CPU/Mobo NorthBridge Temperature Problem

[asvinder]

Hi,

My PC config is :
Intel i7 920
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
corsair H100 water cooler
4gb ram

After running say BF3 game for like 15-20 min motherboard's northbridge led's turn red indicating a high temperature.I am attaching a pic of my motherboard, the led's under the heatsink with the name gigabyte on it are turning red.
Any suggestions to solve this temperature problem would be a helpful.

thank you.

 

[Gannu]

How is the ventilation inside the chassis? How many fans, how are they configured (inlet/exhaust)?

That board could be a bit old, say 3+ years? Open up the heatsink, clean the dried up thermal paste, apply some fresh paste and replace the heatsink back. Try running some intensive application (BF3?) to check if the temperatures are shooting up. It should have settled for now.

Adding an external 40x40 or 50x50 fan may be useful. You can try attaching the fan to the side of the heatsink through some zip-ties and it should ensure a decently firm fit. Connect the fan cable to one of the motherboard headers for powering it.

 

[asvinder]

Motherboard is 2yrs old .i have coolermaster HAF 922 chassis,with 2 exhaust fans (one at the rear of chassis and other a big one on the side ) and 1 inlet fan (front of chassis).BF3 means battlefield 3 game .Will it be safe to open up the blue heatsink ?

 

[Gannu]

BF3 means battlefield 3 game .

Understood Sergeant! I meant BF3 there because maybe you could use that to test if it is working fine.

Will it be safe to open up the blue heatsink ?

Absolutely. Just ensure that you open the heatsink-heatpipe assembly after operating the PC for sometime (warming it up) because the dried up paste/thermal tapes would be holding the heatsink like a hardened glue! It may be a bit hard to take it out otherwise. The NB sink is held by 2 screws and the MOSFETs sink is held by 2 push-pins. Remove them after warming up the PC and it should come off.

Your chassis cooling looks adequate to me but trust me those fans supplied by CM are absolute junk! Hardly throws any air.

 

[asvinder]

sir,what would you have me do here ,should i change the fans and/or reapply the thermal paste?
There is no cooler or A/C in my room as of now ,situation will change in a day or two ,will that help?
If you want me to change fans ,then please recommend me one.

 

[Gannu]

The immediate solution would be to resolve the overheating issue of the NB. Source some iso-propryl alcohol (available with chemists and a few pharmacy stores) and a tube of thermal paste first. Here's the link to a good paste - Link

On a related note, are you familiar with such DIY stuff?

 

[asvinder]

Yes,I've done it before ,that would be of no problememo. I have arctic silver 5 paste ,will apply it and let you know how it goes.
thanks..

 

[Gannu]

Yes,I've done it before ,that would be of no problememo. I have arctic silver 5 paste ,will apply it and let you know how it goes.
thanks..

All set then! Do not forget to clean the dried up paste/pads properly.

And be careful not to put excessive paste over the chip's metal surface (or is the core exposed?). Squeeze just a bit over the surface and let the heatsink spread the paste. I am being particular here because AS5 compound is told to be slightly capacitive and can short the circuitry.

 

[asvinder]

Applied the thermal paste but still the problem persists.There is no change in temperature before and after applying the TIM(65 C under idle).
Now what are my options?

 

[Gannu]

How did you monitor the temperature? Could you refer the board's manual to see what that phase LED indicates?

 

[asvinder]

I'm using everest to monitor the temperature.It's showing a 66 C for northbrige and green light has popped up on the motherboard.According to the manual GREEN light(61-80 C) and red light (above 80 C) .I just tested it by playing bioshock infinte for like 15minutes which led to green light on mobo.I also noticed that my GPU temperature sky rocketed to 84 C under load.Is that normal?
My GPU is Zotac nvidia gtx 580 and has 5yrs warranty.
thnks

 

[Gannu]

It's showing a 66 C for northbrige and green light has popped up on the motherboard.According to the manual GREEN light(61-80 C) and red light (above 80 C) .I just tested it by playing bioshock infinte for like 15minutes which led to green light on mobo.
thnks

So isn't this normal?

As for the GPU, it seems 97'C is the max. safe operating temp. posted in some of the threads elsewhere so this seems safe. But like I said, get yourself some better case fans to improve the flow inside the chassis.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

corsair H100 water cooler

This is a side-effect of using a water cooler. Your passive northbridge/VRM heatsinks are around the CPU area and rely on airflow from an air-cooled CPU heatsink to stay cool.

Your only option would be placing a fan over the northbridge heatsink.

 

[asvinder]

^^Certainly seems the only way that would help me here.But there seems to be no accommodation for the fan to fit there,will have to find a way to fit those fans by using zip-ties.I have never done this thing so,anyone here could give me tips if they have performed such procedure.

 

[Gannu]

In your case, the NB heatsink has the small plate over the fins so tying a fan on top is useless as it won't dissipate the heat. You have to either take away (pry open?) that plate (which may void the warranty so don't do that!) or tie the fan to the either side of the sink so it pushes the air.

But now the LED shows green so it is alright, no? Have you checked the manual?

 

[asvinder]

The manual only specifies the temperature for green and red lights,it does not specify that green means safe and red means danger.I googled the situation and it seems that the temperature at green level should be alright.But still the situation needs to be dealt with ,my chassis fans seems to be working at 800Rpm,i need good RPM fans and i think that will solve the situation.

 

[Crazy_Eddy]

Chassis fans will only help a tiny bit since it will only drop chassis temps. Spot cooling, i.e. having a fan actually blowing air at the heatsinks will show huge temperature drops.
The difference is like standing in a corner of a room with a ceiling fan running vs directly standing under the ceiling fan.

Just to clarify, after changing the thermal paste the temps dropped from 80C+ (red) to ~66C ? Thats a pretty good drop too. Are there any temperature monitors for the VRM area? (the one with ultra durable written on it)