New northbridge fan

ugly ferret · 27 Sep 2006 at 16:11

I just found out that the annoying humming noise coming from my pc was my northbridge fan, so I've decided to bin it. Now as you can see here, my motherboard has a stupid layout where a big northbridge fan or heatsink will get in the way of at least one of or both pcie slots so I think that zalman one everyone likes might be out of the question. So I need a small one, with a fan or passive, any reccomendations?

But I also run very a high fsb, something like 323mhz on a nforce4 ultra chipset. Will passive cooling be up to the job? I have a powerful 92mm fan about 5 inches away that will be blowing air over it. Will that be enough to get rid of the fan?

Cheers.

Messiah Khan · 27 Sep 2006 at 16:24

Thats not a stupid mobo layout, thats what most Nfroce4 boards have, including my MSI K8N Diamond. The good news is, yes you can use the Zalman that everyone likes. What you have to do though, ir remove 3-4 pins off the heatsink so that the GPU actually site through the heatsink. Thats what ive done and it works fine. I run my HTT at 310 mhz or so.

ugly ferret · 27 Sep 2006 at 17:12

Thanks, what I meant by stupid is that I think they could've placed the pcie slots differently. Anyway, how easy is it to break the pins off? Is it just a case of snapping them off or do I need to get my DIY kit out?

dokko · 27 Sep 2006 at 17:29

Will the asaka NB fan not fit under the GFX card?

But the Zalman has no fan at all. I hear there easy enough to snap off.

I have the same problem with my MOBO, how on earth these manufactuers allow such idiotic design flaws get through i do not know.

ugly ferret · 27 Sep 2006 at 17:44

Yeah the 10mm wide one will, not sure about the 20mm one. Also the 5000rpm motor sounds like it not be silent. I might still buy it anyway as it's so cheap.

dokko · 27 Sep 2006 at 18:10

ugly ferret said:
Yeah the 10mm wide one will, not sure about the 20mm one. Also the 5000rpm motor sounds like it not be silent. I might still buy it anyway as it's so cheap.

Akasa AK-210 Blue LED Chipset Cooler (HS-026-AK)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Akasa_System_Coolers.html

Only 20dBA. doesn't sound too noisy.

ugly ferret · 28 Sep 2006 at 19:15

Ok I got the zalman but I don't know how to remove the stock dfi fan. Does any one know? I got the fan off but the mini heatsink is still there, I can't see any way of rmoving it. :confused:

BTW, they say 20 dB but those figures are often wrong. The 5000rpm figure scared the hell out of me. :eek:

Rab · 28 Sep 2006 at 20:12

ugly ferret said:
Ok I got the zalman but I don't know how to remove the stock dfi fan. Does any one know

here a video how 2 do it, grt info & not as hard as u would think

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52950

Messiah Khan · 28 Sep 2006 at 23:06

ugly ferret said:
Anyway, how easy is it to break the pins off? Is it just a case of snapping them off or do I need to get my DIY kit out?

Dead easy. Simply get a pair of thin pliers and grab hold of one of the pins and wiggle it from side to side until it becomes weak from metal fatigue and then it will snap off easily. I had to remove 3 pins in total. Just make sure you work out which ones you need to remmove before you attack it with pliers

ugly ferret · 29 Sep 2006 at 16:31

Thanks, I think I'll leave it for the moment. Instead I just removed the fan and left the mini stock heatsink and the temps seems exactly the same lol. Must be the 92mm fan a few inches away that's keeping it cool.