Which Ram & northbridge heatsinks?

[Fat Tone]

I just got the Epox 8RDA+, with an XP2500+ and 2*256MB Twinmos/Winbond PC3200 (
here )

This is a fantastic mobo for o/c - you can change just about all frequencies, ratios and voltages. The CPU is fully unlocked (thanks AMD ). It will do at least 2088MHz (e.g. 12.5*166), but I'm getting lockups when pushing the FSB up to 200. A little Googling reveals that the stock Northbridge heatsink is stuck on with tape, to a small area of the chip at that, so that obviously needs improving.

So, I plan on adding a better HS to the northbridge (although maybe just getting rid of that tape will help?) and ramsinks while I am at it. I would prefer passive just for noise considerations.

Any product suggestions?

TIA

Tony.

[WyWyWyWy]

Ramsinks (spreaders) don't help
I have the Twinmos 3200, and the ThermalTake copper heatspreader makes no difference to me... mmmkay it looks better than bare

As for Northbridge HS... the Zalman yellow one is said to be the best available, and cheap too. You can of course always cut 50x50 from an existing copper HS.

However, I think, you really need some more volt to the Northbridge to push it 200.

[Guru]

http://www.microcool.it/index1.asp?ris=1024&lin=in

[Fat Tone]

I use the Zalman on my Asus A7M266 to good effect, but I don't o/c that. I just found it at http://www.thecoolingshop.co.uk/tcs/home.asp for a measly £5.28 delivered so I'll give it a go again.

Guru - that looks like a beast!

Cheers

T.

[WyWyWyWy]

I just found it at http://www.thecoolingshop.co.uk/tcs/home.asp for a measly £5.28 delivered so I'll give it a go again.

Deliver free only on orders over 5quid ex VAT
Now buy some small stuff to build up 5 quid!

[Fat Tone]

Originally posted by WyWyWyWy
Deliver free only on orders over 5quid ex VAT
Now buy some small stuff to build up 5 quid!

I rang the guy and he waived the postage & small-order supplement as it was so close Encouraging repeat business I guess.

I did consider proper ramsinks (rather than spreaders) but that would cost lots as each pack only contains enough for one side of each DIMM and I have 2 DIMMs.

T.

[az]

Ramsinks or heatspreaders for your RAM don't do nothing for SD or DDR SDRAM. They are needed for RDRAM because of they way the chips are accessed there.

AZ

[Fat Tone]

Thanks az - I'm getting that message from a few places

I guess the concensus is that it is the chipset cooling that is the limitation. We'll see if I can hit 200 MHz stably tomorrow hopefully

T.

[Tjalfe]

that is probably where I am running into problems also. my board will run stable at 200MHz FSB for hours running Sandra burn in test.. when I start a 3D application though, the machine locked .. assuming from extra traffic to the AGP slot.

Asus A7N8X Deluxe, Athlon 2500+ at 2.08GHz ( when running 3D) or 2.3GHz when running 2D

Kasper



*/edit: typo

[RichL]

If you have an 8RDA+, you'll be a bit lucky to squeeze 200fsb out of it without a voltmod. My 8RGA+ does 200+ but only with Vdd at 1.8 or 2v.

As far as coolers go, the Vantex Iceburq is supposed to be pretty good (mines on back order).

Another highly recommended mod is to add heatsinks to the power mosfets and IC between the two rows of capacitors next to the ATX connector, and if you are going to voltmod the northbridge, theres a tiny IC near the Dimm sockets inline with the AGP card that IIRC has something to do with it.
That IC gets to 40 degrees C and someone I knew toasted his one running at 2v Vdd.

You can use ramsinks for these, or do what I did and spend ten minutes with a hacksaw and cut up one of the VGA Chipset heatsinks supplied with the Thermaltake ramsink pack.

My 8RGA+ struggled a bit to run 200fsb stably (especially running dual channel memory at the same fsb) but since the ramsinks were added it seems a lot more stable running Seti constantly

I just cracked the 2hr mark for a Seti WU, despite some cack Twinmos PC3700 and a stock Northbridge cooler

[rylan]

Yeah, adding heatsinks to the mosfet regulators can help stabilize things when you crank up the voltage. Nothing like a good fansink for the northbridge though to get some airflow to the components around there.
And yeah, memory heatspreaders don't do too much for DDR as they run fairly cool anyway. Rambus calls them "heatspreaders" but its actually more for shielding from EMI. lol

[az]

With Rambus they're actually heatspreaders, and needed, since due to the way Rambus is addressed, one chip may take all of the load of a module for a time and thus become quite hot. With DDR, accesses are spread more evenly across the entire module.

AZ