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roblogic1

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 2, 2014
35
0
Hi

I have this Mac pro with the X5690 CPU upgraded and I wonder if the readings of the temperature are normal. They seem very high to me!.

Northbridge Chip 107-115 ºC
IOH Heatsink 96 ºC

The BOOSTA reads 0 in red (So it seems broken).

Any feedback will be highly appreciated.
 
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dmylrea

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2005
4,797
6,844
Hi

I have this Mac pro with the 3369 CPU upgraded and I wonder if the readings of the temperature are normal. They seem very high to me!.

Northbridge Chip 107-115 ºC
IOH Heatsink 96 ºC

The BOOSTA reads 0 in red (So it seems broken).

Any feedback will be highly appreciated.

What the heck is a "3369"?
 

davidlv

macrumors 68020
Apr 5, 2009
2,291
874
Kyoto, Japan
Hi

I have this Mac pro with the 3369 CPU upgraded and I wonder if the readings of the temperature are normal. They seem very high to me!.

Northbridge Chip 107-115 ºC
IOH Heatsink 96 ºC

The BOOSTA reads 0 in red (So it seems broken).

Any feedback will be highly appreciated.
You may want to read about issues related to the Northbridge Heatsink retainers in several articles available at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/
(scroll down). My 2009 MP shows 72 ºC for the NB chip under a normal load.
 
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roblogic1

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 2, 2014
35
0
You may want to read about issues related to the Northbridge Heatsink retainers in several articles available at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/
(scroll down). My 2009 MP shows 72 ºC for the NB chip under a normal load.

Thanks very useful info!

What it does not say is the normal temperature at which NorthBridge chip should operate. Is there any risk if I leave them running at 90 - 115 ºC ?
 

benjaprud

macrumors member
Apr 9, 2015
92
24
Mine has been recently cleaned and operates at 59°C northbridge and 48°C heatsink under load (doesn't vary much with load though). I guess dual-cpu might run a bit hotter. Sometime ago the temps used to climb around 80°C causing the CPU booster fan to run constantly at 1000-1100 RPM (well I guess it was the cause). Cleaning the whole CPU tray did the trick for me (it had never been done for 4 years) but some had issues with the northbridge heatsink plastic retainers that can break over time as described in the link. If you get no reading from the CPU booster fan you might want to check if it's working as well and properly seated following the CPU upgrade (the one that's inside the CPU heatsink, I don't know how this translates on a dual-cpu, are there two readings like BoostA and BoostB ?).

In general chips don't like to operate much higher than 90°C as it increases the chances of failure/malfunction. Most manufacturers seem to design their systems so that the chips temps does not exceed 83-85°C. Most chips are designed to operate at 105-115°C maximum. It seems your northbridge is right on the edge and I wouldn't recommend leaving it as is.
 
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mikeboss

macrumors 68000
Aug 13, 2009
1,517
790
switzerland
Is there any risk if I leave them running at 90 - 115 ºC ?

I predict that OS X will start to crash at some point because the northbridge will become unstable if running at these temperatures. I wouldn't want to run my machine with a broken BOOSTA fan...
 
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h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,614
8,546
Hong Kong
Mine has been recently cleaned and operates at 46°C northbridge and 59°C heatsink under load (doesn't vary much with load though).

May be you read the wrong number. The northbridge can only be hotter than the heatsink. If the northbridge heatsink is at 59C, the northbridge chip should be around 70C.
 

benjaprud

macrumors member
Apr 9, 2015
92
24
Yeah sorry I missed a line in MenuMeters it was 59°C northbridge and 48°C heatsink (46° was the PSU), now up a few degrees after 3 hours of gaming (63°/51°).
 
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