nForce4 chipset fan on the new Asus A8N - too loud?

as530 · Post by **as530** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 5:32 pm

Hi all

I am about to build a nForce4 setup. I read this review of Asus' SLi mobo implementation of NF4:

http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=98 ... pert&pid=2

and in this larger picture you can see the chipset fan clearly:
http://www.pcper.com/image.php?aid=98&img=board_big.jpg

and on this page it points out that the chipset fan is running at some 8,000 RPM:
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=98 ... pert&pid=7

Does anybody know whether this is likely to be loud?

Somewhere in that review it also says that the chipset heatsink & fan could do with being larger; this worries me slightly.

Any thoughts / comments?

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:10 pm

There's a great thread on AnandTech forum called "Official ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe (nForce4) Thread". Take a look...
It may be really useful.

I'm sure 8000RPM is overkill, even if that chipset runs very hot! 8035RPM and a motherboard temperature of 37 degrees only???? I'm sure it's possible to replace the chipset heatsink and fan... I know Asus have a bad habit of reporting wrong temperatures and RPMs. Sometimes, you get a different story just by flashing the BIOS!

Hopefully, I have a NForce3 board (Asus K8N-E Deluxe) so I don't have to bother about the chipset fan!

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 7:47 pm

8000rpm!? I thought only delta fans went that fast. I'd say it definitly would be loud.

cansan · Post by **cansan** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 7:59 pm

It would definitely be loud, but whats more worrying is that microscopic little fans don't do well over time. I have seen lots of little fans that deteriorate over time.

I think it *might* be possible to put in a passive heatsink on there. Of course it depends on the video card you are going to be using. If you don't mind getting your hands dirty, you could maybe cut one down to size between the two videocards.

as530 · Post by **as530** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 2:56 am

well, i'm not going to be using 2 video cards

only reason i'm getting an SLi version is because it's coming out before all the NF4 Ultra boards. is this unwise? Are there any advantages to NF4 Ultra over NF4 SLi?

Somebody mentioned replacing Asus' own chipset cooling solution with a passive heatsink, and i think in the thread which the first reply points to at Anandtech, people have replaced it with blocks for their water cooling systems. However, I'd be happy to replace it with just a larger and more decent heatsink & fan, if it'd fit.

Any ideas on which HS / fan I could buy for it, for this mobo? (already have arctic silver 5)

Slaugh · Post by **Slaugh** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 3:45 am

This fan is pretty small and looks annoying... Here's a closeup picture of the heatsink and fan:

Maybe you can use a Zalman ZM-NB47J on the chipset. But if there's enough room, a Thermalright NB-1C whould be better... I think the best way to know it is to put another heatsink and start monitoring temperatures... or wait for new passive cooling solutions from Zalman and the like...

as530 · Post by **as530** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:08 am

yeah it does look pretty annoyingly-positioned - i.e. if you want to replace it with a larger HS & fan, you might get in the way of your PCIe graphics card.

i mean, to what extent do you think, other than noise, the chipset cooling would need replacing? In other words, I'm thinking, if i can live with the noise (which isn't too high, according to anandtech forum posters) then surely Asus would have made an adequate cooling solution for the NF4 chip? it's not going to be dangerous or reduce the lifespan of the mobo is it?

fyfe · Post by **fyfe** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 12:29 pm

I got my board this morning and I have to say the chipset fan is louder than the standard cpu fan, the 2 120mm fans that came with my thermaltake tsunami and the fan on my 6800GT put together. I'm planning on replacing it but I don't what to replace it with yet. The only alternatives I've seen is the zalman fanless heatsink and the thermalright NB-1

as530 · Post by **as530** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 2:14 pm

oh dear. noisy chipset fan = annoying; noisy chipset fan in location where difficult to replace = very annoying.

perhaps i should wait for the Gigabyte K8NXP-9 instead? any experience of the fan on that mobo?

also, is chipset temperature easy to monitor - does mobo software usually measure it?

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 12:49 am

Another option is to do what I'm doing - wait for the Asus A8N-E Premium, which is slightly more expensive but has passive chipset cooling (amongst other extras).
You won't find it on the Asus website yet, but there's plenty about it on the net. The due date is sometime in feb.

as530 · Post by **as530** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 3:20 am

aha! i had no idea the premium version chipset was passively cooled.

1. why the difference? what is the SLi chipset doing that requires so much more cooling than the Ultra chipset? do you think a passive HS would be sufficient for safe cooling of the chipset? Although i suppose, one could always add larger quieter fans around the case if one is concerned about that.

2. what are the other extras that you mentioned, on the Premium?

