MSI Neo4 Platinum + 6800GT = NB jet engine fan frustration!

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 5:43 pm

Hello everyone,

Sorry to start my posting here by creating a thread that's almost redundant after 8 pages of nForce4 NB cooler solutions, but I can't take it anymore.

I have an MSI Neo4 Platinum non-SLI mobo (MS-7125) and an XFX 6800GT PCIe VGA card. I dunno if that particular XFX is unusually long, but the card itself extends almost to the SATA1-4 ports:

Anyway, since the edge of the VGA card closest to the mobo (the bottom, relatively speaking, I guess) only clears the mobo by 1cm or so, the 6800GT is basically sitting right on top of that little jet engine NB fan.

I recently bought a P180, Ninja Scythe, and VF-700Cu to quiet things way down, and it's worked: all I hear now is the lil' screamer sitting on my northbridge. My plight is that I believe my VGA card completely prevents me from getting a big, passive cooler for the NB like the popular blue Zalman one. I saw a couple pics of people who'd chopped off fins from that cooler to fit onto this MSI board, but 1) I don't have the tools for that kind of modding and 2) I think they all had ATI cards, which seem to be somewhat shorter.

Any suggestions?

Best,
Ryan

P.S. I built my first PC a few years ago and though I was pretty savvy by now, but the past 3-4 days I've spent immersed in this site's reviews and the great forums has taught me so much I feel like I'm starting all over again =)

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 10:20 pm

ive got a very similar rig, but with a 6600gt. ive recently ordered a NB47J and a low speed 40mm fan to strap onto the side of it for use on hot days, and a VF700Cu for the gfx card. from what ive seen, i may need to bend a fin or two but it should be fine other than that.
dunno if that really helps at all, but there u go

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 5:28 am

I guess I'm going to order the NB47 and give bending/breaking fins a shot. With the position of the NB on this mobo, the intake fan I have installed in the upper chamber, where the removable 3.5" drive bay should be, blows directly at the NB/VGA card, so I think it should stay cool enough without its own fan.

Here's another question, though: if I remove the stock heatsink/fan, how do I monitor the NB temp? My impression, upon perusal of MSI forums, the manual, etc. is that the temp sensor for the NB chip is in the fan. Speedfan, etc. all read crazy-wrong temps when I don't have the NB fan plugged in.

Krazy Kommando · Post by **Krazy Kommando** » Thu Sep 22, 2005 4:26 pm

as far as i know, no nforce4 chipset has a temp sensor in it. let alone in the HSF, thats just crazy!
if u wanna know how its running with a passive cooler, id get either:
a) a front pannel fan controller w/ temp sensors
b) a cheap portable temp sensor (can get them over here for about $10)

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 8:10 am

Well, I found my solution.

I just plugged the power lead of the stock NB fan into one of the 5v plugs that came with my Zalman Vf700 GPU cooler. That cooler comes with a little multi-wire power connector that lets you plug in the Zalman's fan at either 5v or 12v, but the great thing is that the splitter has 2 5v and 2 12v. So the NB fan is running slower, it's nearly silent, and the NB heatsink itself remains cool to the touch, even though I don't know exactly what it's temp is.

Ryan

Iron_Dreamer · Post by **Iron_Dreamer** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:17 pm

Often the stock NB coolers are piss-poorly made and attached, such that little effective contact is made, and they pic up little heat to begin with (another benfit of installing your own). FWIW I also undervolted that fan on the same mobo in my wife's rig, and it has been running A-OK since May, down here in the oppressive Texas heat.

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Sat Oct 01, 2005 12:28 am

A basic sabre saw is a fairly cheap power tool. You can stick a metal cutting blade in and trim a few fins or cut a hole for a case fan. You can make a simple bracket-wood or metal-to mount an 80mm or 120 near the mobo aimed to blow at the chipset and cpu-can cut some PVC into a duct to feed that fan cool outside air....many possibilities. A basic sabre saw $20 new,$5 yardsale.

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 6:21 pm

Yeah, for no reason the undervolted NM fan suddenly sounded like a kid's bike with a baseball card stuck in the spokes---*thwackthwackthwackthwackthwack*--only 50 zillion times more annoying.

There's nothing physically touching the NB heatsink or fan, so I assume it must simply be impedance from some of the other wires in the area.

I had planned to leave the stock cooler underbolted at 5V and call bygones bygones, but now I'm going to revisit you with a Zalman passive NB heatsink and a saber saw =^)

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 6:48 am

I undervolted my northbridge also down to about 7v(3700rpm) and it just purrs now. Never had a major problem and all my temperature monitoring is showing very low temps... I'm actually suspicious there's nothing in the system that is measuring the nb temps, but since I'm crash free, no concern for me... too bad I can't get 2.4ghz at 1.2v

Very curious why you have a loud sound...I wonder if anything else in your system might have a fan speedup as well? I have the same issue myself relating to the fan on my video card. It seems to speed up and make some noise when I first start up my comp, but it drops down to being much quieter after a few minutes.

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 7:56 am

The whining leaf blower scream comes and goes. It changes audibly when I tilt the case on its side for access, for example.

I started a thread over at the MSI forums about temp monitoring, and a slim consensus has emerged: there ISN'T any actual temperature monitoring on the NF4 chip itself, the one under the screamer. The temp diode that shows up as "Temp1" in Speedfan is actually on the Winbond chip in the corner of the mobo closest to the ATX12v connector.

Here's the thread:

http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?topic=88255.0

Ryan

nutbar · Post by **nutbar** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:30 pm

The thwapping sound... Most likely something is getting hit by the fan blades, whether you can see it or not. It is probably a part of the heatsink itself. I've seen this many times on video cards, northbridges, other places. You should replace the heatsink and fan to truly cure that problem.

I have a similar issue with the northbridge fan being right under my 7800gt. I'm thinking of getting the zalman passive unit, but I also want an Arctic cooler NVsliencer for my video card, which I think has the turbine fan right on top of the northbridge.... bleh. I may have to frankenstien something to effectively cool the NB while being able to use the nvsilencer.

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:29 am

OK, got the Zalman. It's much smaller than I expected, so I'll try mounting it tonight and see if it'll work.

I went with the Zalman VF700 for my 6800GT and it's great, except some of the copper fins look like they might interfere with the Zalman passive NB hs.

Thinking bout buying a better laid-out mobo right now honestly...

nutbar · Post by **nutbar** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:17 pm

Thinking bout buying a better laid-out mobo right now honestly.

I looked around a bit before buying my current motherboard for exactly that. There aren't many to be found. It seems the NF4 needs to be in that area to function.

This one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813123236
puts it in a slightly better location, but I remember discovering something else about that board which turned me away. My needs are likely different than yours though.

Ryan Norton · Post by **Ryan Norton** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:15 am

Yep, total failure to fit. The XFX 6800GT I have is bad enough, since most of its caps are right in the 'airspace' the Zalman wants to occupy. However, with the Zalman VF700, it gets even worse, with the flower petal fins at the pinward side of the card taking up yet more of the space over the NF4 chip.

Makes me want to try one of the mobos with a manufacturer passive NF4 cooling design... are those ABIT or Asus? Gotta check into.