Is it safe to disable the fan on the KT266A chipset?

[grabadude]

I have Shuttle AK31 motherboard and it's chipset fan makes rattling noise. Is it safe to turn off the chipset fan?

 

[CStroman]

I doubt it. It's there for a reason, not like the fans you might find on a Geforce 2 MX.

 

[Muerto]

If you don't want the fan then I'd replace the entire HSF unit with a much bigger heatsink without a fan. The chipset needs to be kept cool for it to be stable so use either a small heatsink with a fan or a big heatsink without a fan.

 

[chizow]

Its debatable if the fans are really even necessary. I think its there for peace of mind. If you've ever removed the northbridge hsf you'd see that its usually not even making solid contact with the northbridge and sometimes doesn't even have any thermal compound. I always have to lap it for about 25 mins for it to even be flat, and the AS2 I applied the first time made an imprint on about 1/4 of the heat sink the first time around. If you disable the fan, worst thing that will happen is that your system will become unstable and you'll probably get some BSODs. Disable it, if it runs fine, then you're in the clear. If you start locking up, then plug it back in. Unlike your CPU, your northbridge isn't gonna fry w/out a fan.

Chiz

 

[grabadude]

Would a simple heatsink be sufficient or the fan is needed anyway?

 

[grabadude]

I fixed it. I just changed the fan with another one without changing the heatsink.

 

[ku]

i had an ak31 and i just screwed the fan in more. that didn't fix the noise problem 100% but it did help.