Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 and it's hot passive heatsink

[UsandThem]

I am really surprised at how hot this thing gets. I can hold my finger on it for about three seconds before having to pull away.

I noticed that the heatsink was not holding on the Nforce4 chipset, so I took everything out and removed the heatsink and there was a thermal pad on there. However, where the chipset and the heatsink made contact, the thermal pad was basically burnt off.

I know thermal pads melt, but I have never seen this before. All that was left was a resin that covered about 1/4 of the core and it is permantly burnt on. That stuff would not come off.

I replaced it with some thermal grease and am trying to figure out a way to get a fan on it, but it is such a tight fit right under the video card.

Anybody else have any luck modding theirs?

 

[CheesePoofs]

My friend has a gigabyte nforce4 board with a passive heatsink also. It gets HOT, the heatsink almost burnt me while I was building the computer.

 

[narcotic]

I have this mobo, and yeah the chipset's heatsink gets hot, so?
did you run into any problems as a result of that?

so far the chipset's heat didn't bother me.

 

[UsandThem]

In the winter time no, but now with hotter temps, my system has had a few problems while gaming. It has to be the chipset heat, because everything has very good cooling on it.

I haven't noticed any problems since I put the paste on it however. It could be it just burnt up the pad material and there wasn't very good contact anymore.

I was just disappointed at:

1. When I bought this thing, all pictures of it had a fan on the heatsink.

2. The placement of the chip prevents any after market cooling products to go there.

I did read several reviews where the review site had stability problems due to the heat of the northbridge chipset.

Here is the pic of the motherboard when I bought it:

Before

Here is what I received:

After

There is no room there for anything.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Hmm... call ASUS or something - ASUS'll give you a free replacement heatsink (Even though you have a Gigabyte) - give it a try .

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
Hmm... call ASUS or something - ASUS'll give you a free replacement heatsink (Even though you have a Gigabyte) - give it a try .

The new holes in the motherboard are to far apart for any normal cooler to work

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Oh yeah ... good point. I forgot about the size .Time to do some soldering (on the HEATSINK not the board )

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Zalman makes passive heatsinks for Northbridge chips. NB32J and NB47J

Go to this link and select northbridge chipsets from the products list. I've read reviews that say they are very effective.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: NotquiteanooB
Zalman makes passive heatsinks for Northbridge chips. NB32J and NB47J

Go to this link and select northbridge chipsets from the products list. I've read reviews that say they are very effective.

http://www.zalman.co.kr/

Both would be good choices, but there is no way to install them since the heatsink is located directly under the video card.

 

[NotquiteanooB]

Obviously;;; another reason for onboard integrated Video.

 

[HighCalibreHooch]

Originally posted by: UsandThem
In the winter time no, but now with hotter temps, my system has had a few problems while gaming. It has to be the chipset heat, because everything has very good cooling on it.

I haven't noticed any problems since I put the paste on it however. It could be it just burnt up the pad material and there wasn't very good contact anymore.

I was just disappointed at:

1. When I bought this thing, all pictures of it had a fan on the heatsink.

2. The placement of the chip prevents any after market cooling products to go there.

I did read several reviews where the review site had stability problems due to the heat of the northbridge chipset.

Here is the pic of the motherboard when I bought it:

Before

Here is what I received:

After

There is no room there for anything.

I feel lucky now because mine came with the gold fan (first pick), not the passive heatsink. All this time I thought people were complaining about the fan. Now I see why you are disappointed. BTW I received mine Jan 3rd this year with F1 bios, updated to F4 no problem.

HCH

 

[DrCrap]

if its such a proble, wouldn't calling gigabyte, and asking for a cooler do the trick..?
I heard they have a decent customer support.

 

[HighCalibreHooch]

I would just ask for for one of the gold fans the boards were orginally shipping with. It's probably a $0.50 cent part for them. Don't mention 'overcocking' because they likely have a support script they must follow.

HCH

 

[UsandThem]

Heck, I am not even overclocking. I would think if I even tried that, the northbridge chip would burst into flames

Everything seems much more stable since I added the thermal paste. I guess between that and my front fan, there is enough air on it. However, I still can't hold my finger on longer than three seconds.

I guess I could email them and see if their fans would fit this revision of the board. It does look like the holes are further apart on my board than their standard little fan would fit into.

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
Oh yeah ... good point. I forgot about the size .Time to do some soldering (on the HEATSINK not the board )

Actually, the Asus fan fits on the GA-K8N Ultra-9, so I imagine it'd work on the board in discussion. I built the machine Monday and decided that the passive heatsink was WAY too hot. I had the replacement Asus fan and an NB47J available; the NB47J won't fit, so I had to use the Asus fan.

Here's a picture. Complications:

1) The push pins had to go in at a slight angle, but they went in without trouble and it's secure.

2) The fan connector doesn't reach unless you pull on the hsf, but that tilts it (not good for cooling purposes). I used a 3pin-4pin adapter instead.

3) The video card clears the Asus hsf by maybe 1mm, but probably less than that. When inserting the video card, I think the initial force of pushing it into the PCI-E slot jammed the card down against the northbridge hsf for a split second. Try to avoid doing that.

I did over 24 hours of continuous stress testing, and for the past 12 hours I've actually begun using the computer and gaming on it. It's working great

I guess I'll be using the NB47J + some kind of ghetto fan for my A8N-E...

 

[UsandThem]

Originally posted by: Gerbil333

Originally posted by: The Pentium Guy
Oh yeah ... good point. I forgot about the size .Time to do some soldering (on the HEATSINK not the board )

Actually, the Asus fan fits on the GA-K8N Ultra-9, so I imagine it'd work on the board in discussion. I built the machine Monday and decided that the passive heatsink was WAY too hot. I had the replacement Asus fan and an NB47J available; the NB47J won't fit, so I had to use the Asus fan.

Here's a picture. Complications:

1) The push pins had to go in at a slight angle, but they went in without trouble and it's secure.

2) The fan connector doesn't reach unless you pull on the hsf, but that tilts it (not good for cooling purposes). I used a 3pin-4pin adapter instead.

3) The video card clears the Asus hsf by maybe 1mm, but probably less than that. When inserting the video card, I think the initial force of pushing it into the PCI-E slot jammed the card down against the northbridge hsf for a split second. Try to avoid doing that.

I did over 24 hours of continuous stress testing, and for the past 12 hours I've actually begun using the computer and gaming on it. It's working great

I guess I'll be using the NB47J + some kind of ghetto fan for my A8N-E...

Thanks for the advice. That might just be the way to go

 

[TStep]

You could always grab a 40mm fan and mount it on the memory edge of the heatsink angling it downwards, blowing across the existing heatsink.

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: UsandThem
Thanks for the advice. That might just be the way to go

The Asus heatsink still runs very hot despite having a fan. I'm reading through the SilentPCReview thread on this topic. A few people have bent the fins on the NB47J to make it fit on Gigabyte and DFI motherboards. Take a look here.