Abit AL8 - Northbridge fan noisy - how to remove ?

The fan is mounted on the heatsink by 4 small screws. The heatsink is held on by expansion clips. Pull the motherboard and turn it over. You will see two small clips. Squeeze these together with needle-nozed pliers while pulling the top of the pin and the clip will pop through the motherboard. Don't use the heatsink to waggle the clips out as you risk chipping the Northbridge core. Once the clips are free GENTLY pull the northbridge heatsink off (it's much easier if the heatsink is hot) and clean away any thermal pad that is left. Use AS5 when re-seating whatever aftermarket cooler you decide to fit.

Replacing the stock 40mm fan with one of these is a good start to quieten the system down without too much risk.
 
thanks

looks like its the hardway then :)

Q) Do you think it would run safely without a fan ?

I have a XP-120 Heatsink on my cpu with a 120mm fan blowing down
so i'm thinking maybe that will help keep it cool anyway ?

THANKS
 
I used to run half a dozen AL-8's in my old test-suite and they are brilliant motherboards, but that Northbridge runs REALLY warm, even with the fan running. By all means try it though - set the NB temperature alarm to shut down quite low and give it a shot. It's not a very big heatsink - you might be better to replace it with a Noctua or Thermalright HR-05 type if you want to run passive.
 
good info again

any tips on using the guru software to show nb temp

its more into cpu , and 2 others

i need a month before i have time to take the board apart

tell you what - last nb fan board i get though
 
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