My motherboard fan is by far the loudest thing in my box

dpowers · Post by **dpowers** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:36 am

It seems my computer has been getting louder lately. Finally, I opened it up to see who was the culprit. By far, it's the fan right on the motherboard. The motherboard I have is the MSI K8N Neo4-F, which I believe I got a recommendation on from this forum.

Anyway I can replace or make this fan quieter?

Thanks.

-dmp

Aris · Post by **Aris** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:41 am

get one of these: Zalman NB47J

dpowers · Post by **dpowers** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 8:50 am

thanks, ordered one

dpowers · Post by **dpowers** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:54 pm

Well that sucked. It doesnt even come close to fitting with my gigantic video card + gigantic zalman video card heatsink. So I guess I might have to go the quiet fan route. Anyone want to buy an NB47J?

Tephras · Post by **Tephras** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:14 pm

If the heatsink is to high maybe the 32mm ZM-NB32K or the 25mm Revoltec Northbridge Freezer will fit.

theyangster · Post by **theyangster** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:17 pm

cut it down?

Shadowknight · Post by **Shadowknight** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:48 pm

Yeah, plenty of people just cut off the fins of the heatsink that interfere with the VGA card without having any issues with temps increasing.

xarope · Post by **xarope** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:11 pm

I stuck a fanmate on the fan for the NB and turned it to low!

dpowers · Post by **dpowers** » Fri Jan 13, 2006 11:40 pm

Well, I installed the Zalman. I had to cut out a few fins, and it fit in there. It is a dream having my PC this quiet. It is now virtually silent. The only thing remaining is to gauge the temperature, which has been creeping up and currently sits at 32C system temp, 28C cpu temp according to MSI's CoreCenter utility. If it stays here, I think I'm good!

dpowers · Post by **dpowers** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:37 am

Update: During gaming, mobo gets as high as 41C. I touched the Zalman with my fingers and it was just slightly warm to the touch though, so I'm guessing that's a good sign.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Sat Jan 14, 2006 9:43 am

That temperature is perfectly fine, you have nothing to worry about.

flarkit · Post by **flarkit** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 1:22 am

dpowers wrote:Well, I installed the Zalman. I had to cut out a few fins, and it fit in there. It is a dream having my PC this quiet. It is now virtually silent.

Hi

Congratulations on the silence. I'd like to know what you used to the cut the fins of the Zalman?

Thanks

dpowers · Post by **dpowers** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 8:10 am

Just a pair of pliers. You just bend the fin downwards and twist and it snaps right off. I had to tear off about 5 fins. My temps are stable, I'm already comfortable with leaving the computer on all the time.

SaSH · Post by **SaSH** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:27 pm

dpowers wrote:Update: During gaming, mobo gets as high as 41C. I touched the Zalman with my fingers and it was just slightly warm to the touch though, so I'm guessing that's a good sign.

My stock Northbridge cooler is at 52C right now so I'm pretty sure yours at 41C is just fine

I will defintely be switching it this week. It sounds like a siren when it ramps up during gaming, I shit you not.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 7:46 am

As nice as NF4 is otherwise the chipset fans are a major pain. DFI and MSI especially crowd the chip a bit so any big vidcard is an obstruction. Abit had the spiffy AN8 heatpiped board....and discontinued it. The ECS KN1 has a lot of space around their chip,and a nice sized sink,despite a loud fan. They even add a throwaway fan in a duct near the CPU. Coolmax has a chipset cooler with heatpipes that even minus its fan is bound to be more effective than the basic Zalmans,and this board gives the clearance for it.

My main point is that anyone wanting NF4 AND quiet should bear in mind the chipset fan noise issues and that some otherwise good boards don't give many options.

Unless the case really crowds everything it is ALWAYS possible to make a bracket to mount an 80mm or 120 at very low rpm in a good position to blow on whatever sink. Wander through any good hardware store and there are a lot of brackets of various size and shape. How you position and aim such a mid-case fan will likely also help cool a vid card,HDD's,or the CPU.