nForce4 Chipset Fan Replacement Thread

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adala
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Post by adala » Tue May 24, 2005 7:16 am

Sweendog wrote:
OK, so I've had my GA-K8N system (the one with the stock passive NB heatsink) up for some time now. Speedfan was reporting several temps but I think the NB wasn't one of them. I purchased a temp. probe and wedged it gently but firmly between the hold-down screw's spring, and one of the cooling fins. The reading at idle varies from 56 to 58 degrees C, going up to 60 during video intesnive gaming! Eek. I'm going to get one of the Zalman heatsinks, as they look larger, although I think I'm going to rig up a small case fan first, to see if I can direct some flow across the existing one. (There is almost ZERO room between the existing HS, which is quite low-profile, and the Cooler/Video board combo.

I'll try to get pics up soon.

Sweendog

EDIT: I forgot to mention that ambient internal case temp was around 25.5 C at idle when the NB temps were observed...
I have the same mb setup.
Does your speedFan show a temp sensor of ~70c ? I always thought it was the nforce4 nb....

ronrem
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Post by ronrem » Sat May 28, 2005 1:47 am

joshd2012 wrote:Not sure if these were rumors or not, but were the GBs having problems with that passive heatsink? Instability and what not?
I saw early reviews. The review,as is often the case,was from the angle of gamer/overclockers. They OC'd up several stages until the chipset fried. It was fine even at a mild OC. Hot-rod speed and serious silence are not very compatible.
A horizontal mobo layout could allow a taller heatsink,as is the case with a cpu HSF,and there may be a way to use a bracket mount fan,or ducted fan to vent a passive,whether the stock one on this board or the aftermarket Zalmans. I like the ECS FN-1 Extreme which has a dedicated PCI slot for a soundcard,good space around the chipset-enough to use a cpu cooler?

Zhentar
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Post by Zhentar » Sat May 28, 2005 10:00 pm

I just replaced some heatsinks. I'm using a DFI Lanparty nf4 Ultra-D.


Image

Unfortunately, it seems to run too hot to run my chipset fanless, but my undervolted (but not underclocked) 3000+ venice handles it fine; 54C under full load. I wish I could get my chipset fanless (and I am going to try more at that later), because then I'd just be using the PSU fan.

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Sun May 29, 2005 4:40 am

Does anyone know the power consumption/TDP of a nForce4 Ultra/SLI MCP?

Auz
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Post by Auz » Thu Jun 02, 2005 5:24 pm

On my MSI k8n neo4 platinum, I replaced my stock hsf with a zalman nb47j. I had to remove two of the fins to allow for a capacitor on the video card (XFX geforce 6600 GT), but it fit better than I thougth it would (certainly better than with that ATI card). Also, when I removed the old stock cooler, I took the standoff, the [] square sticker+padding that goes around the core, and applied it to my zalman. It seems to serve two purposes, stopping electrical contact between the hsf and the exposed resistors, and stopping asymmetrical pressure from damaging the chip. I haven't heard much about this, is everyone else using the replacements without the standoff?
Here are some pics of the fit (click for larger):

Image

Image
You can just make out in this pic the black capacitor that I had to make room for.

Image

Image
With a fan.

-auz

KorruptioN
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Post by KorruptioN » Fri Jun 03, 2005 6:05 am

How did you mount the fan, Auz?

Auz
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Post by Auz » Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:24 pm

The holes on the 40mm fan match up with the gaps in the heatsink, so that one could use screws- but due to the hole size difference, you might have to use a long bolt that goes to the other side of the heatsink. However, it just so happens that the 20mm width of the fan fits perfectly between the sata headers and the heat sink, and seems pretty well wedged there without any screws. One day I'll get around to properly mounting it.
-auz

maxxxim
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Post by maxxxim » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:09 am

I made airduct from VGA cooler (Zalman ZM80C-HP & Nexus 92x92 w 7V) to northbridge (Zalman ZM47J). Nexus is attached to lower heatsink of Zalman ZM80C-HP and this way Nexus is above passive heatsink about 4-5 cm.
Image
Image

Pictures are made with crappy Webcam and CPU cooler is bit dusty, excuse me! But I'm sure you get the point. I have on northbridge external temp sensor (Coolermaster Aerogate II); temp never rising higher then 42 degrees.
Motherboard: Chaintech VNF4Ultra (nForce4 Ultra).

