Fanless motherboard for Athlon XP 2500 Barton?

Tronix · Post by **Tronix** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:47 am

I'm working on reducing the noise from my home pc's. One is mine and one is my wife's, our two desks sit side by side. (isn't that cute?

) I bought two Antec 3700BQE cases and moved my system into one of them. Epox 8KHA+, Athlon XP1800+, fanless video card. At the same time I installed a Thermalright SLK947U cooler and a 80mm Silencer fan. After the move the noise from this pc dropped at least 80%. Wow! What a difference. Temps right now are 29/43 during regular use.

The wife's pc is a different matter. It's a Micron that sounds like a jet plane and the mobo doesn't have the normal panel header connections on it. So much for moving it into the other Antec case. My plan now is to build a new system for me and give my wife my current system.

So now I'm looking for a new motherboard with no fans on it. This is not a gaming system, nor am I interested in overclocking. I might play with some undervolting but not if it's really quiet to begin with. I'll probably wind up with a Matrox G550 video card to run my 19" LCD with DVI. Onboard sound and LAN is fine w/ me. The Barton 2500 seems to be a good economical middle-of-the-road choice for a cpu and another SLK947U cooler and a 92mm Silencer should do the job.

Could you kind folks make some recommendations for me? There are so many choices I feel like I'm overwhelmed by them all.

Thanks!
Bruce

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:07 am

My Asus A7N8X Deluxe is fanless. Non-deluxe versions are most likely fanless too, but I don't have first hand experience with them.

I've choosen A7N8X-DX over Abit NF7-S (another very popular Nforce2 board) exactly for that reason: Asus is fanless, Abit is not.

wumpus · Post by **wumpus** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:33 am

Just remove the fan on the NB and replace it with one of the Zalman NB coolers. Voila. Makes every motherboard fanless, so you can pick on other, more important criteria.. like features.

This operation is very easy, particularly if you have the motherboard new in the box.

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 10:36 am

I'm with Wumpus. That's what I did.

Not only does the Zalman passive heat sink work great, it doesn't even get warm. If I were doing it again, I'd get the 32mm sink instead of the 47mm one. The 47mm one is fine but needless.

As far as motherboards go, Abit NF7-S or Abit AN7-S would be my preferences.

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 11:22 am

Tom Brown wrote:Not only does the Zalman passive heat sink work great, it doesn't even get warm.

You o/c your 2500+ to 2.4 GHz and it doesn't even get warm??

That's impressive. I read somewhere in the forums that the 875 (and I guess that implies 865 as well) gets pretty hot when running at 200 MHz FSB speed. Someone also mentioned that replacing the generic paste that came with it with some AS made it hotter, iirc.

What FSB / multiplier are you running it at? 12x / 200 MHz?

miker · Post by **miker** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 12:04 pm

I was under the impression that the fact that a HS does not get hot usually means it is not getting proper contact with the chip. The passive sink on my A7N8X (stock sink) gets pretty friggin hot even at 166, and I always take that as "Hey, its doing its job, getting the heat off the chip and into the sink". Although I suppose if you have a cool sink and a stable system, where's the harm?

Tom P · Post by **Tom P** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 1:18 pm

Somebody put together a matrix containing features of quite a few NForce2 motherboards, including whether they have a fan or not.
http://members.lycos.co.uk/surprise999/ ... atrix.html

Don't know whose page it is and looks like a work in progress, but is kind of interesting.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 1:39 pm

Elliot wrote:I've choosen A7N8X-DX over Abit NF7-S (another very popular Nforce2 board) exactly for that reason: Asus is fanless, Abit is not.

I was about to do the same but I picked the Asus because the CNPS7000A won't fit on the Abit (without some cutting and capacitor bending). Of course I could have gone with an ALX800/SLK900A w/ L1A as a CPU HSF but that would have doubled the price almost!

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 2:07 pm

Just pull the fan off the northbridge heatsink. It'll be fine.

