NF4 passive chipset heatsink warning

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 3:56 pm

Auz wrote:Thought I would add my numbers:

I have a MSI K8N neo4 platinum (no sli), which I replaced the nb hsf to the blue zalman (nb47J) with some artic silver 5. I took temp reading with the stock HSF, but the fan being where it is, pretty much rules out any meaningful numbers as you have to measure from the edge - it was 32 deg C.

With passive cooling only (except whatever draft is coming from the video cooler- which isnt much), at 100% load, it gets up to 45.1 C max (as measured with my thermocouple from the center of the heatsink)

With a small 40MM fan placed on the side and running on the slowest speed that a zalman fanmate 2 controler will allow, I get about 34C.

A small fan does make a large difference from my tests. With the fan controler I cannot even hear it. However, I would think both these temperatures are acceptable. It is not overly hot to the touch with either setup - and I cannot imaging this being worse cooling than that tiny stock hsf.

-auz

I wonder if the NF4 SLI chip runs a lot hotter than standard NF4 chips.

My Asus A8N-E (non SLI) also runs fairly cool with just a small bit of airflow on my blue Zalman.

So if people are wondering whether they should get an SLI motherboard, even though they aren't planning on using SLI any time soon (and probably never), then perhaps they should consider getting a non SLI board if the chipset does in fact run cooler.

pony-tail · Post by **pony-tail** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:18 pm

I have recently bought an Asus A8N-sli .
I am building this machine from scratch and so far only have 3 components
1/ the mobo
2/ XP-120 heatsink
3/ Antec Sonata case
I am a little concerned that if I change the chipset cooler , with the Sonata's less than perfect ventilation , in Australia's 40c+ summers the mobo is going to fry.
So here is hoping that one of the replacement cooler manufacturers comes up with a solid soloution that is passive and does not interfere with SLI video setups.
Keep posting your findings guys !
the info is invaluable.

Tzupy · Post by **Tzupy** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 2:03 am

IIRC in the Sonata the second fan is behind the HDD cage, not in front, so it's closer to the chipset heatsink. Although the Sonata hasn't got good airflow, due to the insufficient front opening, having the 120 mm fan blowing from close towards the NB-47J should help cooling the chipset.

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 4:40 am

m0002a wrote:
Auz wrote:Thought I would add my numbers:

I have a MSI K8N neo4 platinum (no sli), which I replaced the nb hsf to the blue zalman (nb47J) with some artic silver 5. I took temp reading with the stock HSF, but the fan being where it is, pretty much rules out any meaningful numbers as you have to measure from the edge - it was 32 deg C.

With passive cooling only (except whatever draft is coming from the video cooler- which isnt much), at 100% load, it gets up to 45.1 C max (as measured with my thermocouple from the center of the heatsink)

With a small 40MM fan placed on the side and running on the slowest speed that a zalman fanmate 2 controler will allow, I get about 34C.

A small fan does make a large difference from my tests. With the fan controler I cannot even hear it. However, I would think both these temperatures are acceptable. It is not overly hot to the touch with either setup - and I cannot imaging this being worse cooling than that tiny stock hsf.

-auz
I wonder if the NF4 SLI chip runs a lot hotter than standard NF4 chips.

My Asus A8N-E (non SLI) also runs fairly cool with just a small bit of airflow on my blue Zalman.

So if people are wondering whether they should get an SLI motherboard, even though they aren't planning on using SLI any time soon (and probably never), then perhaps they should consider getting a non SLI board if the chipset does in fact run cooler.

Hey, we're getting somewhere! Now if only we could find wattage numbers for the chipsets.

jackylman · Post by **jackylman** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:26 am

Well, I solved my problem, for now at least.

I took my stock Athlon64 fan, wired it to 7V and broke out the duct tape. I just put it right on the big, gold EPoX heatsink and I no longer dream I'm at the airport when I leave my computer on at night. I wish I had a good webcam to show off.

