Asus M2NPV-VM and Zalman CNPS8000 - RAM slots blocked?

[pedro]

Hi,

Just about to build a new system.

It's (hopefully) going to be in a Silverstone Temjin TJ08. The motherboard will be an Asus M2NPV-VM. I want to put a Zalman CNPS8000 CPU heatsink on there - the CPU will only be around 3200+. However, I'm a little worried that the heatpipes will cover at least one of the RAM slots. I don't want this. I've looked at the Zalman and Asus sites for the appropriate specs but having done this, I'm still unsure as to whether or not any RAM slots will be covered.

Has anyone built such a system? Can anyone let me know whether or not the slots will be covered? If they will be covered, can anyone suggest an alternative (non-Ninja) heatsink.

One more thing - will I be able to stick on a Zalman ZM-NB47J chipset heatsink. I've read in another thread on here that the stock chipset heatsink is attached by hooks. Anyone know what this means in relation to whether or not I'll be able to attach the ZM-NB47J?

Cheers.

[line]

The motherboard will be an Asus M2NPV-VM.

Have you read the consumer reviews on newegg? Six out of nine indicate DOA.

[wdekler]

I'm also interested in this Asus board and the Zalman 8000 cooler in an Antec NSK2400 case.

The Newegg customer reviews seem to indicate a problem with memory modules and this board. If you use the recommended list from Asus it should work fine.

Are there any other silent coolers that would fit this board & case?

[Firetech]

One more thing - will I be able to stick on a Zalman ZM-NB47J chipset heatsink. I've read in another thread on here that the stock chipset heatsink is attached by hooks. Anyone know what this means in relation to whether or not I'll be able to attach the ZM-NB47J?

Visit the Zalman website and have a look at the new ZM-NBF47. Fully hook compatable. There's already a thread about it on here somewhere.
I'd also heard the ASUS reliability was suspect and seem to remember an MSI board being suggested as the alternative. Have a Google.

[Gordoco]

The Newegg customer reviews seem to indicate a problem with memory modules and this board. If you use the recommended list from Asus it should work fine.

I suppose I should head over to Newegg and post my positive comments. I bought an M2NPV-VM and it is working fine. It has 1 GB (2x512) of OCZ PC2-5400 Value Series. OCZ is not listed in the manual as compatible RAM, but it's working fine.

This system is using the stock AMD cooler so I can't answer the OP's question.

[wdekler]

I've did a lot of Googling yesterday and I've come to the conclusion that the MSIK9NGM2 should be the better mobo. It seems that they've build a better board concerning memory compatibility/stability.

I've no idea if the Asus board can be upgraded by flash or if it's a hardware issue. The Nforce 4 chipset is very sensitive for memory configuration and also for static electricity. The MSI manual mentions this specifically and say: don't swap memory when in S5 mode (which you shouldn't do anyway).

The passive Zalman heatsink seems to be a nice replacement for the Nvidea one, but I'm looking for a low noise CPU cooler. I'm considering the Zalman 8000 and I wouldn't mind losing 2 of the 4 memory slots... (just as for the Asus board).

[Firetech]

I've come to the conclusion that the MSIK9NGM2 should be the better mobo.

That's the one (or at least it's predecessor) that I read about. There's a dedicated forum thread about it's predecessor somewhere