ChiBOY83
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Post by ChiBOY83 » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:07 am

MAXXXIM....very nice setup, very interested in that.... what were your temps w/ the HS BEFORE you did that duct??

maxxxim
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Post by maxxxim » Sat Jun 04, 2005 8:26 am

62-65 degrees. Before airduct I tried small 40x40 cooler w 5V, this lowered temperature to 50-55 degrees. Airduct is way better solution.

captain_goatse
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Post by captain_goatse » Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:58 am

Today I installed the Zalman NB-47J on my Asus A8N-E board. Everything went quite well. However, I might still need some tweaking to secure the airflow with a quiet after market 3cm fan.

If you want to see the temperature details please scroll to the end of my post.

To tell the truth I was highly disappointed on the A8N-E fan performance. As a PC hardware newbie the installation process was very challenging. I was afraid I would break my motherboard, memory or graphics card, but the obsession to silence my computer drove me to take the risk.

Tips:
*Avoid static shock, touch the case before you touch the components.
*Avoid using force (unless THE force as in jedi powers) since it will only cause damage to the motherboard or pci-e card. The graphics card will pop up very neatly, the power/led/ide/ fan should also plug off easily.

The initial step was to remove the motherboard. Firstly, the stock push pins are impossible to remove without getting behind of the motherboard. Secondly, to realize that weren't any heat sink at all behind the stock Asus fan was highly surprising. So I took out he motherboard, and cut off the tips of the pins since i was pretty sure that the Zalman push pins were suitable for the installation and proceed to mount the NB-47J.

Second surprising step occurred when i realized that the push pin holes were closer to the chip than the links could reach. I solved this by installing one of the links other way around unlike in the Zalman instructions. Everything worked well. So both links face the same direction instead of being mirrored.

Since it was my first time touching the motherboard or any PC components at all and this took me around 3 hours. I didn't push it and I had a lot of time so I decided to take it easy.

Conclusion:

With the stock fan and an ambient temperature of 24 degrees the fan idles at ~40 degrees, in moderate usage closes ~47 degrees and in high usage zeros ~50 degrees.

With Zalman ZM-NB47J and NO extra fan, the motherboard idles at 38 degrees, and peaks at 48 degrees after ten minutes of usage. I haven't ran any longer tests, but the 38 degrees of idle is very constant with the same room temperature.

As a test I used SOAR-1.11 graphical terrain engine, which puts load on the graphics card and processor so this by no means is even close to standardized test.


Evaluation:

First of all, if you have already A8N-E motherboard installed already AND if you are a complete newbie like me I will state that the switch is completely worth it. HOWEVER, if you are planning to get a motherboard I suggest that you skip A8N series and go for Gigabyte or Abit motherboard that is either entirely passively cooled or has a quiet fan unless you are familiar with PC-motherboards and -components and want to do the modification.

The Subjective Results:

The fan based noise coming out of my system is from three sources:
*1x NEXUS 12cm fan running 1200 rpm,
*1x under-volted Antec 12cm sonata stock fan,
*NEXUS AMD64 cooler,
*and finally ASUS GF6600GT.

The Sonata case has been modified with after market AcousticPack precut Sonata kit, and compared to the previous installation the difference is significant. My case is almost silent. I have a desk fan right next to me and it puts out far greater noise than the computer whereas previously the sound of the Asus fan was audible even through the case and beyond the desk fan.

The mod significantly reduced to noise pollution generated by my desktop. A++ would mod again.

m0002a
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Post by m0002a » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:12 am

The word in other forums is that Asus has a new HSF for the A8N-E and A8N-SLI chipsets, and they will send it to you for free if you call the Asus support line. It should start showing up on new boards soon (if not already). The new HSF is bigger and quieter, but I would replace it anyway with the Zalman. I think the A8N-E is an excellent board and reasonably priced, so the replacement of the chipset HSF was definitely worth the "trouble" for me.

