GA-965P-DS3 Northbridge over heating

My GA-965P-DS3 has just recently become unstable. I am pretty sure that
the problem is thermal and, now, that the Northbridge (chipset, MCH) is
over heating. This board has only a heatsink and it is BLISTERINGLY hot.

I want to add a fan to the existing heatsink or replace the existing
heatsink with a heatsink/fan.

The heatsink is held to the board with 2 holes in the board and those
plastic pins that go into the board and then expand on the backside of
the board.

Does anyone know of a good fan or heat sink/fan?

Does anyone know the spacing of the two [diagonally opposite] holes for
the heatsink (it is impossible to measure accurately without removing
the motherboard from the computer, which is a lot of work).

Thanks

Barry Watzman wrote:
> My GA-965P-DS3 has just recently become unstable. I am pretty sure that
> the problem is thermal and, now, that the Northbridge (chipset, MCH) is
> over heating. This board has only a heatsink and it is BLISTERINGLY hot.
>
> I want to add a fan to the existing heatsink or replace the existing
> heatsink with a heatsink/fan.
>
> The heatsink is held to the board with 2 holes in the board and those
> plastic pins that go into the board and then expand on the backside of
> the board.
>
> Does anyone know of a good fan or heat sink/fan?
>
> Does anyone know the spacing of the two [diagonally opposite] holes for
> the heatsink (it is impossible to measure accurately without removing
> the motherboard from the computer, which is a lot of work).
>
> Thanks

Clip can handle a range of center to center spacings. (Use a Flash enabled
browser.)

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa...r_hr05_ifx.htm

Listed as compatible here.
http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa.../05-09-mcl.htm

Review.
http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/m...ht-hr-05ifx/2/

I can't find a drawing that shows the range of center to center spacings
the bracket can handle. Which leaves you at the mercy of their
compatibility chart.

You can see more examples here.
http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g40/...dge-Page1.html

A cooler like this, would likely end up turned on an angle,
to handle the hole placement. And because this doesn't have
heatpipes, the performance can't be nearly as good. Heatpipes
do make a difference (at least, until they leak).

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcx159-CU.asp

The SLI version of the IFX, is offset a bit. Whereas the
vanilla IFX, the heatsink is centered over its base.

And if you needed to measure the center to center spacing, you
could take some cardboard (a cereal box), cut a U shaped outline
to fit over the heatsink, and then use a pen to mark on the
cardboard, the center-to-center. Then measure at your convenience.

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/...5p-ds3_big.jpg

If you want a solvent kit, for heatsink cleanup, you can try something
like this. Apparently, you go through one of the solvents much faster
than the other. Between that, and the bottle of Isopropyl in your
medicine cabinet, you'll be all set.

Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100010

If there is enough exhaust air from the CPU cooler, blowing
through the new Northbridge cooler fins, then you might not
even need a fan.

Paul

Thanks. I had a new but ancient (ANCIENT) CPU cooler (probably PENTIUM
***ONE*** ... or even 486 !!) with a small fan. I removed the fan, and
removed the factory heatsink. I then drilled some holes in the factory
heatsink and mounted the fan with some self tapping sheet metal screws
into the holes I had just drilled. So now I have the factory heatsink,
but with a fan, and the problem seems to have been solved.

Not, however, before I had bought a Core i7, 6GB of DDR3 memory and a
new Core i7 motherboard. [it's tough to hold back the tears ....] [the
motherboard won't arrive for a few more days]

FWIW ....

If you live near a "Micro Center" store, they have Core i7-920's on sale
this month for $199. IN-STORE ONLY, no mail orders, limit 1 per
HOUSEHOLD (not sure that they are enforcing that very rigidly). Note,
they do sell out fairly often, but they also get them back in stock.
Sale is supposed to last the entire month of July (not sure if they are
giving "rain checks" or not).

Also, the Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R is a very good Core i7 motherboard and
it's relatively inexpensive (zipzoomfly has it for about $170 after a
$15 rebate).



Paul wrote:
> Barry Watzman wrote:
>> My GA-965P-DS3 has just recently become unstable. I am pretty sure
>> that the problem is thermal and, now, that the Northbridge (chipset,
>> MCH) is over heating. This board has only a heatsink and it is
>> BLISTERINGLY hot.
>>
>> I want to add a fan to the existing heatsink or replace the existing
>> heatsink with a heatsink/fan.
>>
>> The heatsink is held to the board with 2 holes in the board and those
>> plastic pins that go into the board and then expand on the backside of
>> the board.
>>
>> Does anyone know of a good fan or heat sink/fan?
>>
>> Does anyone know the spacing of the two [diagonally opposite] holes
>> for the heatsink (it is impossible to measure accurately without
>> removing the motherboard from the computer, which is a lot of work).
>>
>> Thanks
>
> Clip can handle a range of center to center spacings. (Use a Flash enabled
> browser.)
>
> http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa...r_hr05_ifx.htm
>
>
> Listed as compatible here.
> http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_pa.../05-09-mcl.htm
>
>
> Review.
> http://www.xsreviews.co.uk/reviews/m...ht-hr-05ifx/2/
>
> I can't find a drawing that shows the range of center to center spacings
> the bracket can handle. Which leaves you at the mercy of their
> compatibility chart.
>
> You can see more examples here.
> http://www.frozencpu.com/cat/l3/g40/...dge-Page1.html
>
>
> A cooler like this, would likely end up turned on an angle,
> to handle the hole placement. And because this doesn't have
> heatpipes, the performance can't be nearly as good. Heatpipes
> do make a difference (at least, until they leak).
>
> http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcx159-CU.asp
>
> The SLI version of the IFX, is offset a bit. Whereas the
> vanilla IFX, the heatsink is centered over its base.
>
> And if you needed to measure the center to center spacing, you
> could take some cardboard (a cereal box), cut a U shaped outline
> to fit over the heatsink, and then use a pen to mark on the
> cardboard, the center-to-center. Then measure at your convenience.
>
> http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/...5p-ds3_big.jpg
>
>
> If you want a solvent kit, for heatsink cleanup, you can try something
> like this. Apparently, you go through one of the solvents much faster
> than the other. Between that, and the bottle of Isopropyl in your
> medicine cabinet, you'll be all set.
>
> Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100010
>
> If there is enough exhaust air from the CPU cooler, blowing
> through the new Northbridge cooler fins, then you might not
> even need a fan.
>
> Paul