HardwareHell

Introduction:

Product: Enzotech CNB-R1 Northbridge Heatsink

Manufacturer: Enzotech

Market: PC Enthusiasts and Overclockers

Cost: $19.99

Reviewed By: Walter Jane

Enzotech has been around for many years manufacturing heatsinks for computer cooling applications. They recently launched a series of products for northbridge heatsinks that can also be used on southbridge (if motherboard allows). Enzotech uses the process of forging with copper alloy 1100 in order to make all of their northbridge heatsinks.

The heatsink is perfectly flat on the base and comes polished to a mirror shine. The pins also come with an excellent finish on them as well. Enzotech takes pride in the quality of their products. The heatsink comes with mounts to fit a variety of motherboards. Unfortunately, it will not fit all motherboards. You need to verify that it will work on your particular motherboard. It will also fit the Intel chipsets that use the hooks. If you own one of these motherboards you know how much of a pain it is to install one of these heat sinks on the chipset.

Enzotech includes a rubber shim to install on the bottom of the heatsink to ensure that you won’t crush the core of your chipset or crack any of the corners off. They also provide a full tube of Artic Silver Ceramique which is great for use on north bridges and as well as gpus because it’s non conductive.

Test Setup: CPU: Pentium 4 650 Prescott Motherboard: DFI Infinity 965 Dark RAM: GEIL PC2–9600 PSU: BFG 650 watt OS: Windows Vista Ultimate

Testing was done in an air conditioned environment kept at 20C. Ambient temperature was taken by a calibrated UEI DT150 Digital Thermometer with a K Probe. Northbridge temperatures were read by the Smart Guardian software that came with the motherboard.

The stock chipset cooler under was giving temperatures around 41–43C under idle and load conditions. Even with the stock thermal paste replaced with Ceramique it still stayed in same range. The Enzotech dramatically reduced temperatures. The 965 isn’t known as a super hot chipset like 975× and 680i but it still does get warm. This cooler will be able to cool down those as well.

I was really surprised at how well the heatsink worked. With the Enzotech on it the northbridge idled at 26C and the load temperatures were 29C. It lowered the temps under load 12–14C without a fan blowing over it. I am sure that a fan blowing across it would reduce temperatures even more. The one issue I did have was the mounting on boards that have the hooks and loops. It does make it semi hard to mount. The other mounting options are make it a snap to install. Although it won’t fit all motherboards it should fit most. The finish on the base also impressed me. You might not be able to tell from the photos but the base is perfect.

Conclusion: In conclusion this was definitely the best 20 dollars I have ever spent on a computer. I give it 9 out of 10 only because of how hard it might be to mount. Enzotech definitely has a top quality product at a great price. They also have many other solutions such as low profile for southbridge as well. They have also started a line of water blocks. I can’t wait to test the rest of their products.