I was adjusting some wires in my Case when I noticed that the copper heat sink on my northbridge was very very hot (i cant even keep my finger on it) Im wondering if this is a normal thing or if I should look into getting a new northbridge cooler. The only problem with getting a new cooler is that this cooler has a heat pipe on it leading to the back of the mobo and also my Zalman 9500 goes slightly above the northbridge so I cant get a very tall cooler. Edit----- My mobo is an Asus P5K-V
It's common with a lot of boards. If you have access to a thermal probe measure it. copper heatsinks can seem hotter than they are due to how well they conduct heat (hot metal feels hotter than hot plastic because of how much better it conducts heat), so it may not actually be that hot. You're looking for 50C or less ideally.
i used one thermometer I had lying around.... but it was not able to measure past 107f..... (43c) i got a bit bored and took it off... and it looks like they used really cheap thermal paste.... so im gonna replace that. Also if I were to solder copper tubing onto the cooler and extend it to a fan would that help at all?
Hmm, I doubt it, unless you actually fill it with fluid like real heatpipes are. Just stick a fan on top of the cooler as is, or buy a replacement cooler.