I've did that to my old Abit KT7 board which has a TINY 0.5cm high heatsink on the northbridge. Never had a problem at PC default levels. Had the odd crash every month or two when the machine was massive overclocked and under alot of stress (3xHDDs, 3 CD drives, CPU 700mhz to 950mhz @ 1.775v, max max max everything else, all on an Aopen 300W psu)

I've also taken off the fan on the northbridge of my Gigabyte 7N400 Pro2 (nForce2 400 Ultra) board and its been fine. The heathsink is much bigger though. Running a Barton 2500+ (@ 3200+, 1.75v), mutiple drives etc

lenny · Post by **lenny** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 2:13 pm

chylld wrote:I was about to do the same but I picked the Asus because the CNPS7000A won't fit on the Abit (without some cutting and capacitor bending). Of course I could have gone with an ALX800/SLK900A w/ L1A as a CPU HSF but that would have doubled the price almost!

I realize you're in Australia, and prices are different. But I picked the Abit / SLK-900A over Asus / CNPS7000A-AlCu because of price.

The 900A and 7000A are roughly the same price. The difference in price between Abit and Asus would be more than enough to cover the Panaflo. Add to that SVC offering the 900A for $11 less than the 7000A with coupon code, and the decision from a price standpoint is clear.

Of course, having a box of different fans to play around with helped sway me towards the 900A too

hawkeye1 · Post by **hawkeye1** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 2:40 pm

FWIW, if you don't need all the bells and whistles of most nForce2 boards, the Gigabyte GA-7N400-L would be a great choice. You can get this puppy for under $80, and it's given me nothing but rock-solid performance, including overclocking. It's passively cooled, and according to MBM5 my board temps have never gone over 28 degrees centigrade.

Good luck in your search!

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 3:46 pm

lenny: that's true. Prices are so different at different places in the world that it can totally change what specs achieve the best cost/performance tradeoff.

For me, an A7N8X deluxe + 7000A = AUD250, which is a few dollars cheaper than an NF7-S + SLK900A + Panaflo. Undoubtedly it would be the other way around overseas

Also I chose the 7000A because of cooling performance when undervolted - I think that was covered in one of SPCR's recent articles. Also I can use this HSF on my next computer which will be A64-based

Tronix · Post by **Tronix** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:10 pm

Thanks for the great tips. I went ahead and ordered the Asus A7N8X Deluxe. Lots of great help in this forum!

Bruce

wsc · Post by **wsc** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:30 pm

Darn, looks like I'm too late. Just picked up an Abit NF7-s and plan on going with a zalman NB heatsink, undervolted 2100 or barton 2500 and ... well I don't know what HSF yet...

So my vote definitely would have been for NF7-s..

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:39 pm

When choosing my motherboard I never thought I'd have to take the HSF into consideration as well. So much for the NF7.. (as cheap as it is)

Also, here's that article comparing today's HSF's at 12, 7 and 5 volts.

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 11:33 am

lenny wrote:
Tom Brown wrote:Not only does the Zalman passive heat sink work great, it doesn't even get warm.
You o/c your 2500+ to 2.4 GHz and it doesn't even get warm?? That's impressive. I read somewhere in the forums that the 875 (and I guess that implies 865 as well) gets pretty hot when running at 200 MHz FSB speed. Someone also mentioned that replacing the generic paste that came with it with some AS made it hotter, iirc.

What FSB / multiplier are you running it at? 12x / 200 MHz?

That's right. It barely gets warm. The CPU, on the other hand, get's extremely hot. The OC seems to be limited by how hot I am prepared to live with.

Yes, that's the multiplier and speed I run. I'll have to back it off in the summer. Also, I run the L1A on the heat sink as fast as my Rheobus will let it go so I assume that's 11.5 volts. I guess it's time to update my sig.

My best friend tried several Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards. Every one had an extremely annoying buzz through the audio channels. With the speakers unplugged, he could even hear it physically from the board. He ended up getting his money back, switching to a Gigabyte GA-7N400-L, and never looking back.

