How to silent northbridge?

Heartless_King

Heartless_King

Heartless_King

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Hey guys,

I'm in need of advice for silencing my noisy northbridge on my K8N Neo4. The tall passive ones are not an option as they will cause too much conflict with the graphics card.

I've noticed the vantec Iceberq solutions, I was wondering if it would make any difference? As they look essentially the same fan as the standard one on my neo4?

Northbridge is like the only noisy thing left in my case, would be a dream if i could reduce the noise, it would make it possible for me to leave the computer on over night while I sleep in the same room.

Does anyone know any stats on the standard fan? e.g. cfm / db? Would be great to be make a comparison with vantec.

Thanks,
-King :)
 
If you want it quiet you need to go passive or watercooled, I think the Vantec ones are for performance and as such are not more quiet than the stock one.
 
Cheers dutch,

Only option at the moment is a zalmon. I saw once a guy on these forums which bent the fins on the passive cooler to fit around his graphics card. How does this effect the cooling task on the cooler itself?

Thanks,
-King :)
 
Bending the fins will not affect the cooling too much I think, but you have to remember that a passive cooler will not keep the northbridge as cool as an active one so could lead to instability if you are overclocking or have a high ambient temperature, the active HSF is on your mobo for a reason.
 
My mate has the K8N neo 4 platinum, and is soon to replace the Northbridge fan with the Zalman heatsink. Its going to require some of the pins to be removed or bent, but hopefully this shouldn't affect the cooling too much. Ive got the K8N neo 4 Diamond, and while the Northbridge fan on mine isn't too loud, im still considering replacing it with the the Zalman heatsink. The fan that was loud on mine was the upright one that cools the mosfets(Don't think you have one on the Platinum). In the end I simply unplugged it, with no adverse affects at all.
 
I've found a that theres a newer version of the zalman heatsink (ZM-NB32K), it seems to be lower in height and copper based. I was wondering if you could perhaps keep me up-to-date with the transformation?

Through the winter i'm getting sys temps of top end 30s. Through summer low 40s. Is this too hot for passive? Thanks,

-King :)
 
Just noticed that akasa do the AK-210 Blue LED Chipset Cooler. Claims to be only 20db.When comparing that to 20db case fans I've had in the past, this would be a lot more qiueter than the standard chipset cooler.

Is this cooler recommended? Would it fit my K8N Neo4?

Cheers,
-King :)
 
The fact that the ZM-NB32K is copper would presumably help the performance, but if pins need to be bent or removed anyway, i'd rather the heatsink be as tall as possible to maximise the surface area.
 
Heartless_King said:
Just noticed that akasa do the AK-210 Blue LED Chipset Cooler. Claims to be only 20db.When comparing that to 20db case fans I've had in the past, this would be a lot more qiueter than the standard chipset cooler.

Is this cooler recommended? Would it fit my K8N Neo4?

Cheers,
-King :)
Click to expand...


Im not 100% sure, but that looks too tall for your mobo. The excisting NB fan is integrated into the heatsink, so the total height is little more than the AK-210 heatsink without the fan on top
 
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messiah khan said:
The fact that the ZM-NB32K is copper would presumably help the performance
Click to expand...
Copper is better at absorbing the heat but aluminium is better at dissapating it, I think aluminium works better with low airflow but obviously Zalman know more than me :p
 
nightwish said:
Noooooooo....!!!!! :eek: :p :D Not another one who thinks this! Any references to thermodynamics?! specific heat capacity?! Experimental data?! No?

Check out Myth #2:

http://www.procooling.com/index.php?func=articles&disp=71&pg=1

I'd better go and lie down... :p
Click to expand...
E-mail to Mythbusters is sent ;)

What about this one:
The difference between copper and aluminium is greater with higher airflow
 
Dutch Guy said:
What about this one:
The difference between copper and aluminium is greater with higher airflow
Click to expand...

Not even sure about that tbh - it may be right, in a sense, but it's got more to do with the fact that copper is just plain better at heat transfer than aluminium is.

"However, if two heatsinks are of identical size and construction then the copper unit will perform better."

In terms of computer heatsinks, the difference may even be slightly less with higher airflow, due to the fact that aluminium is lighter and so you can make bigger heatsinks with more surface area than a copper heatsink. This means more air can travel over the hs so that a greater velocity of air over the hs will result in a proportionaly much larger total movement of air over the heatsink in a given time than in the case of a copper heatsink.

(I may have made that bit up, but it makes sense to me!)

Sorry about going off the deep end before btw. Must remember to take my medication! :o ;)


Edit: I'm not sure that's actually very clear. Think of it like this:

You have two heatsinks, one made from copper, the other from aluminium. They are very similar in design, but the aluminium one has twice the surface area of fins.

Now, if you also double the airflow over each heatsink, the total amount of air in a given time, passing over the copper heatsink will have doubled. However, in the same time, the air passing over the aluminium one will also have doubled, making the *total amount of air* passing over the aluminium hs, *4 times* the amount of air flowing over the copper heatsink, due to double the surface area of fins *and* double the airflow.
 
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Erm...copper being better than alluminium is irrelevent as all the Zalman northbridge coolers are alluminium. Just anodized diferent colours.
 
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encephalopathy said:
http://img410.imageshack.us/my.php?image=asrock0020iz.jpg

20mins with pliers an a file to remove 2 rows so it fits below graphics card and cools the asrock mobo southbridge
works a treat and solved the heat problem i was having affecting the sata ports beside the southbridge
Click to expand...

i've taken off a lot more pins than that on mine - i have my graphics card going right through the middle of the heatsink so had to remove the central 3 rows and bend the rest out of the way - works fine, especially as the zalman fan on my graphics card blows over the chipset heatsink now (without this the chipset was a lot hotter to the touch but was still fine - no stability problems)
 
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