Problem with Northbridge cooling (WC)
 

Last weekend I finally took the step back to go back to watercooling my CPU, I only ran into the following problem.

Using the following setup:

Thermaltake LCS 4000VBS
Intel Core2Duo 6600 (conroe)
MSI P45 Neo3-FR
GEIL 800hmz 2gb memmory
Geforce 8800GTS 640 (will be replaced by a Geforce 280GTX soon)
2x Samsung F1 Spinpoint 750GB (raid0)
Be-Quiet 700W Powersupply

The mainboard has a heatpipe around the CPU for the cooling of the Northbridge and the Modfets, this way it'll be hard to install a watercooled block on the northbridge without effecting the temperature of the mosfets.

With the watercooled block on the CPU there is completely no or almost no airflow for the heatpipe blocks on the northbridge/mosfets.
Meaning when my computer is stressed my northbridge goes up to temperatures like 50C +

My question is.. would it be wise to remove the heatpipes from the mosfets + northbridge and place a watercooling block on the northbridge (no cooling for the mosfets)

Or should I buy a small northbridge fan and screw it on top of the current cooling of my northbridge?
In the last case I guess I will still notice the heat when im going to OC.
I will post up some pictures of my current setup when I get home.

Please let me know what you think, thanks

~Danny

Mosfets need to be heatsinked and given cooling... ya can buy mosfet heatsinks or stick some sinks on them.

For my setup I keep a 120mm fan pointed at the RAM+Northbridge, and the case fans cool the mosfet sinks since they are close.

The problem I have is that I dont have a fan in my chase that could blow air to the chipset.

I just ordered a small fan that I can attach to my heatsink as a (temp) solution. (https://www.komplett.nl/k/ki.aspx?sku=321116)
I was just wondering if there was a better way, since if I put heatpipes on the mosfets and a watercooling block on the northbridge, wouldnt I still have the same problem for the mosfets? (no airflow)

Here are some pictures of my current setup:

With good case airflow that 120mm fan should already be cooling your mosfets. If you add aftermarket heatsinks it will cool them instead.

I balanced a 120mm fan on my GPU using the watercooling tubes, might ruin the look of your case though but I use the P180B, which has no window. There is just no getting around it, the CPU socket and surrounding area is designed with CPU airflow in mind.

I just got an email that my NB fans arrived, im gonna see if I can stick them somewhere between the heatpipes and the NB and see if it helps.

I broke off the MSI-tag on the heatsink yesterday, looks like I can mount one on top of it.

I just wish there was a shop somewhere over here (Netherlands) that sells watercool-parts for the mosfets...

Ill keep this post updated.

Fans didnt really work well.
I just figured I would do it my own way.. and used a iron saw instead, and placed a zalman waterblock on the northbridge (wich was also a hassle since it didnt fit at first >.< had to drill in 2 new holes in the coolblock)

CPU and chipset now both stable at 30C

you could have tried bending and turning the heatpipes so that the NB heatsink would be in front of that 120mm fan.


//edit: miss-looked a bit, the NB-HS would probably end somewhere right below the fan :) , but that would have worked to :D