I'm super happy with my NF7-S. It over clocks beautifully but it under clocks beautifully too. You can set the voltage to whatever you like, as opposed to most of the other boards that allow you to bump the voltages up but not down.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 1:33 pm

Tom Brown wrote:My best friend tried several Asus A7N8X Deluxe boards. Every one had an extremely annoying buzz through the audio channels. With the speakers unplugged, he could even hear it physically from the board. He ended up getting his money back, switching to a Gigabyte GA-7N400-L, and never looking back.

Could this be an isolated issue? I'm about to buy one and the above statement scares me a little especially since I'm going for a silentpc... however I've never heard of that problem before.

eeek

edit: perhaps it has something to do with an irregular / unconditioned power source?

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 2:40 pm

Tom,

Was your friend's MB rev 1.x or rev 2.0? Did he run it in 2 channel mode or multi-channel?

I haven't noticed any sound problems in my A7N8X-DX rev 2.0. I only use 2 channel mode.

chylld, don't panic just yet. Just to give you an idea... I read in another forum that Matrox G550 video card can cause sound problems in A7N8X. Since that was just one isolated claim, I bought G550 / A7N8X anyway. So far, so good.

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 3:06 pm

chylld wrote:edit: perhaps it has something to do with an irregular / unconditioned power source?

Yes, it's possible. They were all tried in the same Antec Sonata with stock power supply. The Gigabyte also uses the same PSU, though.

Elliot, I don't know which version he bought. It was a couple of months ago that he had this problem so it could easily be fixed by now.

As far as the physical buzzing goes, you had to strain to hear it. I just mentioned it because I thought it was weird. The audio channel buzzing was prominent. He was using the analog full range output.

A couple of guys on AMD Zone have mentioned what an excellent board the A7N8X is for home theater use. They may be using the SPDIF in/out, though.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Sat Nov 15, 2003 3:10 pm

Thanks for ur reply tom (and u too elliot) ... little scares like this have me running up the wall! heheh.

And I will be using the SPDIF in/out.

Seal · Post by **Seal** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 1:37 pm

Asus A7N8X Deluxe is the best to get, i have one myself and use it for silencing/watercooling and heavy overclocking too, its an amazing motherboard, reasonably cheap and has a whole ton of extra features.

For me it was a choce between the ABIT NF7-S and the ASUS, it was very close but i chose the ASUS in the end simply because it didnt have a northbridge fan.

Yes the northbridge gets very hot but it can cope with alot more heat then you think, i overclock very heavily and yet everything is 100% stable in my setup, which only has very little airflow around taht area. For me because im watercooled, theres no air that comes off the cpu heatink/fan that blows over the NB because i dont have a heatsink/fan, i use a waterblock!

Seal

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 2:01 pm

Heeheh

If I was to watercool my system, I'd be getting the Asetek Waterchill kit and the CPU waterblock that comes with that won't fit on an NF7-S. (capacitors in the way).

There's an alternate cpu waterblock "top" that will fit on the NF7-S that's provided with the kit overseas, but for some reason in Australia we don't get that alternate top. (according to what the resellers have told me)

Seal: it's interesting to hear you say that your northbridge gets very hot - Tom Brown (an SPCR forum member) reports that his XP2500 @ 2.4ghz doesn't make his northbridge hot at all.

IMO, I think he might need to check the contact between his NB and the NB HS. Either way, passive is adequate it seems

And gets rid of another annoying 40mm screamer

Seal · Post by **Seal** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 3:21 pm

chylld wrote:Seal: it's interesting to hear you say that your northbridge gets very hot - Tom Brown (an SPCR forum member) reports that his XP2500 @ 2.4ghz doesn't make his northbridge hot at all.

IMO, I think he might need to check the contact between his NB and the NB HS. Either way, passive is adequate it seems And gets rid of another annoying 40mm screamer

I just checked mine, i wouldnt say its HOT but its slightly hotter than warm... if you get what im saying... remember im very heavily overclocked too

When i got the motherboard straight away i took off the NB and put some proper thermal grease on it (arctic silver 3) for max cooling.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 3:28 pm

Yeah that was my plan of attack too, back when I had "decided" on the NF7-S... rip off the NB HSF (gently) and plonk on a Zalman NB47 (or whatever it's called) (or 32) (or whatever that's called)

So... Tronix, the 2 most popular choices would be an Abit NF7-S or an Asus A7N8X Deluxe (both revision 2). With the Abit you're going to have to replace the NB HSF with a passive one (e.g. Zalman), but it will probably end up cheaper than the Asus anyway.