Based on what people have reported on this forum, it "may be" that the A8N-SLI NF4 chipset runs noticeably hotter than the A8N-E NF4 chipset. If that is true (still unproven), then that is one more reason to get the A8N-E.

Here is a pic of the old and new HSF for both the A8N-E and SLI. The heatsink is larger so the fan runs slower.

Image

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:48 am

There's gonna be the new Asus silent NB anyway.

m0002a
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Post by m0002a » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:08 am

rpsgc wrote:There's gonna be the new Asus silent NB anyway.
Are you referring to the heatpipe and radiator? That is likely to be expensive.

The big problem with any OEM solution is that they need to keep the HSF very low to allow for extra long PCI and PCI-E cards. But if you use a 6600GT video card or smaller, you will have no problem with a tall HS like the Zalman.

winguy
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Post by winguy » Sun Jun 05, 2005 7:11 am

rpsgc wrote:There's gonna be the new Asus silent NB anyway.
Is it the A8N-SLI Premium only?
http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=973

anthonysimilion
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Post by anthonysimilion » Sun Jun 05, 2005 10:20 pm

Probably. Hopefully there will be cheaper competing offerings from other manufacturers - start saving!

HiFi
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Post by HiFi » Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:27 pm

i want to get an asus A8N-E board with a zalman passive NB cooler but im worried the chipset will get too hot.. i noticed a lot of you actually used the zalman W/ a fan

m0002a
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Post by m0002a » Tue Jun 07, 2005 4:34 pm

HiFi wrote:i want to get an asus A8N-E board with a zalman passive NB cooler but im worried the chipset will get too hot.. i noticed a lot of you actually used the zalman W/ a fan
If you can attach a slow speed fan to the drive cage near the Zalman chipset cooler, that would be ideal, depending on your case airflow. There is reason to believe that the non-SLI chipset in the A8N-E runs cooler than the SLI version that some have reported temps on in this forum, although I have no proof of that. I use a Panaflo 80mm L1A @5V blowing sideways onto the Zalman chipset cooler.

joshd2012
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Post by joshd2012 » Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:17 pm

Whooo.. its been a while.

So I'm just stepping back in to say that I have had no issues what-so-ever from my passively cooled Chipset. Mind you, I'm not doing any hardcore computing, but for what I use my computer for (surfing and gaming) it has been very good. No issues to report.

Gerbil
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Post by Gerbil » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:23 am

I built a system for someone with a Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 on Monday. This was the first nF4 board I've had a chance to work with, and the passive heatsink ran so hot that I replaced it with an active cooler within 45 minutes of use.

I'm going to rebuild my own computer with an Asus A8N-E as soon as I figure out what to do about this northbridge issue. I already have an NB47J, and I just ordered an Antec Sonata II. My active solution on the Gigabyte board is audible. The fan is one of the loudest in the machine.

I'm going to install the optional front 120mm fan in my Sonata II, which is positioned in the same location as in the original Sonata. Will this be enough airflow, even if the room temp approaches 80F sometimes during load?

I've been reading the various nF4 replacement hsf threads on the net and I'm thinking about making a paper duct as a few others have done. I don't want to buy a 40mm fan for the NB47J. They're so small that they can't push much air, yet they make plenty of noise (and if they don't make noise, then they're not very effective). I'd rather have a 92mm or 120mm fan do the job.

m0002a
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Post by m0002a » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:32 am

Gerbil wrote:I'm going to install the optional front 120mm fan in my Sonata II, which is positioned in the same location as in the original Sonata. Will this be enough airflow, even if the room temp approaches 80F sometimes during load?
I have an 80mm Panaflo L1A @5V blowing right onto the Zalman chipset cooler on my A8N-E. It is attached to the 3700-BQE drvie cage (similar to Sonata) between the drive cage and the MB with zip ties and some foam cushion. It blows air sideways right onto the Zalman. Works fine.

