Need help with Crosshair V Formula Northbridge Replacement

[Smokey27]

Hi guys,i recently purchased the Crosshair Formula V and needed to upgrade my cpu aswell because my old phenom 965BE died because of broken,bended pins.My phenom dropped on the floor because it got stuck to the heatsink when i removed my Noctua...i know..really..i know.Anyway,i needed a fast,and not to costy replacement,i figured the FX-8120 would do well,and was in my budget range.Ive read some bad,and alot of good storys aswell,especially about ocing it easily,wich is a fact,ive never been able to oc a cpu this easy and this high.

Anyway to make a long story short,im not happy when playing games on stock speed with this cpu,it actually has lower performance then my old phenom wich i ran at 3.8ghz.And most of all while all my temps are low the northbridge is idling at around 48 - 50 and shoots up to 60 when gaming.I still oc'd it and while going higher i did not saw my nb temps rise higher then on stock speed,while my cpu temps were going up but stayed well below 50.I can even feel the heat on the right side of my case when laying my hand on where the nb is placed.Im not planning to play games everyday with my nb temp this high.

I saw that alot of other people suffer from the exact same problem on this mobo,but i still want to keep it and the cpu aswell because despite the nb problem i still love both.The highest stable oc i got was 4.6 on 1.38v just by raising the multiplier,and have LLC on ultra high.Cpu temps below 50,but its still my nb temp that keeps hitting 60 when gaming.So ocing or leaving it at stock doesnt do a thing for nb temp,mayb 1 - 2 degress ,even lowered nb to 2000 and lowered volt aswell,it did lower the temp with about 3 - 4 degrees but im not gonna keep it like that.Tried playing with Digi + VRM settings aswell but also doesnt help,only when i let it clock my cpu down ,and i dont want that.Right now im running on 4.0 on 1.37v,multiply x20.

My airflow is good aswell,Got the NH-U12P SE2 on cpu,case fans are 4 blowing in ,and 2 sucking out total.2 blow in from the side,2 from the front,1 sucks from above,the other sucks from behind.Had my case open aswell,tried to change the airflow but it didnt help a bit,the way i have it set now is the best for all temps.

So..i want to replace my Northbridge heatsink,and any recommendations and any help for this board are more then welcome,because i have no idea whats the best northbridge heatsink for this board.

Full specs are

Crosshair Formula v
CPU - FX 1820
CPU Cooler - NH-U12P SE2
Corsair vengeance 16gb (CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9)
GTX560TI - 2 way sli
OCZ ZX 1000w


Sorry if i mistyped anything,forgot anything to mention,its late i need to go to bed and work tomorrow but wanted to make this post quick in the hopes i get a reply by tomorrow because i want to replace it asap.

Thanks for reading.

[HiVizMan]

Hello and welcome.

Those temps for the NB are pretty normal by the way. And I would not get to worried about it at all.

However if you do want to change then there are water cooling options. EK Watercooling make some and I am sure there are plenty others. Air cooling is an option too I guess. But I do no know of any NB air coolers.

[Smokey27]

Thanks for the reply...but sorry to say,those temp are not safe imo.NB just reached 62C,and when it happend i felt my game becoming slower,and saw my fps dropping.When i stopped gaming all temps in my pc went down very fast,but it took about an half hour or longer for my nb to reach 50 again,..this is normal in a case with perfect airflow ?? I shouldnt be worried that my nb temp reaches 62 and makes my games slower while its hitting these temps,i shouldnt worry about probable damage to other compononents in my mobo due to this nb temp ?.The NB sits so close to the cpu that im betting its giving the cpu extra unneccesary heat aswell.While it may be safe in theory,i do not like something in my pc hitting these temps day in day out.So yes a nb replacement is a must for me.

I have no clue about watercooling,and just searched for watercooling heatsinks for this mobo's nb,and this is about the only one i could find , EK-FB ASUS Crosshair V - Acetal http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/bl...-v-acetal.html. Still i have no clue on what other parts i may need to make it work.I reckon i have to buy seperated pumps,tubes etc aswell ?

[HiVizMan]

Hey Smokey - you know your system better than me for sure as you are the one using it. My CHV and the cpu's that I have clocked my NB temps have been in the 50 - 65 range and I have personally not noticed any loss in performance (fps in game) but that is my system not your system.

Have you looked at these Alpenföhn Ötzi Northbridge Cooler for the NB or maybe Zalman ZM-NBF47 Fanless Northbridge Cooler.

I used the search term Northbridge Cooler in Google shopping and they looked about the best on the first page.

[Smokey27]

Thanks for the reply again.I basically was just looking for specific 990fx nb heatsinks,or specific ones for the the formula v,since ive never had the urge to even replace a heatsink on other mobo's ive owned,im not to famillair with this.Thanks for the trouble of looking for some other heatsinks,ive checked the ones you provided out but i think that it won;t fit in my system,since i have the Noctua cpu cooler with 2 fans on both sides,i have about 1mm room left on the side where my memsticks are seated.so on the other side where the nb is placed you can imagine theres also very little room left,and those heatsinks you showed me look pretty buffy.

Can you please eloborate as wich NB heatsinks will fit on this mobo and wich not ? Or will most of them fit ? Because i seriously had the impressions that i could only use 990fx heatsinks,or formula v specific ones.I don't want to end up with a mediocre heatsink btw,im willing to go watercooling i just need some info on what else i have to buy,because when looking at the http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/bl...-v-acetal.html it says its a Complete watercooling solution..But i still don't know if i have to buy pumps and tubes etc first,and what kind i need..its a little vague on that page,when reading it you would think its all inclusive.

[HiVizMan]

Ah I understand.

OK you will need the following items.

The NB cooler of course - the one you linked is perfect by the way.
A pump
A radiator
A resivoiur or a file tube
And finally some tubing and barbs to connect it all together.

Cost = plenty


If you are thinking of taking the NB off and replacing it why not do what many folks have. Remove the ASUS NB and replace the thermal paste and then reseat the NB making sure it is a better fit. That should help a lot with your temps.

[Smokey27]

Ah I understand.

OK you will need the following items.

The NB cooler of course - the one you linked is perfect by the way.
A pump
A radiator
A resivoiur or a file tube
And finally some tubing and barbs to connect it all together.

Cost = plenty


If you are thinking of taking the NB off and replacing it why not do what many folks have. Remove the ASUS NB and replace the thermal paste and then reseat the NB making sure it is a better fit. That should help a lot with your temps.

I just reapplied some thermal paste this morning ( and omg the pink glue like substance was one hell of a job to remove ) with artic silver,ive let it stress test my system a bit so it gets a bit hot and then carefully pushed the nb heatsink down to let it make more contact.All is good and well,meaning my system runs fine,but the temps are no difference at all.Im being lucky the end of this month with some extra money wich i can put to good use to buy all the necessary equipment for the EK-FB ASUS Crosshair V - Acetal.I'm looking at the site now and see so many different types of radiators and pumps,and ive read that some can be quite loud,so i do want the most quiet and coolest solution.Could you recommend me to what would be the best pump,reservoir or file tubes ( May possibly in the future get watercooling on my cpu aswell ) i need to buy,or do you recommend me to go to a watercooling specific forum,for further help and explanation on this ?

[HiVizMan]

I would start a new thread asking for water cooling help.

That way the water cooling experts can notice and comment.

[kkn]

smokey27: where are you located?

[HiVizMan]

Smokey is based in Europe - Benelux countries