Cooling N/S Bridge

Dingleberry88 · 26 Apr 2007 at 23:11

I've noticed the heatpipes on my mobo have been getting very hot - almost too hot to touch. So I've been thinking about getting some better cooling for it.

The mobo in question is the Asus P5N32-E SLi.

As you can see from the picture, I'll need cooling for the north and south bridge, plus something for the chips at the top.

The problem is, my graphics card goes over the top of the SB, and my CPU cooler is half covering the NB.

Any ideas?

Zefan · 26 Apr 2007 at 23:14

The big blue aluminium Zalman cooler is great, you can bend the pins apart quite easily.

Dingleberry88 · 26 Apr 2007 at 23:21

Big Zalman cooler? :confused:

Can you be a bit more specific?

Zefan · 26 Apr 2007 at 23:23

Big blue Zalman motherboard chipset cooler!

Look in *other coolers* then in *zalman*

Ah, there are two! I have the blocky looking one, very easily bent around your 3d card

Dingleberry88 · 26 Apr 2007 at 23:34

Looks ok, but not much different than what I currently have.

Some pics to help describe it:

Follow the links and click the pictures for a much bigger image.

1. The whole mobo. You can see the SB just peeping out from under the GTX.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2jfkc2d

2. The NB + SB.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=30lyued

3. The HS to the left of the CPU HS/F.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=4ic6p03

4. And above.

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=43m94pf

As you can see, it's a tight fit.

Dingleberry88 · 27 Apr 2007 at 13:15

Any other ideas?

This looks good for the NB, but I'm not sure it'd fit.

And this looks good for the SB but again I don't know if it'd fit. Especially as my graphics card extends almost an inch past the mobo.

Jumping · 27 Apr 2007 at 13:34

The Noctua you can mount at an angle so most likely it should be ok to mount even with a massive CPU cooler.

I have just bought the Noctua for my P5N-e SLi board and I will use it with the arctic cooler.

I guess the only way for you to make sure you can fit a new NB cooler with your current CPU cooler is to measure everything up.

Dingleberry88 · 27 Apr 2007 at 19:15

I haven't measured, but I've had a good look now I'm at home, and it seems like they should fit.

Would it be worth replacing the stock white gunk for some AS5 for the time being?

Jumping · 27 Apr 2007 at 20:46

Honestly I dont think its worth it, AC5 takes several hours before you get optimum cooling out of it so if you are going to change the cooling soon its just a waste of cooling paste.

Also (even tho I use AC5 and have some old AC3) its not really that much difference from a good white stuff to the AC5 but as they say every little helps.

But I would wait till you get your new NB cooler to change the paste.

I posted some pics in the P5N-e sli thread over in the motherboard section of my noctua install, it was a bit of a pain to get it to align properly wiht the holes with the angle I had to put it for my AC7 cooler but it went it and it seems to be working fine (knock on wood).

Jleo · 28 Apr 2007 at 13:21

Dingleberry88 said:
I've noticed the heatpipes on my mobo have been getting very hot - almost too hot to touch. So I've been thinking about getting some better cooling for it.

The mobo in question is the Asus P5N32-E SLi.

As you can see from the picture, I'll need cooling for the north and south bridge, plus something for the chips at the top.

The problem is, my graphics card goes over the top of the SB, and my CPU cooler is half covering the NB.

Any ideas?

Heat from the pipes is actually a good thing ! it means the pipes are doing what they're supposed to do "cooling".
I would suggest getting some active cooling on the heat pipes radiators, what you are experiencing is not uncommon with the Tuniq Tower
as there is none or very little down drafted air to cool the components and passive heatsinks around the base of the cpu.
Even if you have to get the glue gun out and stick the fans in place to get some directed cooling on the area the heat pipe radiators/heatsinks occupy.
Check out yate loon 120mm fans low noise combined with good air movement and cheap too. Hope this helps.