Northbridge cooler replacement help

[Handruin]

The northbridge fan is beginning to fail on my abit NF7-S, so I began looking into alternatives. I looked through some of the Abit related forums and they recommend a few solutions. I'm interested in what you guys think.

One suggestion is to use another vantec CCB-A1C which also has a fan. But like my current solution, a fan may once again be prone to failure.

Another interesting option is a Zalman ZM-NB32J or Zalman ZM-NB47J heatsink. Which is said to provide enough cooling without a fan.

I don't overclock, so I'm leaning towards the fanless solution. What pros and cons have you guys dealt with in this area? Should I buy the vantec and live with a fan, or is the fanless heatsink a reasonable solution?

 

[P5-133XL]

Heat Sink solutions should always be cheaper and more reliable then a fan+Heat Sink. They just don't supply the cooling capability that fans do. If you can get away without a fan, then do it.

 

[ddrueding]

I have at least a dozen NF7-S boards out there with Zalman passive NB coolers on them. I made the swap before the board was every even powered on. These systems have been in the field at least 2 years (many as servers 24/7) and not had a single issue.

 

[Handruin]

Sounds like it is a viable solution to go passive. I was leaning towards it because I want to bring down the noise. Which model of the passive Zalman did you use? The two I listed were recommended to me on the Abit forum. I'll also use something like Artic Silver when mounting the heatsink.

Also, what HSF do you use with the NF7-S? I was considering the Thermalright si97 with a panaflow 92 mm low-speed fan (on top of a non-OC'd XP2200+).

 

[Groltz]

I changed out my NF7-S northbridge cooler about a month ago when the fan bearing began howling.

Used a Thermalright NB-1C.

The only hassle, and it wasn't a big one, was to graft the old cooler's fan wiring harness to the new Thermalright's fan. That way I was able to plug it right in to the NF7-S's existing 2-pin NB fan power socket on the board.

Works great. I can't hear it over all the other fans in the case. On its own, however, the fan that is supplied with it is a bit loud.

Review
Review

 

[ddrueding]

At the time they only had the square one, so whichever that is. They're also using the original Zalman "flower" heatsinks and 2500+ Barton cores. A very reliable setup.

 

[Handruin]

Thanks for the info ddrueding and Groltz. I decided to go with the passive solution so that I won't have to deal with a dieing fan again and also because I want to reduce the amount of noise this machine produces. My $10 fix at newegg turned into a $200 mission to quite this machine...

This is what I ended up buying:

• 2 THERMALTAKE SilentCat 80mm 1 Ball 1 Sleeve Cooling Fan - Retail $11.80
• 1 THERMALTAKE SilentCat 9cm 90mm 1 Ball 1 Sleeve Cooling Fan - Retail $7.49
• 1 Antec NeoPower ATX 480W Power Supply - Retail $115.00
• 1 Arctic Silver ACN-240ML (2-PC-SET) Thermal material Remover & Surface Purifier - OEM $11.99
• 1 Arctic Silver "ARCTIC SILVER 5" Thermal Compound - OEM $7.99
• 1 THERMALTAKE CL-P0006 Cooling Fan - Retail $38.99
• 1 ZALMAN ZM-NB47J Aluminium NorthBridge Chipset Cooler - Retail $6.99

 

[Handruin]

I received some of my parts today so I made some swaps. I replaced the failing northbridge HSF and installed the zalman ZM-NB47J with some Arctic silver 5. I also replaced the spire with the CL-P0006. So far the CPU temperature is about 5 degrees Celsius lower during 100% CPU usage. After 35 minutes of Super Pi, the CPU temperature is at 49 degrees Celsius.

I felt the zalman by hand and it's pretty warm. I can keep my finger on it without being burned, but it seems pretty warm. There is nothing blocking the air flow around it. The ambient temperature is higher today then it has been in the past (about 79 F in my room). How warm do you think is too warm for an nForce 2 chip? I probably need a temperature reading device before anyone can tell me if it's too warm.

 

[time]

Doug, Jake and I were playing with Zalman northbridge coolers on nForce2 boards back in this thread.

Unless you're trying to run over 230MHz FSB, I wouldn't worry about the heatsink temperature.

 

[Handruin]

Thanks for the link, time. I didn't pay enough attention back in 2003 to that thread. I'm a bit behind the times, I guess. I'm running at stock speed with my board, so it sounds like I'll be fine. The Abit NF7-S is a rev 1.0, so it isn't even running at 200 MHz (166 MHz).

Here are some pictures of the original setup and changes if you're curious:
http://www.handruin.com/public-image/pc_upgrade/

(ps sorry a few of the photos are blurry)