nForce4 Chipset Fan Replacement Thread

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Mon Feb 28, 2005 5:41 pm

By now, everyone knows that nForce4 Chipset fans on the AMD64 boards are very loud and are a huge problem for everyone, not just silent PC people. I have done a little research, and have found some ways to solve this problem, without breaking your wallet or your board. It is also necessary for the fix to have a small footprint, as the chipset is located between the two SLI slots, making for tight quarters.

The most popular solution is by use of Zalman NorthBridge heatsinks:

ZM-NB47J

ZM-NB32J

Both have been proven to cool fairly well under normal usage, but are not recommended to be used when OCing. They will fit nicely between two graphics cards without interfering. The NB32J is preferred when a using NV Silencer Rev.5 on your graphics cards. There is a minor mod that must been done, but the end result is nice:

Another solution is to replace the fan with a better, quieter fan. Turns out that a 40mm fan usually does the trick. The most popular replacement is the Papst, not only because of the known quality and undervolting ability, but also because it can be retrofitted using the existing fan attachment holes:

Papst 412FM

Another option for those of you who don't plan using heavy-duty graphic card coolers, you can safely expand up:

Swiftech MCX159-A

A nice size coper base with aluminum pins cooled by a Sunon 40mm fan.

Now, these are options that I know work. There are plenty of chipset coolers out there that just won't work for this type of application because either they are too big or they are just another small fan that has run at high RPMs.

With that said, are there any other options I am missing?

Alot of info from here: Anandtech Forum

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:35 am

Very nice post, thank you joshd2012 !
I didn't think of cutting the AC Silencer in order to accomodate the NB32J.
The Swiftech however is much more expensive. I am going to manufacture two protoypes of chipset heatsinks, one inspired by the Zalman 6000 series, the other by the Swiftechs. Will post pictures of them as soon as they are ready.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:57 am

Joshd2012, please post temp results of your mod, regarding the gfx card and the chipset. For now, I'm keeping the original chipset fan at about 5,300 rpm to make it bearable (will a get the NB-1 soon). My mobo temps reported by Asus probe, went 1C higher (but I'm not overclocking right now).

It looks like there's less space than I thought between the Silencer and the NB (if the Silencer wouldn't have been modded). Only 4 pins rows on the left side and 5 on the right side (the Silencer isn't perfectly parallel).
I wonder how many pin rows could be higher, with the modded Silencer, maybe another 2 rows? These could be much taller, providing extra cooling power.

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:58 pm

These aren't my mods, but rather mods that have been done by others to accomplish silence. That picture is great and I got it from the linked thread.

I am mainly looking over the many ways of dealing with the problem. I am trying to collect them all in one thread (this one) in order to better make a decision on how I am going to tackle this problem.

But to sort of answer your question, all the mods provide better cooling than the standard fan and heat sink when a fan is used. The Zalman alone runs a bit hotter, but much cooler when a fan is used near by. I didn't see any results with the silencer and nb32j, but I suspect that the fan of the silencer does a pretty good job cooling the nb32j.

I know many people are talking this problem, so please help out by posting your solution. Tzupy - I look forward to seeing your projects.

ChristianN · Post by **ChristianN** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:28 am

I cut of some pins on the swiftech. Got a 6800gt pci-e with a NV5 cooler, works like a charm.

Gholam · Post by **Gholam** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 12:59 pm

I'm guessing that the perfect solution would be a Shuttle ICE-type heatsink - raised on heatpipes and perpendicular to the motherboard. You could either make it large enough to run fanless, or fit a fan without too much trouble. Too bad nobody manufactures these for chipsets

ChristianN · Post by **ChristianN** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 1:29 pm

Thing is though, the chipset HSF on the A8N-Sli is a horrible little device.

It:

a) hardly moves any air at all due to the stupid design
b) hardly cools anything because of point a

So, even a semi-decent passive heatsink like the purple Zalman (which I've also run flawless on this board..), most likely cools the chipset far better then the horrible 8000 rpm solution.

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 5:00 pm

ChristianN wrote:I cut of some pins on the swiftech. Got a 6800gt pci-e with a NV5 cooler, works like a charm.