Pros:
A LOT quieter
It was free
It was easier than taking apart the PC to slip the Zalman on
Made use of old "garbage"
Cooler than the old stock hsf

Cons:
It's still the loudest fan in my PC
The old "7V = amperage back to your PSU" controversy
Now I hear transformer noise from my Samsung 17" CRT

Edward Ng · Post by **Edward Ng** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:45 pm

Just to let you guys know, in case you're not following the ABIT AN8 thread, I posted some results there that are relevant to this topic.

-Ed

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 2:32 am

It's a given that overclocking will up the heat,the CPU,The Chipset will run hotter. Stock,pure passive is viable. OC and you CAN get rid of the loud 5000 rpm if you can locate a quieter 80 or 92 so it moves air across the heatsink,whether you blow air at the chipset or exhaust heat from it. You can mod a basic L bracket,about 75cents. A duct is an option too.

Overclockers won't get the same level of silence as those running stock or underclocked,moving more heat means more fans or more rpms all other factors being equal. Don't expect to go absolute minimum of fans and do much OC too.

sambinho · Post by **sambinho** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:46 pm

I'm using the NB47J with an MSI K8N Neo3 & A64 2800+

Not overclocked, and it's fine. No instability problems.

I think you just have to keep in mind that if you want to overclock your gear, you have to provide adequate cooling to accomodate the extra heat generated.

The passive zalman is no exception to the rule.

Oliver · Post by **Oliver** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:30 pm

A while back after reading the extensive anandtech thread about this subject, I called Asus tech support and asked them specifically whether the motherboard temp has anything to do with the chipset temp on their a8n-sli deluxe board. The answer I received was no. Apparently the actual temp of the nforce4 chipset goes unreported, not like an internal temp monitor on the processors. If I remember correctly (and I might not have by the way) the mobo temp is some sensor near some corner of the board. It gives a general mobo temp! So that explains a lot of the erroneous report in the anandtech thread by people who did not know better.

m0002a · Post by **m0002a** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:46 pm

Oliver wrote:A while back after reading the extensive anandtech thread about this subject, I called Asus tech support and asked them specifically whether the motherboard temp has anything to do with the chipset temp on their a8n-sli deluxe board. The answer I received was no. Apparently the actual temp of the nforce4 chipset goes unreported, not like an internal temp monitor on the processors. If I remember correctly (and I might not have by the way) the mobo temp is some sensor near some corner of the board. It gives a general mobo temp! So that explains a lot of the erroneous report in the anandtech thread by people who did not know better.

I think that is common knowledge on this forum. Some people have placed their own temp sensors on the heatsink to monitor chipset temps. Heatsink temps will always be a bit lower than core temps, but same applies to many CPU temps that don't report actual core temps.

Oliver · Post by **Oliver** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:50 pm

pony-tail wrote:I have recently bought an Asus A8N-sli .

I am a little concerned that if I change the chipset cooler , with the Sonata's less than perfect ventilation , in Australia's 40c+ summers the mobo is going to fry.

Don't you have air conditioning in Australia?
40c , I cannot imagine that!
I guess it is a dry heat?

Natronomonas · Post by **Natronomonas** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 10:19 pm

Oliver wrote: Don't you have air conditioning in Australia?
40c , I cannot imagine that!
I guess it is a dry heat?

Of course we have air conditioning! Just not in every house... an average summer would probably only have 20 or fewer 40C days.
It is pretty dry heat though - I went to Tokyo a while back in summer, it was 30-35 but killed me - the humidity was 100%.

My summer temps are usually quite a lot higher because of the rise in ambient - I can't run my zalman CNPS7000AlCu at 5v (overclocked barton), have to turn it up or underclock (I turn up the fan).

as530 · Post by **as530** » Wed Jun 15, 2005 1:01 pm

Auz,

how did you attach your 40mm fan to the NB47J? Can you provide a close-up pic? I just used blu-tac to attach the tiny fan from within my A8N's stock cooler to the side of my NB47J. I think it makes a small difference.

rei · Post by **rei** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 10:49 pm

a little late, auz

how did you break off the pins on the nb47j?

i'm planning on getting an msi neo4 with one and it likely will need to be trimmed to fit a sapphire x800xl ultimate (with zalman vf700 stock)

iakovl · Post by **iakovl** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:21 pm

Auz ,thx for the info
i wanted to buy the blue zalman but didn't know how good will it perform
now i do

and i have a lot of 40-70 fans that i can put near it to make it better

dragontales · Post by **dragontales** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 1:14 pm

I guess I shall add to this discussion.

