[Krow]

So as you may or may not know, the northbridge on the 890FX (AM3) Northbridge get pretty toasty. And for those of us with early versions of the Crosshair IV Formula, it gets hot enough to sometimes shut itself down because ASUS really had to take a piss and got really distracted with what they were doing, and they didn't seat the heatsink properly.

At idle it sits around 45ºC with 2x40mm fans blowing directly on the heatsink. At ambient of 22ºC. When gaming it can go to 50ºC (which is still OK but it's gotten to 60ºC when trying to push the CPU to 4.5GHz)

I'm wondering if it would be possible to Direct Die a TEC on the NB and SB (just hypothetical because the SB is really crammed in tight) I did a little reading on Wikipedia, saying the TDP of the NB is about 20W so the heat being moved is definitely possible, but I'm wondering if condensation could get underneath the chip and wreak havoc, or is it air tight under there, as it is directly fastened to the board.

EDIT: This is all just hypothetical and really isn't practical. But if you feel like answering, please do.

 

[Kal777]

it would work, but youd want to stay above ambient to make sure no condensation collected. but really there is far better solutions like after market cooling. youd be better off using 2 chipset waterblocks and a mosfet block to water cool the board.

you could always pack artists eraser around the die too so that it is insulated

 

[Demonkev666]

make sure actually making contact.
sometimes they come lose.
it connected to the PWM with a heatpipe ?
my Asus M4A89TD Nb was also hot but it was coming for the pwm mostly.
adding a small fan solved that and the NB is now only 2-5C above ambient room temps.

 

[Ultrasonic2 (muffy)]

i have a 890fxa-ud7 . which comes with W/C so im all good

could you not remove part of the NB heat sink but leave the heat pipes to the Vrgs and SB and just TEC cool the NB. then it will transfer the heat to the other stuff

basically pretty much like the ud7

 

[DuckieHo]

60ºC really isn't that hot for a chipset.

 

[Krow]

60ºC is just a little uncomfortable for me. 80ºC is when I get extremely paranoid. I also agree there's better aftermarket, I'm just exploring the options. A waterchiller for NB/SB/Mosfets is the best idea probably, that way you could use an existing waterblock, instead of doing individual placement.

I'm just worried there would be a small amount of space underneath the chip where Condensation could form if the space isn't voided with Dialectric Gel or something similar. Or would that be defeated by insulating behind the chip (assuming I went the direct die route)

 

[Ultrasonic2 (muffy)]

on my last crazy W/C everything board i put die grease to prevent water getting under it . it was a good idea since i had condensation issues