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What is a southbridge?

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What would be the southbridge on this motherboard?

asus-m4a89gtd-prousb3.jpg

 

The chip at the bottom, with Asus on it. (Blue one, bottom right)

 

EDIT: The one with hybrid technology on it is your northbridge.

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3 years ago my PC RIP'ed and since it is a pre built, I was able to go back to the store and they fixed it for me.

Turned out the southbridge was broken.

The report said (i just found it 2 days ago and read it) that the southbirdge was very hot when the PC was turned on.

What is a southbridge??

"We're all in this together, might as well be friends" Tom, Toonami.

 

mini eLiXiVy: my open source 65% mechanical PCB, a build log, PCB anatomy and discussing open source licenses: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1366493-elixivy-a-65-mechanical-keyboard-build-log-pcb-anatomy-and-how-i-open-sourced-this-project/

 

mini_cardboard: a 4% keyboard build log and how keyboards work: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1328547-mini_cardboard-a-4-keyboard-build-log-and-how-keyboards-work/

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The southbridge is one of the two chips in the core logic chipset on a personal computer (PC) motherboard, the other being the northbridge.

 

 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southbridge_%28computing%29

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Actually he meants the chipset, but specifically the southbridge connects low speed lanes to the CPU such as USB

AMD 860K @ 4.3GHz ; Kingston HyperX Fury 2400MHz ; Asus A88XM-Plus ; Sapphire R9 270X 2GB ; 600W Tacens Radix VII AG 80+Silver  ; Cooler Master TX3 Evo

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3 years ago my PC RIP'ed and since it is a pre built, I was able to go back to the store and they fixed it for me.

Turned out the southbridge was broken.

The report said (i just found it 2 days ago and read it) that the southbirdge was very hot when the PC was turned on.

What is a southbridge??

 

Southbridge is the chipset or controller that manages the I/O ports on your PC, sata, BIOS and some other things depending on the board. Usually there is a heatsink on it to keep it cool with incidental airflow. 

 

I believe it's not call the southbridge anymore but I still call it that to this day.

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-snip-

-snip-

-snip-

-snip-

What would be the southbridge on this motherboard?

asus-m4a89gtd-prousb3.jpg

"We're all in this together, might as well be friends" Tom, Toonami.

 

mini eLiXiVy: my open source 65% mechanical PCB, a build log, PCB anatomy and discussing open source licenses: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1366493-elixivy-a-65-mechanical-keyboard-build-log-pcb-anatomy-and-how-i-open-sourced-this-project/

 

mini_cardboard: a 4% keyboard build log and how keyboards work: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1328547-mini_cardboard-a-4-keyboard-build-log-and-how-keyboards-work/

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Posted

Southbridge is the chipset or controller that manages the I/O ports on your PC, sata, BIOS and some other things depending on the board. Usually there is a heatsink on it to keep it cool with incidental airflow. 

 

I believe it's not call the southbridge anymore but I still call it that to this day.

In the past you have a chipset along with another controller that handles the rest of the functions like usb ports, i/o, etc. The chipset is always placed on the northern part of the board and the other chipset on the southern part. So northbridge and southbridge. Right now the chipset is at the southern part as most of the functions are built in, so instead of southbridge to prevent confusion, it's just called PCH.

 

 

 

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A southbridge is a chip that handles all low bandwidth communication like USB ports, Firewire, and PCIe 2.0 x1(and maybe x4) slots. It's no longer the southbridge on Intel based motherboards, but was at a time.

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

"I didn't die! I performed a tactical reset!" - Apollolol

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The small blue Asus heatsink is the southbridge

The chip at the bottom, with Asus on it. (Blue one, bottom right)

 

EDIT: The one with hybrid technology on it is your northbridge.

Thanks guys, appreciate the quick replies.

 

 

A southbridge is a chip that handles all low bandwidth communication like USB ports, Firewire, and PCIe 2.0 x1(and maybe x4) slots. It's no longer the southbridge on Intel based motherboards, but was at a time.

Yeah, I'm still on AM3 :(

"We're all in this together, might as well be friends" Tom, Toonami.

 

mini eLiXiVy: my open source 65% mechanical PCB, a build log, PCB anatomy and discussing open source licenses: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1366493-elixivy-a-65-mechanical-keyboard-build-log-pcb-anatomy-and-how-i-open-sourced-this-project/

 

mini_cardboard: a 4% keyboard build log and how keyboards work: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1328547-mini_cardboard-a-4-keyboard-build-log-and-how-keyboards-work/

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The small blue Asus heatsink is the southbridge

Well, the chip underneath the heat sink is the southbridge.

"It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brain falls out." - Carl Sagan.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you" - Edward I. Koch

"I didn't die! I performed a tactical reset!" - Apollolol

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Well, the chip underneath the heat sink is the southbridge.

And it's the small one, the big one are VRMs

AMD 860K @ 4.3GHz ; Kingston HyperX Fury 2400MHz ; Asus A88XM-Plus ; Sapphire R9 270X 2GB ; 600W Tacens Radix VII AG 80+Silver  ; Cooler Master TX3 Evo

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