Best cooling for the ABIT AN-M2 AM2 Motherboard???

Cooling Processors quietly

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Pagan Wizard
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Best cooling for the ABIT AN-M2 AM2 Motherboard???

Post by Pagan Wizard » Sat Oct 18, 2008 9:01 pm

I just ordered the Abit AN-M2 AM2 MOBO, (pictured below) and am wondering what would be the best way to keep this thing cool??

Image

Thanks for your suggestions

ntavlas
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Post by ntavlas » Sun Oct 19, 2008 9:53 am

It`s nice that this board has a heatsink on the mosfets. If you omit to place the i/o shield the you can have some cool air enter right through that heatsink.

The northbridge is a little more tricky because it has a very low heatsink. You could try to replace it, put a small 4cm fan on it or both. That will prevent you from using any of the 2 adjustent expansion slots though.

Generally speaking a top down cooler can help with keeping the board cool though you sacrifice a little in cpu cooling. Shouldn`t be an issue with a low power cpu, so if you need those 2 slots this option can help you cool the northbridge.

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Sun Oct 19, 2008 2:28 pm

What cooler to use would depend on what CPU you plan to use and in what case !
Because of the socket orientation most tower coolers will face the "wrong" way (they will point at the PSU ) . I would suggest a Thermalright SI-128-SE it has a good , if a little fiddly, bolt through mounting and will take most quiet fans (120mm) . If budget is tight an Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM is quiet till it heats up and you do have a PWM 4 pin header on that board . They cool very well but - they do spin up to be a little noisy , but they are better than a Zalman NT-8700 for both cooling and noise .

Pagan Wizard
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Post by Pagan Wizard » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:19 am

I am going to be using an AM2 6400 Black Edition CPU and was thinking about using the Scythe Mini CPU cooler. I am mostly concerned with the the memory, the northbridge and the mosfet. Not yet sure about which case I am going to use.......thinking about the Antec 900.

I was hoping to mirror the coolers on the MOBO ath the begining of this thread.
viewtopic.php?t=41012&highlight=

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:59 am

I am going to be using an AM2 6400 Black Edition CPU
The 6400 runs hot - Very HOT ! It is harder to keep cool than a 9800 Phenom . If you have not bought your CPU yet you would be better with one of the 65nm CPUs for a quiet PC or even a 6000+ and if you can find one there is a 3.1 ghz 6000+ Brisbane core CPU which , if I could get one would be my first choice . Further it would be very wise to check the compatibility list on you Mobo vendors website because about 50% of uATX AMD motherboards do not support 125 watt CPUs and using them on those motherboards results in VRM failure - You have been warned !

porkchop
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Post by porkchop » Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:13 am

don't worry about the mosfets- they only ever get barely warm, and the io shield has holes for cooling. i guess your cpu is fairly high wattage so it might run hotter, but considering that alot of mobos don't even have a heatsink over their mosfets- i'd say it safe enough.

the nvidia chip gets fairly warm however, so a bigger heatsink is recommended- although i'm sure i've seen other people stick with the tiny one with no problems.
i'm using a generic one on mine(similar to the heatsink on the mosfets) and it never gets hot enough to be uncomfortable to touch.
i have one exhaust fan @520rpm, x2 3600+, an-m2, nsk3400, wd6400aacs.

Techno Pride
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Post by Techno Pride » Mon Oct 20, 2008 7:00 am

http://www.abit.com.tw/test-report/an-m2_series.htm?1

the 6400 isn't listed on the compatibility list

pony-tail
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Post by pony-tail » Mon Oct 20, 2008 1:39 pm

don't worry about the mosfets- they only ever get barely warm, and the io shield has holes for cooling. i guess your cpu is fairly high wattage so it might run hotter, but considering that alot of mobos don't even have a heatsink over their mosfets- i'd say it safe enough.
The VRM issue is not a heat issue it is a current issue - sometimes resulting in blown mobo tracks ( although that was a 140watt Phenom 9950 on an Asus M3N-EMH-HDMI that their website states only supports 95 watt CPUs ) I have seen 3 boards already fail catastrophically due to this although none were this particular board , I am just advising caution !

porkchop
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Post by porkchop » Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:11 am

i was just citing my own experience, my comments on the mosfets was directed mostly at this comment:
ntavlas wrote:It`s nice that this board has a heatsink on the mosfets. If you omit to place the i/o shield the you can have some cool air enter right through that heatsink.
being an older board- i agree that it most likely will not support the newer high wattage cpus.

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