K8N Neo4 Platinum - Can I change chipset fanspeed?

nsabena · Post by **nsabena** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 6:50 pm

Hi. I'm looking to build a 939/Athlon 64 system, and i'm specially concerned about the noisy chipset fan.
Does anybody know if the K8N Neo4 Platinum chipset fan speed can by controlled via BIOS or Speedfan? What about CPU fan speed?
Or any other motherboard with those capabilities? I'm looking for the NForce4 or NForce4 Ultra chipset, with Firewire, serial and parallel port, and coaxial SPDIF out.

Thanks a lot,
Nicolas

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:47 pm

i dont think the NB fan can be controlled, but the CPU fan can be controlled using MSI's "Core Centre" program

zoob · Post by **zoob** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:15 pm

You're in luck.

I just purchased the board yesterday (to replace two dead DFI NF4 Ultra-D's...)

Currently running Speedfan to slow the CPU and NB fans. You must disable SmartFan in the BIOS before you can manually control the speeds.

snowman59 · Post by **snowman59** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:09 pm

I can confirm what the others have said. I don't personally have the fan controlled via SpeedFan or any other utility but I don't really have a problem with the noise, and it seems pretty quiet to me. Its not the loudest thing in my case anyway...even while gaming. I might have some 'super' quiet...accident fan that slipped in there by mistake but its been quiet for me. You on the other hand might be quite different in terms of whats noisy.

~best of luck to you

_MarcoM_ · Post by **_MarcoM_** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 3:51 pm

I have the same board, too. I think FAN MATE 2 from Zalman is a good solution to control the fan on the NB. The real question is: what's the temperature tolerance of the chipset in case of fan undervolting?

nsabena · Post by **nsabena** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 4:38 pm

I asked the question because I had a previous bad experience with a MSI board (a K7N2G-ISLR) with a chipset fan that was noisy as hell (and there wasn't an option to slow it down by software).

Anyway, I just ordered the MSI board and I'm glad to hear that the fan is not so loud, and that it can be throttled down. I also ordered a Gigabyte fanless Gefore 6600 video card and a Athlon 64 3200. Hope it turns out to be a quiet PC.

zoob · Post by **zoob** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 11:39 pm

It'll be noisy once you quiet down everything else. Installing a Zalman NB47J is pretty easy if you have a smallish video card.

Someone else here has the same setup as myself (MSI Neo4 Platinum, 6600GT, NB47J)... you just have to chop off a few pins from the heatsink. Works quite well.

_MarcoM_ · Post by **_MarcoM_** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 12:13 am

zoob wrote:It'll be noisy once you quiet down everything else. Installing a Zalman NB47J is pretty easy if you have a smallish video card.

Someone else here has the same setup as myself (MSI Neo4 Platinum, 6600GT, NB47J)... you just have to chop off a few pins from the heatsink. Works quite well.

Is it dangerous to change the NB cooler? I have heard the chipset core is very fragile...

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 2:36 am

i didnt actually have to break and pins off my NB47J, i just had to bend 2-3 slightly inwards so that a capacitor on my gfx card wouldnt touch it.

btw, yes the stock chipset cooler is loudish

if your careful, u shouldnt have any problems with damaging the core while changing the HSF

zoob · Post by **zoob** » Fri Nov 11, 2005 10:05 pm

_MarcoM_ wrote:Is it dangerous to change the NB cooler? I have heard the chipset core is very fragile...

You can easily peel off the foam "shim" from the stock cooler, and reapply it to the Zalman. Also make sure you tighten the screws on the Zalman clips.

It's probably as dangerous as changing a heatsink on a regular CPU without a heat spreader. Be careful, and you won't damage anything.
Edit: What he said *points to Krazy Kommando*

nsabena · Post by **nsabena** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:25 pm

zoob wrote:You're in luck.

I just purchased the board yesterday (to replace two dead DFI NF4 Ultra-D's...)

Currently running Speedfan to slow the CPU and NB fans. You must disable SmartFan in the BIOS before you can manually control the speeds.

I just assembled my Neo4 Platinum, Athlon 64 3200+ and Gigabyte 6600 (fanless).

I can control CPU fan speed with SpeedFan, but not the chipset fan. Does it shows as Speed1 in SpeedFan? Can you really change it and lower chipset fan speed?

oakdad · Post by **oakdad** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 8:29 pm

Here is a big old thread on the noicy North Bridge issue.

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... sc&start=0

Hauser · Post by **Hauser** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 8:59 pm

zoob wrote:It'll be noisy once you quiet down everything else. Installing a Zalman NB47J is pretty easy if you have a smallish video card.

Someone else here has the same setup as myself (MSI Neo4 Platinum, 6600GT, NB47J)... you just have to chop off a few pins from the heatsink. Works quite well.

I have a largish video card (6800GS) and I'm wondering if anyone with a K8N Neo4 (-F or Platinum) and 6800GS has successfully installed a NB47J on the chipset. From what I can see, it looks like it would be pretty difficult to do without chopping off a lot of fins as there's a capacitor sitting right in front of it.