Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.gigabyte (
More info?)
In message <1T2dnRqXDLmUtBPfUSdV9g@ptd.net> "Rick M." <dishtv@ptd.net>
wrote:
>DevilsPGD wrote:
>> I happened to be poking around in my case and unplugged the chipset
>> fan... Damn is that thing loud -- It's noiser then my CPU fan.
>>
>> Any thoughts as far as replacing it goes? The gigabyte replacement is
>> $20, there are a few other chipset fans available that are the in the
>> same price ballpark.
>>
>> I'm currently using a Zalman CNPS7700-AlCu Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler, it's
>> fan actually passes half over the chipset, so part of me is debating
>> looking at passive cooling (since at best I'll end up with two fans
>> blowing at each other), but I'm not against active cooling as long as I
>> can find something QUIET.
>>
>> Anyone have any experience with this? -- I've never really monkeyed with
>> chipset cooling -- The goal is to reduce the uneven noise of the fans
>> more then to get as quiet as possible, but either/both together would be
>> nice.
>
>I'm looking into some sort of custom fab'd copper heatpipe/spreader for
>the northbridge on this GA-K8NS-Ultra 939 mobo. The fan on the
>northbridge is louder than my CPU fan! (I use the same Zalman cooler you
>do).
Even with the Zalman cooler at 100% it's quieter then the northbridge
fan. That frightens me, these fans aren't exactly expensive. I doubt
it would put Gigabyte out of business to spend an extra $0.25 per unit
on a $150-$200 motherboard.
On the other hand, selling replacement fans for $19.95 is a pretty good
cash cow for them too, probably higher margin then the motherboard.
I normally have my motherboard set to run the CPU fan at about 5%, any
lower and the CPU fan stops. It speeds up if the CPU is reporting a
temperature increase, but it's not generally an issue.
Note that I definitely don't trust my CPU temperature readings, I just
know what the baseline for idle is, and how warm it gets when running at
100% with the CPU fan going full speed, and set the thresholds
>The only reason I want to go to some sort of heatpipe/spreader is
>because on this mobo, the northbridge sits inline with the top two PCI
>slots, and the back end of my video card (a Radeon 7500 PCI ATI All In
>Wonder) hangs over the northbridge by about 3/4", so using Zalman's
>passive northbridge cooler is not an option for me.
What were they thinking when they designed the motherboard?
>But if I fab a
>passive cooler using a heatpipe/spreader, I can extend the heat spreader
>via copper tubing towards the front edge of the mobo so that the
>heatspreader is positioned over top the dual BIOS chips instead, and so
>that it is also right inline of the airflow path from my front mounted
>case fan.
Ahh, very nice. Must be nice to have the resources to do something like
that
>I don't see why there would be a problem using a passive cooling option
>as the newer NForce4 boards (like the GA-K8NU-9) use heatsinks only.
I ended up picking up the passive northbridge heatsink (I initially
thought it was too high and/or that the northbridge was too close, but
it turned out to be a typo on whatever site I copy/pasted my specs
from... It looks like it will work beautifully for me)
Unfortunately I can't pop the motherboard's heatsink off the motherboard
without removing the entire board from the case (my case doesn't have a
removable motherboard mount) and that takes a couple hours to completely
rebuild my system, I have to remove almost everything from my case
before I can even get close. I'm too anal about cable layout (Although
you wouldn't know it now, I have a bit of a rat's nest of power cables
after replacing a bunch of fans -- I might take the system apart just to
rerun the fan cables)
I've left instructions with my wholesaler that if I ever attempt to buy
a toolless case again, he is to punch me as many times as it takes to
change my mind -- I can disassemble and reassemble any of my servers in
under 30 minutes and they have (on average) more drives and PCI cards
then my desktop.
I can get either pin off the northbridge heatsink by squeezing them from
the side, but there isn't enough room to pull 'em both off at the same
time. Unless there is a trick I'm missing, I'll probably just leave it,
it doesn't even get that hot with the stock heatsink and the Zalman fan
right there, but if I can get it off, I have plans for that heatsink too
(but the Zalman northbridge one is too tall for my other plans)
If it starts to overheat at all, it's actually a pretty standard fan
once you take off the grill -- I was expecting some weird mounting holes
or something from Gigabyte for some reason.
--
Study reveals half the country has below-average intelligence.
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