Thermalright NB-1C Review

The first thing people think about when upgrading cooling inside of their case is usually the CPU heatsink. The CPU does give off a lot of heat and needs to be cooled, but so do other components. The chipset is an important motherboard component that also gives off a considerable amount of heat. Most motherboard manufacturers get away with passive heatsinks, and this can work adequately for normal operations. Enthusiasts who are looking for maximum FSB will most likely upgrade the cooling on their motherboard's chipset because it is the memory controller. This holds true for all modern CPUs except for the Athlon 64 which incorporates the memory controller into the CPU itself. Sometimes, but not always, better Northbridge cooling can lead to higher FSB gains when overclocking. If for nothing else, it can rule out the possibility of the chipset being damaged from excessive heat.

Thermalright is well known for their excellent SLK line of copper CPU heatsinks. Recently, Thermalright introduced their first northbridge heatsink, the NB-1. It is made of aluminum and comes with a very low price tag. Since then, enthusiasts have asked for a "mini-SLK" to match their SLK series CPU heatsinks. Thermalright has answered with one of their latest products, the NB-1C, an all copper version of the NB-1.