So, you cut out some pins to fit the NV5? Was it alot? What board do you have?

esromneb · Post by **esromneb** » Sat Mar 05, 2005 7:39 pm

When you say replace the fan, do you mean:
leave the heatsink mounted on the board, while just removing rotating fan part? Then mount the papst on top? What about this SilenX 40mm fan here?:
http://www.pccasegear.com/prod1900.htm

It claims to have better airflow / noise than the papst ('course no mention of expected lifetime)

-ben

Korwen · Post by **Korwen** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 12:50 am

I dont' have a nforce 4 chipset, but I have a Nforce 3 ultra chipset, which has a very similar problem. My solution was to take the zalman blue unit, and hack it up to fit under my NV silencer.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:13 am

I have replaced the chipset HSF on my Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe with a Thermalright NB-1 and the stock HSF on the MSI 6600GT with an Aerocool VM-101. The default NB-1 speed is at about 7,000 rpm, and it's as loud as the original one on the mobo, but I lowered it to about 4,500 rpm where it's acceptable. I tried, but it doesn't want to go lower than 4,500. About mounting, it's not possible to mount it like a Zalman NB47J, it has to be tilted at 45 degrees, so space issues are worse. With cards longer than the 6600GTs one couldn't use the NB-1 (for now, I have just one 6600GT). Mobo temps are now about 2C lower than with the stock chipset HSF (at 8,800 rpm), as reported by the Asus probe. The VM-101 is now touching the fan-fixing wires of the Thermalright XP-90, so I put some duct-tape on the wires, to absorb vibrations. In Windows the temps are the same as with the stock cooling, but in 3DMark they are significantly higher. The temps depend on the rpm of my back 120 mm fan, which I have to replace with a better one. I still hear a low-frequency humming that I can't find the source of, and there is still some vibration transmitted to the case, I think the stock Antec HDD grommets aren't so good.

ragnar · Post by **ragnar** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:27 am

I've posted some pictures of my build (A NB47J combined with a VF700ALCU). A bit tight!

http://medlem.spray.se/ragnarroos/

nap_loaf · Post by **nap_loaf** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 5:15 pm

ragnar wrote:I've posted some pictures of my build (A NB47J combined with a VF700ALCU). A bit tight!

http://medlem.spray.se/ragnarroos/

The closeness of those two coolers might actually be a good thing. Since the nForce4 chipset gets quite hot (from what I've read anyway), the "free" airflow from the VF700 fan on the NB47J might be really helpful.

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 5:43 pm

I purchased both Zalman heatsinks because I am not sure what the cooling situation of my GPU will be. If I go with the Zalman Fan, I will do what ragnar has done. If I go with the NV6, I'll repeat the picture from my first post. If I go with another solution.... well, whichever one fits

. Thankfully they are both $5 so getting both isn't much trouble.

ASUS just really didn't give us much room to work with. I see other boards with different layouts, but ofcourse, they aren't as stable. Looks like most people are going with the Zalman solution, and I thank you for the pics.

If anyone gets a better fan on their, please post pics.

Gholam · Post by **Gholam** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:26 pm

Tyan just released Tomcat K8E, based on nForce4 Ultra. Interesting solution - comes with passive chipset heatsink, and integrated graphics in the form of the ubiquitous RageXL. Doesn't look like it'll be compatible with XP-120 though, graphics card will interfere due to odd placement of the CPU socket. XP-90 shouldn't have any trouble though.

ragnar · Post by **ragnar** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:35 pm

Tyan really makes good cards. I wish I had had the patience to wait for this one. Maybe I'll throw the A8N out the window for this one, should it ever reach the Swedish market.

Headd · Post by **Headd** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:06 am

I currently have a DFI Ultra D with this damn Nforce 4 jet engine fan. It's extremely annoying. After a few hours of gaming the chipset for 54 degrees!

I initially attempted to install a fan from an old ti4200 cooler but it was too big. I removed the HSF and scraped/cleaned off whatever crap they had installed and applied a very thin layer of artic silver ceramique.

Under full load I'm at about 46 degrees now. I'd like to try a fan from like the one that was posted above:

http://www.pccasegear.com/prod1900.htm

But I'm not sure if that will fit.. Does anyone have any temp results from using a hacked up zalman NB heatsink?

ilh · Post by **ilh** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:20 am

Here is my mangled NB47J under a 6800 GT on a DFI nF4. This board has worse clearance issues than a A8N-SLI, with the VGA directly over of the chipset. Having a VF700 blowing through the NB47J works great. My chipset temperatures at load are under 45C, with idle at about 35C. Temps are highest when the GPU is producing the most heat (e.g., RTHDRIBL).

The 45C is fairly similar to what the stock noisy HSF was producing outside my case.

nici · Post by **nici** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:31 am

I also succesfully installed NB47J on DFI LanParty Ultra-D, i have a 80mm nexus fan blowing at the heatsink but Smart Guardian reports chipset temperatue as 43c. I have to try with different fan placement.. Ill post pictures in the DFI boards thread in cool & quiet VGA when i get some pics up. Not ready for gallery yet...

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:41 am

I'll be going with the same solution as ragnar did. My board should have a very similar layout, so hopefully it will work just as well.

That is some crazy work on that DFI board. I took me a while to figure out what I was looking at. I'm looking forward to seeing that fan solution as well.

enakje · Post by **enakje** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:20 pm

ragnar wrote:I've posted some pictures of my build (A NB47J combined with a VF700ALCU). A bit tight!

http://medlem.spray.se/ragnarroos/

are you still sli capable with that zalman underneath? that's what im really curious about.