3. is chipset temperature easy to monitor (i.e. is it on the list of most mobo's temperatures to monitor)

4. i see from the picture that the Asus A8N-SLi's chipset fan has a standard 3-pin fan connector to the mobo: does this mean the fan speed could be reduced at times: e.g. with a Fanmate or via a fan controller in a 5.25 bay?

interesting option, many thanks for the info.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 5:10 am

1. I'm not sure on the difference.
I guess the hassle of co-ordinating two graphics cards makes for a hotter chipset.

2. Details are sketchy. Initial reports suggest that the SLI has 4 standard SATA ports and 4 "boosted" SATA ports supporting 3Gb/s, whereas the Premium has 4 standard and 4 SATA2 (which supports 3Gb/s rate and additional features). The Premium also has a couple of extra USB headers, and built in 801.11g wireless LAN.

3. Generally, no. Few motherboards report chipset temperatures, so you'd probably have to do it yourself with a temperature probe.

4. There's no reason why you couldn't whack a fanmate in there. However, I'm unable to suggest how (un)safe that might be.

You can see some of the specs for the Premium here, including a photo showing the passive chipset cooler. It's the black square with a white logo (ai <something>) on it, behind the PCI-E slots and below the memory.

Specs for the SLI version are all over the place so I assume you've already seen them.

Hope that helps.

as530 · Post by **as530** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 5:18 am

hmmm. i'm increasingly thinking it might be best to go for Gigabyte k8nxp-9, which has built in wireless anyway.

are temperature probes expensive? i'd have no idea where to get one in the UK.

meglamaniac · Post by **meglamaniac** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 7:14 am

Simplest way to get one is to buy a fan controller which includes them.
There are plenty about ranging from manual dial control ones with an LCD display that you put in a drive bay, to fully automatic ones like the mCubed T-balancer which has been discussed extensively in the Fans and Control forum.

If the Gigabyte has what you want then I'd say go with it, by all accounts Gigabyte are a decent brand.

as530 · Post by **as530** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 7:18 am

hi, thanks for the tip (again!), i'll check that out.

really don't to wait any longer though!

don't suppose the Zalman Zalman ZM-MFC1 could measure the chipset temp could it? will read about the mCubed shortly

thanks again

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Wed Jan 12, 2005 11:12 am

Hi, this is my first post at SPCR!
I saw a picture of the A8N-SLI with the Zalman NB47J on the chipset, posted on the ArsTechnica forums.
I suppose that a Zalman VF-700 could generate enough airflow to improve the efficiency of the NB47J.
The fellow still had to post stability results, but he said it didn't feel hot.
I wonder if the Thermalright NB-1 would fit? I mean the aluminium one,
since the new one is copper and quite heavy for a chipset cooler.
For anyone that wants to find out more about SLI, I started a thread at www.opengl.org, Coding Advanced.
A nVidia engineer was kind to answer my questions.

Yamamoto56 · Post by **Yamamoto56** » Sat Jan 29, 2005 3:39 pm

It is very loud, check here.
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=18479

ragnar · Post by **ragnar** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 3:36 am

At the Zalman website (www.zalman.co.kr), in the QnA section there's a thread named "Thermal tests for nForce4". Zalman repr. wrote:

Hello,

According to our test performed on our desktop testbed, the maximum performance differences between the stock fansink running at default 7,600rpm and our northbridge heatsinks (ZM-NB32J/ZM-NB47J) were 16¡É/14¡É at non-SLI mode and 13¡É/12¡É at SLI mode.

The reason why temp. at SLI mode was 2¡É lower than at non-SLI mode seemed to be because of that 1 or 2 stock VGA coolers' air-flow reflected from side case panel affected our heatsinks to be cooler. We used 2 XFX Geforce 6600 GT PCIe cards.

We have carefully monitored the system stability, and especially display part for 3 days while running a CPU Burn program and a GPU loading program, so that above results could be obtained and we could convince of overall stability of the nForce4 SLI based system.

P.S. We measured values from 3 thermocouples that we attached to the opposite side of the PCB from the northbridge chipset. Both NB32J and NB47J are recommended. As you know, NB47J is a little better than NB32J in cooling aspect

Kind regards,
Jinkook Kim/ZALMAN

Seems straightforward enough just replacing the stock HS/fan. With a Zalman 7000/7700 there should be some airflow around the NB anyway.

mikeki · Post by **mikeki** » Thu Feb 03, 2005 8:40 am

Is there another NF4 SLI board where it's possible to put in passive cooling? The GIGABYTE "GA-K8NXP-SLI" and MSI "K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI" have the chipset fan under one of the video cards. At least on the ASUS MB chipset is between the cards.

The GIGABYTE "GA-K8NU-SLI" is available at Newegg (wasn't a couple of days ago). It's passively cooled. Hmmm, need to look at that one...