Northbridge heatsink?

LSR

New Member
The fan on my Asus A8N-SLI SE has gone kaputt.. (as in another thread recently, sorry if it's bad to post two threads in quick succession like this)

I'm in the UK and have been looking for a cooler for my motherboard - the onboard fan has just died. Where can I get one? I've been looking all over the internet - I've seen these 'heatsinks' for the northbridge, and I have a few questions.

I don't really understand what a 'Northbridge' is - I think it's just a hub on the motherboard which requires more cooling than the rest? Is this correct? And is it my northbridge fan which has gone? I mean, I don't see any other fans on the mobo..

Will my computer blow up if I run it without the fan working?

Will a heatsink fit in my computer? It seems to be designed for a fan - it won't let me start up unless I change my fan settings (I.E - remove the safety measure) which says to me it's designed for a fan.

Sorry if the questions seem a bit silly.

Cheers! :D
 
I replaced my northbridge heatsink with this passive zalman one and i havent seen the temperature go above 40 c on it even under load and its very cheap

http://tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=602689

zalman_zmnb47j.jpg


Bit fiddely to install tho.
 
Its quite tall, but shouldnt be a problem unless your mobo manufacturer has placed the northbridge in the most stupid of places.

DSCF2772.jpg
 
Having looked inside my case, I see there's only about an inch of clearance between my mobo and graphics card..

Damn :|

Any low profile coolers?
 
Cheers taylormsj - that's exactly what I'm talking about.

Also, ironically, just as you posted that I googled it and found the cooler which you linked to. Looks good to me, low-profile should help.

But I'm 100% sure it won't fit - I can't post a pic, but the GFX card (sapphire x1950pro) is directly sitting above it.
 
If your sure that it wont fit then i suggest something like what i posted - tekheads is a good site with reasonable shipping prices.
 
it was the same clearance problem with me. So i used a Vantec Iceberq VGA & Chipset Cooling kit. Model # CCB-A1C for the copper version and CCB-A1A for the alumininum version. Hope this helps.
 
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