Northbridge Heatsink question

unkel

I have the Zalman 400W PSU, 7000CU cpu HSF and ZM80C passive VGA cooling. I must be a Zalman fan

My mobo is an Abit AI7, which has a heatsink + fan to cool the northbridge chipset.

The fan on this chipset is quite noisy, at stock speed it runs at about 5600 rpm even if bios or software controlled it can't be run below 3900 rpm and the cooling performance is then poor

So I bought a Zalman Northbridge heatsink. The one I bought is the ZM-NB47J. Stupidly, I didn't check my mobo before I bought it and the mobo doesn't have mounting holes around the northbridge

On the instructions of the ZM-NB47J and on Zalman's website, it clearly states I cannot use this HS if my mobo doesn't have mounting holes

There is another Zalman NB HS, the ZM-NB32J, which according to Zalman can be attached with thermal adhesive if the mobo doesn't have mounting holes. The package even comes with some adhesive

So my question: why wouldn't that work for my ZM-NB47J? Or do you reckon it would work just grand

Col_Loki

Personally i think the only reason is that one comes with only the clips so the board has to have mounting holes (zalman covering themselves) as the package doesent come with thermal adhesive.

The one you have is a slightly bigger heatsink so should perform better. I see no reason why it wont work perfectly, except you might have a drop in FSB due to the cooling difference. I lost a few MHZ FSB when i changed....... with a 250mhz FSB you will be very lucky if you keep that up i think!! Also the motherboard temps will rise slightly....... worth it i think as the noise is nicely reduced.

Sir Random

No need for adhesive, just mod it.
On my IS7, I used a dowel rod with the original Abit fan clips:

unkel

Thanks for the help lads. Sir Random, I came across your solutution on the Abit forums a few days ago. The last picture you posted here looks remarkably like the one on the Abit forums iirc. Was that yourself posting there?

Anyway, inventive solution, but don't think it will work for my AI7 as HSF connection to mobo is quite different, but will look again tonight just to be sure

Solutions left to me:

1. Glue the damned thing - mobo warranty void (have RMA'd 2 mobo's in the last 2 years). Will probably work, but will then be very difficult to get 7000CU off the mobo

2. Sell mobo and buy other one without NB HSF - Sell current mobo, so upgrade to better mobo would only be about €100 - €120. Current bottleneck in my system is either mobo or cpu, dunno for sure. Good way to find that out and make the most of my expensive ram

3. Do nothing and learn to live with current rig's limitations till I do complete upgrade in about a years time

4. Get the older Zalman HS and glue that to mobo

What do you all think?

Sir Random

Originally posted by unkel
Thanks for the help lads. Sir Random, I came across your solutution on the Abit forums a few days ago. The last picture you posted here looks remarkably like the one on the Abit forums iirc. Was that yourself posting there?

Yeah, that was my post.

Did you try oiling the fan? That should keep it silent for another 6 months or more.

Just put a tiny drop of oil on the spindle under the sticker, it'll soak in with a few turns of the fan.

Inspector Gadget

There's an old trick that might work here... I remember mixing a (more-or-less) 50:50 mixture of thermal compound and thermal epoxy (I was using Arctic Silver and their accompanying epoxy, I think) to do a job like this (broken mounting, I think); this didn't set as hard and helped me get the heatsink off more easily. Remember to mix the two well.

Might help you here - doubt it can hurt, as long as it sticks well enough.

Hope this helps,
Gadget
P.S.> Regarding oiling the fan, it's a very good idea, but remember to use something slightly viscous ("gloopy") like 3-in-1; from personal experience, "thin" stuff and penetrating oils (like WD40) can mean giving the inside of the case an oil shower when the fan spins up

Jorinn

Well, tbh you mightn't have a problem running without the fan.

My northbridge has a fan on it, unfortunately i recently discovered the fan doesn't actually work anymore. It does seem to be operating as a heatsink though quite efficiently, temp hasn't gone up but fan is hot to touch, must replace it this weekend. Abit board btw.

unkel

Originally posted by Jorinn
Well, tbh you mightn't have a problem running without the fan.

I do unfortunately. Even with the fan @3900 the cooling is poor as stated, forgot to mention the system is stiffly overclocked. Pretty sure I'd fry the chipset if I take it off

Originally posted by Inspector Gadget
There's an old trick that might work here... I remember mixing a (more-or-less) 50:50 mixture of thermal compound and thermal epoxy

Now you mention it, I do remember having seen that somewhere. Could be the option to go for

Originally posted by Sir Random
Yeah, that was my post.

Did you try oiling the fan? That should keep it silent for another 6 months or more.

Just put a tiny drop of oil on the spindle under the sticker, it'll soak in with a few turns of the fan.

Cool, think I'll try that first to see what difference it makes. Will use slighly viscous oil

Thanks for the tips everyone