Your NF4 temps may also be cooler if you use a separate PCI audio card and disable the on-board audio, but I am not sure about that.

Gerbil
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Post by Gerbil » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:57 am

m0002a wrote: I have an 80mm Panaflo L1A @5V blowing right onto the Zalman chipset cooler on my A8N-E. It is attached to the 3700-BQE drvie cage (similar to Sonata) between the drive cage and the MB with zip ties and some foam cushion. It blows air sideways right onto the Zalman. Works fine.

Your NF4 temps may also be cooler if you use a separate PCI audio card and disable the on-board audio, but I am not sure about that.
I'll be using a SB Audigy 2 ZS. Can you post pics of that? My goal is to mount a large fan somewhere aimed at the northbridge, and I'd like to see exactly where you placed it. While I was trying to think of a way to do so, I began wondering if the front 120mm fan would be sufficient.

The Gigabyte board I used was installed in an Antec Super Lanboy, and there's basically no airflow in front of the drive cages and the northbridge/GPU area. I'm fairly sure that there is airflow in the same area in a Sonata system I built.

m0002a
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Post by m0002a » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:15 am

Gerbil wrote:Can you post pics of that? My goal is to mount a large fan somewhere aimed at the northbridge, and I'd like to see exactly where you placed it. While I was trying to think of a way to do so, I began wondering if the front 120mm fan would be sufficient.
I can't get pics anytime soon. The nature of the Sonata (and BQE) drive cage is that it is easy to attach a fan with zip ties to the drive cage right next to the A8N-E chipset (blowing sideways across the Zalman). An 80mm fan is large enough, but you could use a larger fan.

Gerbil
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Post by Gerbil » Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:44 am

Yeah, that makes sense. My other concern is keeping my 74 GB Raptor cool. Hence, I'm going to install the front 120mm fan. Right now I have very weak airflow across it and it usually doesn't go past 34C even on the hottest days (it's typically only 1-2C hotter than my Seagate drives). If I mount the 120mm fan in the stock location, I don't know where I'd be able to attach another fan with the blades parallel to the motherboard...that is what you're suggesting, isn't it?

BTW, I know the Raptor isn't a "quiet" drive. I love the performance though and it idles just as quietly as the Samsung drives I've used. I'm typing on an A64 3200+ with a Samsung SP1213C right now (in the Gigabyte system). My AXP 2500+ and 74 GB Raptor feel snappier and the system boots up and shuts down quicker.

m0002a
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Post by m0002a » Sat Jun 11, 2005 2:15 am

Gerbil wrote:If I mount the 120mm fan in the stock location, I don't know where I'd be able to attach another fan with the blades parallel to the motherboard...that is what you're suggesting, isn't it?
No, my 80 mm fan is mounted perpendicular (right angle) to the MB, flat against the left side of the drive cage. The fan blows across the Zalman heatsink (from the side).

Maybe I am confused about where the stock location is for the front fan on the Sonata. Looking at pics on the Newegg website, I notice that there are 4 holes for mounting a fan (looks like 120mm) on the left side of the drive cage. I am not sure if that is the fan location you are using, or whether the front location is on the right side of the drive cage, close to the front bezel. But if you mounted a 120mm fan on the left side of the drive cage, that is approximately where I placed my 80mm, although mine is bit closer towards the MB so it blows directly on the NF4 Chipset HS.

sambinho
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Post by sambinho » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:32 pm

I just fitted a Zalman NB47J (blue) to my MSI K8N Neo3 and it works splendidly without extra cooling.

Most importantly, the 80,000rpm fan has gone.

I can't believe they seriously put that fan/heatsink on the motherboard to start with. Are they mental?

I know, let's come up with the most noisey & inneficient method of cooling our northbridge chipsets and force everyone to fit aftermarket heatsinks once they buy our gear.

Genius.