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:47 pm

I was out at CompUSA picking up some last minute parts (surprise, they didn't have what I needed - the build get delayed a few more days) when I saw this:

http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... pfp=BROWSE

IIRC, the fan's max speed is 5300RPM, which is a lot slower than the 8000RPM people are reporting with some stock heatsink fans. May be something to try out if you have $10.

Sweendog · Post by **Sweendog** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 8:18 pm

Has anyone had experiance with the Gigabyte GA-K8N mobo? It looks like they chose to solve the problem with a large passive HS.
From the pictures I've seen on NewEgg, there isn't a fan on the Nv4 chipset. Just a big gold-anodized looking Heat Sink. I'm tempted to just buy this mobo to solve the problem. (I haven't ordered the ASUS yet.)

**EDIT** Nevermind I just found NeilBlanchard's post about his Gigabyte. it IS passive... *runs of to read...* http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19945

joshd2012 · Post by **joshd2012** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:38 am

Not sure if these were rumors or not, but were the GBs having problems with that passive heatsink? Instability and what not?

Headd · Post by **Headd** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 6:57 am

Can anyone post some temp results from using a hacked up zalman NB heatsink?

I hate this stock fan.

ragnar · Post by **ragnar** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:27 am

@enakje
At the pics You can clearly see there would be real clearance issues running SLI. Not to mention trying SLI with 2xVF700. But @Zalman they've successfully installed NB47J and 2x6600GTs while running their performancetests on the same motherboard I use. I've also seen pictures of people hacking the NB47J up to get 2xVF700 installed in a SLI configuration. Since I've jumped on the ATI train, I won't be going SLI anytime soon.

After finally closing my case and removing the "chicken" extra 80mm Papst fan blowing on the NB, I've gotten some results on temps. The MOBO temp (as posted by ASUS Probe, I think the MOBO temp reading is taken somewhere in proximity to the NB) never exceeds 40 centigrades, even after hours of 3d gaming. Then again I usually turn the VF700 all the way up to 12V during playing and it seems to cool the NB as well. The CPU has been up touching 48 centigrades after several hours of 3d gaming.

The results are with a grillefree case front and a single 80mm Papst at rear vent (no grille there either). Sadly the Antec NeoPower also acts as a exhaust, but it hardly ramps up at all.

ilh · Post by **ilh** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:58 am

Headd wrote:Can anyone post some temp results from using a hacked up zalman NB heatsink?

In 16C ambient, with ~18-21C case temperature, I am seeing my nF4 idle at 34C and at load up to 44C. This is with a VF700 immediately above it at about 7V. My highest temperatures are when the 6800 GT is at its hottest, since it is then blowing warm air through the NB47J.

These temperatures are a bit better than I was seeing with the stock DFI fan running ~5000rpm outside a case. Those dinky fans don't really do much besides make noise.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:24 am

OK here are some pics.. I apologize for the mess of cables, im working on it

The 80mm Nexus is running at 900rpm and chipset temp is 37-38c when Folding, 35 at idle, probably rises over 40 when gaming but smart guardian puts the fan at full speed if temp rises over 45c so im fine. The 120mm nexus runs at 600rpm just to get some airflow in the chassis and cool the mosfets.. Both Nexus fans are inaudible over the PSU, wich is quiet enough so i can sleep in the same room comfortably. Still working on that though..

Here is the whole system, in all its ugliness

Lourdes · Post by **Lourdes** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:00 pm

Great topic, I'm looking to buy a DFI NF4 board and the fan sounds very bothersome. How easy is it to modify/mangle a Zalman HS? It looks straightforward but I've never tried modifying anything PC related before.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 4:37 pm

Well yes, the fan is bothersome, but still probably one of the best(least crap?) nF4 chipset coolers. The fan is smooth, though it makes a hell of a noise at 7000rpm and doesnt really cool that well at low rpms obviously.. Someone should make 120/80mm fans of this quality. Nothing wrong with Nexuses though

The NB47J mod is easy, as the heatsink is aluminium you just need some pliers to bend the fins, you can even do it with bare fingers but its rather painful

The hardest part is to mount it, and thats not really a challenge either if you are careful, im talking about the plastic pins that go thru the mobo. I cut away the originals and used some from an old broken ASUS mobo, but the included pins should do

Just align them properly and carefully press them in place and youre done. If you dont fancy paying for expensive silver-goop, the stuff supplied with the cooler is just fine

nForce4 Chipset Fan Replacement Thread

nForce4 Chipset Fan Replacement Thread

GIGABYTE "GA-K8N Ultra-SLI" looks like it has a pa