A chipset heat sink is used to cool and protect the Northbridge chip on a computer’s motherboard, which controls the overall speed of the CPU. It may be needed in newer computers or by those overclocking their CPU, and can be smaller than a CPU heat sink.
A chipset heat sink is a device installed inside a computer that is intended to keep part of the chipset on a computer’s motherboard cool and protect it from damage from overheating. These devices are usually installed on the Northbridge chip on the motherboard, although this can vary depending on how the motherboard is made and the chipset used. A chipset heat sink may be needed in newer computers with more powerful motherboards and processors, or by someone who has overclocked the Northbridge chip on their motherboard to be able to further overclock their central processing unit (CPU) or graphics card .
The northbridge on a computer motherboard is a chip that handles some basic computer functions such as forwarding information from the southbridge to the CPU and communicating with the graphics card and memory. On a computer motherboard, the northbridge and southbridge make up the basic logic chipset that works with the CPU to effectively run processes while the computer is running. Some powerful computers may require a chipset heat sink to keep the north bridge from overheating, and there are several types of heat sinks available.
Similar to the types of heat sinks used on a CPU, a chipset heat sink can be much smaller to accommodate the space already used up inside a computer tower by other devices. The heat sink usually works by installing it on the motherboard so that a flat surface on the heat sink is in contact with the chip to be cooled. Cooling occurs through heat transfer as heat from the chip moves into the heat sink, then heat is transferred from the heat sink through a water cooling system or air moving around the heat sink. In a computer where the northbridge and southbridge are one die on the motherboard, a chipset heat sink can cool both chips.
A chipset heat sink will commonly be used primarily on the Northbridge chip, however, as it is more likely to be overclocked or run hot on newer computers. The Northbridge tends to control the overall speed of the CPU and thus the computer. Someone trying to overclock their CPU may not be able to achieve the speeds they want due to the clock speed of the Northbridge chip.
This means that the person would probably want to overclock the northbridge so the CPU can be overclocked further. Since this could present risks to the northbridge, a chipset heat sink is likely to be used to ensure that the northbridge chip is not damaged by overheating. Newer computers may often require a chipset heat sink as well, as the chipset’s standard running speed may be sufficient to require dedicated cooling.
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