Chipset coolers, or northbridge
and southbridge coolers are increasingly becoming a popular upgrade for computer
enthusiasts. As chipsets are becoming increasingly powerful, their heat output
also increases. This is clearly an issue as you see motherboards are now
including larger and more sophisticated cooling solutions.
Overclocking requires increasing
the front side bus (FSB) speed on your motherboard. This increases the clock
frequency of the CPU, but also increase the clock frequency of your northbridge
and southbridge chipsets. A more powerful chipset cooler can increase system
stability allowing higher overclocking potential.
When overclocking is not your
main concern, many motherboards now come with loud, active chipset coolers.
Replacing the chipset cooler on your motherboard can drastically change the
overall noise output of your computer when building a quiet PC.
Chipset Cooler 
