Related Articles

Introduction

When the subject of cooling comes up, some familiar names tend to get rattled off, Swiftech, Thermaltake, Thermalright and Koolance are a few that come to mind. Today we take a look a product that is not from any of the companies listed above but from a small outfit based out of Rome called Microcool. Microcool does not compete in the same arena as the big boys listed above but they focus on a very specific niche of the hardcore market, motherboard and chipset cooling. We specifically look at Microcool's NorthPole as well as some of their ChipSinks.

The NorthPole

The Northpole is a clever name for a Northbridge cooler. Granted, most of you do not need to cool your northbridge as the stock solution is sufficient in most cases but the NorthPole is not meant for the average user but for the extreme overclocking. Niche market remember? The NorthPole is a solid copper solution with a small 8500 RPM fan. The NorthPole kit also includes a set of eight adhesive aluminum mosfet coolers.

The construction quality is very good; the copper heatsink is surrounded by an anodized aluminum casing which also serves to hold the fan in place. The heatsink itself is weight at 195 grams. As a point of reference, the Gigabyet PCU21-VG is 430 grams and the volume of that cooler is roughly 6x as large as the NorthPole. The contact area with the Northbridge is a bit on the rough side and may require a lot of thermal paste as there were small ridges that could be felt by running my thumb along the surface. A good lapping job would probably benefit the NorthPole.

Installation of the NorthPole is fairly straight-forward. The default Northbridge cooler is removed and risers not unlike those that raise a motherboard away from the case chassis are fastened onto the motherboard. Screws are inserted through the top of the NorthPole and are screwed down onto the risers. Most Northbridges are attached with mounting holes but for those boards that use hooks like the AK79D-400Max and the AX4C for mounting, then the additional purchase of a Hook Adapter kit is required.

Image courtesy of Microcool