I have the Zalman NB47J on my Asus A8N-E. This is a new system that I just built two weeks ago. I do not have a device to measure the temp on my heatsink so I am only going by hand touch. My system is usually on 24hrs a day and I would occasionally get in the comp and touch the heatsink with my hand. It seems fairy hot to touch after some basic web surfing, text editing, and even after couple hours of just idle time. I also touched it after 1 hour of gaming. And I can tell you, that puppy is burning hot. I think my finger can only stay on that heatsink for about 5 seconds before I start feeling a nice burn. I did this touching experiment over the span of 1 week, and I've come to the conclusion that this passive heatsink just was not adequate enough for my NF4 chipset. Couple of days ago i did a small mod and threw a 80mm coolermaster fan on it running at 5v (nearly silent) to give it some air. It made a huge difference. The temp went way down with just a slight amount of air. I feel so much more comfortable now. Remember I only measured the temp with my hand, but I feel more at ease now with my NF4 chipset. Here is a picture.

_xhp_ · Post by **_xhp_** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 5:49 pm

I think that my dfi nf4 lanparty reports the chipset temperature right from the sensor within the chipset:
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17203

And I think the temperature that is reported is quite correct:
http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/nf4th ... php?file=2

Ironic · Post by **Ironic** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:30 pm

A friend of mine bought a targa 3400+ which has a 2.2ghz athlon 64, a non-sli nf4 gigabyte MB with passive cooling for the chipset, a passive geforce 6600, and no fan at all except the 8cm one in the fortron psu. It was sold in this configuration.

With the same kind of device as Auz used, with case open and light load, we found an astonishing 95°C! The room température was about 20°C. GPU was about 60°c, cpu 40°.
It was really, really hot when touching it. At that kind of level, it's not really surprising

Despite that, as far as I know, he has no stability problem.

We mesured the chipset temperature several times and it was always over 90°c.

But I think that the zalman heatsink is superior to the stock gibabyte. Still I
would not use on without a good airflow.

kadiir · Post by **kadiir** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:48 am

Dragontales: How did you mount that fan? I can't tell from the pic. It looks like it's mounted to the NB47J.

kad

dragontales · Post by **dragontales** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 12:38 pm

kadiir wrote:Dragontales: How did you mount that fan? I can't tell from the pic. It looks like it's mounted to the NB47J.

kad

Hey Kad,

I just did it ghetto style. But hey, it works. So what I did was find a long screw and screwed it right into the nb47j. It works quite well and it screwed on pretty tightly. That white thing is just a plastic cushion or buffer I use to dampen the vibration, although there probably isn't any because the fan is running at a quiet 5v. Here is a bigger picture.

Freelancer77 · Post by **Freelancer77** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 3:52 pm

An extra $0.02,

A passive NB heatsink is only as good as the airflow in the vicinity. I can put my hand on the NB47J in my rig and it feels somewhat warmer than ambient, but never HOT.

It gets help from the following, all of which are close to, or in-line with, the NB:

- Zalman VF700-CU GPU cooler
- Zalman 80x15mm fan duct-mounted over the GPU and NB
- Nexus 120mm fan front-mounted as intake
- Arctic Cooling Freezer64 CPU frameless heatsink fan

Knowing that the airflow would be significant, the Zalman heatsink was a no-brainer compared to the original ASUS HSF, which has a poor track record.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:55 pm

Thunder wrote:My ECS KN1 stays under 49c with the stock removed and just over 50 while gaming but speed fan dosent even find my chipset (or its way off) I just use my fan controler.

Not surprising,This Mobo-one of my favorites,has about the most heatsick of any active cooled NF4 and I've heard of people pulling off the fan and running it passive on a non-OC rig. That mobo also has good room around the chipset for a Blueice heatpipe cooler,but some boards barely can accomodate a Zalman.

The initial post does mention a boosted bus speed,so there's some hotrodding on that system.