.88
6GB PC12800 DDR3 - Triple channel configured
GeForce 9500GT, being upgraded soon
32G SSD for Win7 os
160G sata spinner for data

[Dark Mantis]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I would think the easiest option would be to use a dedicated fan even if it is mounted on a stalk.

[TurboGT]

Hi and welcome to the Gigabyte Forum.

I would think the easiest option would be to use a dedicated fan even if it is mounted on a stalk.

I rigged up a case fan to blow directly on it, but i don't think the airstream from it is focused enough to really flow through the heatsink. It doesn't seem to be helping... What kind of "stalk" are you referring to?

[Dark Mantis]

This is one that I used on my latest review build.Probably a bit of overkill for you but they do come smaller.

[TurboGT]

I have seen one like that. They have them at Best Buy for like $15.

I went ahead and ordered a Sylinx sink with fan that should do the trick. I just hope it fits It looks like this.


I hate to remove the sleek looking Gigabyte sink, but if it doesn't do the job, it has to go...

[Dark Mantis]

Often a customised fan and heatsink can work better than the stock cooler supplied with the board the same as with CPU coolers. The standard ones are to often hobbled by the price compromise whereas a few pounds more can make a big difference to performance.