The NF7 is apparently slightly more flexible when it comes to overclocking but neither is really lacking at all. The only critical difference IMO is the proximity of the Abit's capacitors to the socket which restricts your choice of CPU HSF. So do some (more?) research before you buy!

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 5:51 pm

chylld wrote:With the Abit you're going to have to replace the NB HSF with a passive one (e.g. Zalman), but it will probably end up cheaper than the Asus anyway.

Not so in my case. I couldn't source Abit + Zalman HS cheaper than Asus alone. YMMV.

chylld wrote:The only critical difference IMO is the proximity of the Abit's capacitors to the socket which restricts your choice of CPU HSF.

Asus too is not ideal in that regard. I installed SLK800U which Thermalright listed as fully compatible with A7N8X. I found that one capacitor was so close to the HS that I couldn't really make a call whether the two were touching each other. I bended the capacitor just in case.

chylld · Post by **chylld** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 6:00 pm

Elliot wrote:
chylld wrote:With the Abit you're going to have to replace the NB HSF with a passive one (e.g. Zalman), but it will probably end up cheaper than the Asus anyway.
Not so in my case. I couldn't source Abit + Zalman HS cheaper than Asus alone. YMMV.

FYI: In Australia the NF7 + Zalman NB47 can be had for 160-165. The Asus alone costs 195-200.

Elliot wrote:
chylld wrote:The only critical difference IMO is the proximity of the Abit's capacitors to the socket which restricts your choice of CPU HSF.
Asus too is not ideal in that regard. I installed SLK800U which Thermalright listed as fully compatible with A7N8X. I found that one capacitor was so close to the HS that I couldn't really make a call whether the two were touching each other. I bended the capacitor just in case.

Yeh the thermalright hs' design differs significantly from the zalman's. Possibly the thermalright is more suited to the abit, and the zalman is more suited to the asus?

Either way, the trouble of having the heatsink really close to a capacitor pales in comparison to having to cut off part of the heatsink and bend some capacitors!

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Sun Nov 16, 2003 11:45 pm

The Zalman northbridge coolers both go for less than 10 bucks Canadian so I wouldn't imagine they are a big deal.

Perhaps a bigger deal for home theater users will be the lack of SPDIF in on the NF7-S. The NF7-S has optical output only. The AN7-S, on the otherhand, has both.

-- Tom

Elliot · Post by **Elliot** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 9:34 am

Tom,

An off-topic question: have you tried to run your oc-ed 2500+ through Prime95 torture test?

I tried to oc my 2500+ this weekend, while I'm still waiting for some quiet parts to arrive. With CPU at 11 x 200 and stock voltage, the system boots and appears to be stable. However, Prime95 test fails right away.

Tom Brown · Post by **Tom Brown** » Mon Nov 17, 2003 11:11 pm

Elliot wrote:Tom,

An off-topic question: have you tried to run your oc-ed 2500+ through Prime95 torture test?

I tried to oc my 2500+ this weekend, while I'm still waiting for some quiet parts to arrive. With CPU at 11 x 200 and stock voltage, the system boots and appears to be stable. However, Prime95 test fails right away.

I would turn the core voltage up to 1.7v and if it's still not stable, try 1.725. I run mine at 1.725.

I haven't run Prime95 but I run the UD agent on one of my systems 24/7. It crunches away on Cancer Research phase II work units. That system has been at 100% CPU usage since I built the system. The temps are pretty stable at 49C at 2.2 GHz and 54C at 2.4GHz.

My server, also in a Sonata with the identical system components, runs around 41C max (when the ambient room temp is 23C) but that system averages 0% CPU utilization. Running an ACPI aware kernel helps a tremendous amount in keeping the system temps down.

-- Tom