Chipset (PCIset chip) Cooling

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 2:15 pm

Has anyone else noticed their PCIset chip getting really hot? I was working my case off to find if anything needed cooling, and felt that chip was getting pretty hot.

I'm wondering if
a) it really does need cooling at all
b) what would i use to keep a heatsink on?

I cut down an ugly black pentium sink to fit over the chip, but discovered i have no way of keeping it on. Maybe a glue? I'm not buying thermal adhesive, so i wonder what household substances i could use. I'm thinking Krazy Glue or just some School/Tacky glue might work.
What do you think?

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:01 pm

Jordan,
Off topic but, I LOVE your sig.(dual 400@600)
It fits with some posts over the last couple days.

Don't hurry on glueing that heat sink. Someone here will give you the right answer if you wait for it.

Um, what do you mean PCIset chip? Are you talking about the one at the end of PCI4 slot?

KliK · Post by **KliK** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 6:53 am

it is hot, but it's supposed to run on 33MHz...that is not too much heat for the chipset...but you can cool it if you use heatsink...although it's not important if you don't overclock the chipset...and the normal PCI chipset go to 37,5MHz without a probelm for the most of the cards or chipsets!

also, what is your voltage on your 400@600 machine?! is it stable enough?! what is the temp. on the CPUs?! do you cunch some data on that BP& system?!

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:28 pm

KliK wrote:it is hot, but it's supposed to run on 33MHz...that is not too much heat for the chipset...

That depends on the size of the transistors used in the chip along with the manufacturing technology used. The chip could indeed be very hot at 33MHz.

KliK · Post by **KliK** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 1:12 pm

so the real question here is: does anyone know some thermal glue for the PCI chipset & heatsink?! what are your experiances whith them?!

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 7:36 pm

Hmm, so much to say/answer.

davd_bob wrote:

Off topic but, I LOVE your sig.(dual 400@600)

Why do you like it so much?

And yes. the chip at the end of PCI slot 4. The writing on it says "Intel PCISet".

Klik wrote:

also, what is your voltage on your 400@600 machine?! is it stable enough?! what is the temp. on the CPUs?! do you cunch some data on that BP& system?!

Voltages are both 2.2 volts, i can't get it any lower. At 2.2, it's 100% stable, after i installed a massive chipset cooler. (more on that story at a later date. Watch the Case mods section!) Due to the fact that my previous CPU fans were loud like aircraft, i replaced them with really low CFM fans which make nearly no noise but don't keep the temps very low. With the slow fans, temps max at 42 degrees celsius, at about 28 C idle. If i had the better fans on, it would keep to about 33. As for crunching, i guess i could but my BP6 is my main system which i use all the time, so it could but won't. Once i get a better PC then sure, i can devote it to that.

Finally,

[/quote]does anyone know some thermal glue for the PCI chipset & heatsink?! what are your experiances whith them?!

Yes, that is the real question! Thanks for the help so far!

davd_bob · Post by **davd_bob** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:20 pm

Jordan wrote:Hmm, so much to say/answer.
davd_bob wrote:
Off topic but, I LOVE your sig.(dual 400@600)
Why do you like it so much?

Klik wrote:
also, what is your voltage on your 400@600 machine?! is it stable enough?! what is the temp. on the CPUs?! do you cunch some data on that BP& system?!
Voltages are both 2.2 volts, i can't get it any lower. At 2.2, it's 100% stable...

It seems like 600 is atainable on the CPU but every other chip either over or under clocks the rest of the system to get there. 400s on 100FSB may be the fastest CPU anyone can use without risking the rest of the system.

Watch Jaybird's post "Jonny 5 is alive" in the overclocking section. He posted today(Jan 16) an interesting message that suggests that after a system runs for a while at a certain FSB it may use less power(creating less heat) and if thats the case you may be able to drop your voltage.

Jordan wrote:Finally,
does anyone know some thermal glue for the PCI chipset & heatsink?! what are your experiances whith them?! Yes, that is the real question! Thanks for the help so far!

C'mon, guys.
Someone smarter then me needs to give up the goods on a good heatsink glue solution.

jaybird · Post by **jaybird** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:09 pm

I used GE clear silicon sealer (good to 400 Deg. F!) very sparingly on the 4 corners of the chipset, heatsink and TEC and made sure that a VERY thin coating of Arctic Silver was spread across the TEC (both sides) prior to weighting this setup down with a 20 FL OZ bottle of drinking water and let it setup over night.

So, attach fan to heatsink, glue TEC to heatsink, let setup over night THEN glue the whole thing to the chipset.

WARNING, you will NOT get this apart without destroying the TEC and/or possibly damaging the chipset.

When I "fried" my TEC's (sep. power supply) by leaving the TEC's on (fans run through mobo, not TEC PS) after I shut down my PC, they fried my TEC's, both 366's and the NorthBridge

!

Do at your own risk!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

!

Regards,

jaybird

OBTW, worked great, I could actually watch the temps drop by as much as 20 Deg. F below ambient on my system hardware monitor during boot-up.

Nothing, not even the 366's @ 594 at full load EVER went over 105 Deg. F!

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 11:53 pm

Okay, it sounds stupid, but I've just finished experimenting with double-sided tape.
Just the plain stuff from Wal-Mart.
I ran my test (which was a Pentium 233 MMX on some dead ASUS mobo) and thought things were looking good. After a few minutes I decided to pull off the heatsink to see how the tape was doing and, well, it wasn't doing too well.
Rather than burning and drying up, it got wet and melted!
I don't particularily want a melted mess on my BP6, so I conclude:
Double sided tape is NOT a good thermal adhesive. (not that i ever thought it would work well, i just had to make sure!)

purrkur · Post by **purrkur** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 2:21 am

Thanks for your post Jordan. If nobody tries it then none of us will be any wiser

FWIW, I bought myself a replacement cooler and fan from Titan the other day for a nVidia Geforce2 GTS graphics card. The package included (other than the GPU Cooler and fan) 8 small aluminum heatsinks that were meant to be placed on the memory chips of the graphics card. I used up four of them for my memory chips.

In any case, they were glued on with some sort of very thin double-sided tape and they are actually sitting on pretty tight. If you want to try to find tape like this then I would suggest finding something that is heat resistant and make sure that it can transfer the temperature as well. If it is not a good heat conductor then you might end up shutting the heat in instead of passing it on to the heatsink.

Jordan · Post by **Jordan** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 3:15 pm

I like the idea of RAM coolers. I think I'll check them out. I can use them on my ATI rage fury which also only has 4 memory chips as well, and then put the rest on other chips.
Great idea purrkur!