Heatsink for Northbridge chip?

The fan on my Northbridge chip has failed, and in my efforts to reduce PC
noise would like to replace with a larger heatsink such as Zalman's. Problem
is, I can't get the old heatsink off and I suspect it is held on with epoxy.
So my questions a

Is it possible to bold a larger heatsink to the existing one? Would this eve
be effective given the smaller contact surface area of the fins?

Do I even need to add a larger heatsink, given there will be no fan running?

Motherboard specs (courtesy of Belarc Adviser software):

Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 761-686B
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 12/13/2000

The machine is a early 2000 vintage Micron with an AMD Athlon processor at
1.2 GHZ. I am not overclocking, nor do I plan to.

As far as I know there is no temperature sensor on the Northbridge that I
can monitor.

Not really 100% on this, but if memory serves, the northbridge on a board
that old does not need to be "actively" cooled, shoul work fine with a
passive heatsink.

"DesignGuy" wrote in message
news:GSMXb.186920$U%5.920269@attbi_s03...
The fan on my Northbridge chip has failed, and in my efforts to reduce PC
noise would like to replace with a larger heatsink such as Zalman's.
Problem
is, I can't get the old heatsink off and I suspect it is held on with
epoxy.
So my questions a

Is it possible to bold a larger heatsink to the existing one? Would this
eve
be effective given the smaller contact surface area of the fins?

Do I even need to add a larger heatsink, given there will be no fan
running?


Why not play it safe and just replace the fan?

Why not play it safe and just replace the fan?

I'm trying to reduce the noise of the computer, and this particular fan is
one of the main culprits (even a borrowed replacement is noisy). I'd like to
go to passive cooling where possible.

"DesignGuy" wrote in message
news:q9OXb.319386$xy6.1547200@attbi_s02...

Why not play it safe and just replace the fan?

I'm trying to reduce the noise of the computer, and this particular fan is
one of the main culprits (even a borrowed replacement is noisy). I'd like
to
go to passive cooling where possible.



you can probably use a lower r.p.m. fan that's physically
larger (and quieter)
i've done it for cpu's by using a home-made bracket...
although there are commercially made adaptors

"DesignGuy" said in news:GSMXb.186920$U%5.920269@attbi_s03:
The fan on my Northbridge chip has failed, and in my efforts to
reduce PC noise would like to replace with a larger heatsink such as
Zalman's. Problem is, I can't get the old heatsink off and I suspect
it is held on with epoxy. So my questions a

Is it possible to bold a larger heatsink to the existing one? Would
this eve be effective given the smaller contact surface area of the
fins?

Do I even need to add a larger heatsink, given there will be no fan
running?

Motherboard specs (courtesy of Belarc Adviser software):

Board: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. 761-686B
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 12/13/2000

The machine is a early 2000 vintage Micron with an AMD Athlon
processor at
1.2 GHZ. I am not overclocking, nor do I plan to.

As far as I know there is no temperature sensor on the Northbridge
that I can monitor.

The trick that I've heard for removing an epoxied heat sink is to use dental
floss. You use it to saw through the epoxy. Some types of dental floss are
less effective (e.g., don't use waxed floss, and flat floss is probably is
worse than using string floss).

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Reason for a Northbridge fan would be a 'fear' that normal
chassis airflow might be restricted. Serious systems attach
ribbon cables properly to not restrict airflow - making that
heatsink fan unnecessary.

Heatsink do cooling with a 200 LFM airflow. That means
airflow so gentle as to not be detectable by hand. Locate a
chassis fan to guarantee some airflow over that Northbridge
heatsink. That would be more than enough cooling without that
noisy little fan.

Better designs don't mount fans on heatsink. A larger (and
therefore quieter) fan sits off to side and blows air across
all heatsinks. Should the highest failure rate device in a
system (the fan) fail, then heatsink still provided sufficient
cooling - airflow not restricted by a noisy little fan.

DesignGuy wrote:
Why not play it safe and just replace the fan?

I'm trying to reduce the noise of the computer, and this
particular fan is one of the main culprits (even a borrowed
replacement is noisy). I'd like to go to passive cooling where
possible.

On Sun, 15 Feb 2004 13:32:58 -0600, "*Vanguard*"
wrote:

The trick that I've heard for removing an epoxied heat sink is to use dental
floss. You use it to saw through the epoxy.

aw man, whats that doing to your teeth!?

"DesignGuy" wrote in message news:GSMXb.186920$U%5.920269@attbi_s03...

The fan on my Northbridge chip has failed, and in my efforts to
I can't get the old heatsink off and I suspect it is held on with epoxy.
So my questions a

Is it possible to bold a larger heatsink to the existing one?

Not unless you grind off all the heatsink fins to create a nearly flat
surface.

Place a single-edge razor blade or very thin knife blade between the
heatsink and chip at one corner and press and rock it sideways until
the epoxy cracks. It's safe to gently tap on the razor to wedge it in
more deeply, but don't overdo it. Do not try twisting off the
heatsink or prying between it and the circuit board because that can
pull the chip from the board. Clean off all the remaining epoxy
(scrape), and use epoxy or silicone rubber (RTV) to attach the new
heatsink. Silicone rubber (not paste) is preferred because it it
makes heatsink removal easy, and you don't need any special thermal
glue for this chip because it doesn't get that hot. Do not follow the
advice of the ignorant and use thermal grease in the middle and a drop
of super glue in each corner. A heatsink made for a 486 or Socket 7
CPU will cool this chip sufficiently.