Gerbil
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Post by Gerbil » Sat Jun 11, 2005 5:37 pm

Oh. Thanks for the idea though. :lol:

Here's a pre-testing picture of the Sonata with both 120mm fans installed, but with a KT800 board:
Image

Please ignore the bad wiring...I fixed that after ensuring that the system worked.

merlin
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Post by merlin » Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:24 am

Hey guys,

I've been researching 40mm fans as a replacement for my Nforce4 fan, but I'm really not certain which ones are quiet or not, I'd like to get a 3pin one rather than 4pin one if possible as well. I've looked at the iXtrema 40mm(but I'm not very trusting of silenx's ridiculous marketting claims), YStech FD4010 40mm, Papst 412/2(Are there any reasonably priced sellers of this fan with the 3 pin connector?). I don't need complete silence, but I'd definitely like to escape this 7000rpm noisemaking toy on my MSI Neo4. I certainly do want some sort of active cooling, but I do some decent undervolting on my cpu and won't be ocing the bus higher than maybe 240 or so...so I figure a much more efficient 4000-5000 rpm would suffice for my quiet needs. If anyone has some additional thoughts or actual places to buy a good fan from, I'm all ears!

fjf
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fan

Post by fjf » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:09 pm

I used a papst 412 with a molex (2 pin) conector, but I soldered the third pin to a contact visible in the fan. Undervolted is not very noisy.

Regards

Gerbil
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Re: fan

Post by Gerbil » Tue Jun 21, 2005 7:00 am

Since I followed this thread closely up until purchasing my A64 system, I guess I should share my own results. I built my new computer last Thursday. My A8N-E came with the updated Asus hsf, but it runs at over 5000rpm and is still too loud in my opinion (although much better than the first version).

I installed the Zalman NB47J immediately and then ran 6.5 hours of memtest8+ as soon as I powered on the computer for the first time. The NB47J got very hot, but the test passed and I could keep my finger on it, so I proceeded with the build. Everything went well. I ran benchmarks, 24 hours straight of Prime95's torture test, I beat Half-Life 2, and I played a few hours of UT2k4. It's been on for about 4 days straight.

While the NB47J does get very hot, it's no hotter than the Asus's stock heatsink got. That heatsink is designed very poorly and the fan is merely making up for the poor design. Judging by how hot my finger feels, I'm betting the chip is running at about 60-65C. The system is clearly stable with the NB47J even in 75-80F ambient temperatures in a Sonata II, which isn't designed for high airflow. Let's also not forget that Gigabyte sells a few of their nF4 boards with passive coolers. Therefore, a good heatsink should be enough even though the nF4 runs incredibly hot.

System specifications:

Asus A8N-E w/NB47J
Athlon 64 3200+ Venice
Thermalright XP-90 w/Panaflo L1BX
Corsair 2x1GB TWINX2048-3200C2PT
BBA Radeon X800 XL 256MB
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Western Digital 74gb Raptor
Black NEC 3520A 16x DVD+/-RW
Black Lite-On 52x32x52x16 Combo Drive
Antec Sonata II + Antec 38CFM front 120mm fan
Black Rounded IDE Cables
Enermax 485W Noisetaker ATX 2.0

Current motherboard sensor readings with an ambient temperature of about 72F:

CPU: 34C
Motherboard: 29C
Aux: 35C
Hard Drive: 35C
CPU fan rpm: ~875-900rpm

It's basically idling right now. After hours of gaming, everything rises by about 4-5C, except for the CPU, which peaks at about 43-45C.

I posted a few of these pictures in other threads, but here are some shots of my NB47J mod:

Image Image Image Image Image

Image Image Image Image

I posted this in one of the Sonata II threads:

Image

The stock duct mount can also hold any fan you want. I tried it and it cooled down the northbridge and GPU significantly, but ended up increasing hard drive, CPU, and "motherboard" temperatures. I also assume that increased the PSU temp as well. Anyway, I did all of my stress testing without this 3rd 120mm fan, so I only tried it out for about an hour. I decided to put it in the closet and only use it if I need to later. For now, my computer has proven to be rock solid with only the NB47J.

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