Chipset Fan

pirred908

Senior member
Jul 1, 2004
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I have the Abit AN7 motherboard and the small fan over the chipset is making a horrible grinding noise. There arent any wires or anything in its way or anything. Is this a sign that the fan is dying? I know for a fact its the fan because I stopped it for a second with my finger and the noise went away. I would like to replace the fan with the nice blue Zalman passive cooler if need be. Am I going to have to take the motherboard completly out to do this? Please help. Thank you.
 

xbassman

Golden Member
Feb 25, 2001
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I did the same thing on my NF7-M.
The better passives will let you mount it via the stock mounting holes. (yes board comes out) Then you can install in using AS5 or equivilant. The other route is to use adhesive or thermal tape. Neither of which will provide as good cooling.

Another thing that you need to make sure of is you have good airflow so the sink will work as designed.
I used the ZALMAN ZM-NB47J and havent had a lick of problems :)
Just make sure it won't interfere with your CPU cooler.
 
Aug 27, 2002
10,043
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the passives are very nice (I always buy them when I buy motherboards that have active cooling), if you want to prolong the life of your current chipset fan(at least for a little while), you can unmount it from the heatsink and take the little sticker off, then put a drop of machine oil on the bearing, and put the sticker back on. (most of the time it will get rid of the noise, but I'd still suggest replacing it.
 

xbassman

Golden Member
Feb 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: pirred908
Okay thanks guys. Is the Zalman chipset cooler the best one to go with? Thanks again.

It's the largest one I have seen. Basically it's a big aluminum HS. The only issue with these is interfering with your HS/F. I have seen a lot of guys modify them to fit.
 

pirred908

Senior member
Jul 1, 2004
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I have the Abit AN7 board and I'm use the Aquarius II waterblock. Do you think I'll have any interference issues? Also I'm thinking of upgrading to the SP-97 HS; Its huge. Do you think I'll run into problems with it?
 

xbassman

Golden Member
Feb 25, 2001
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Originally posted by: pirred908
I have the Abit AN7 board and I'm use the Aquarius II waterblock. Do you think I'll have any interference issues? Also I'm thinking of upgrading to the SP-97 HS; Its huge. Do you think I'll run into problems with it?

Not really sure...might try googling it.
If clearance is an issue you can always trim it back with a dremel.
 

Tiamat

Lifer
Nov 25, 2003
14,068
5
71
I have NF7-S version 2.0 (the good board) and have replaced the noisy fan for the zalman. I had to bend 1 of the pins in order for it to not interfere with my SLK 947U. Bending the pin took all of 5 seconds.

good luck
 

Operandi

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,508
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Agreed with the Zalman, however if you want to use thermal epoxy you don't have to remove the MB. Of course you won't be able to remove the HS either.