MSI K8N Neo4 Northbridge Fan

[amol]

I have a Zalman NB47J ready to go, but I can't seem to remove the fan on this board ... how do I get it off??

 

[amol]

no one knows???

 

[Auz]

Remove the motherboard and turn it over. You will see two black cones sticking out on the other side of the northbridge. Grab a pair of small plyers or tweasers, and squeeze on the clips untill they pop back through the holes. You might want to hold on to the heatsink while doing this so it doesnt put unequal stress on the chip. The stock cooler will most likely be stuck down with thermal glue- some twisting and it will come off.

Clean off the core carefully with alcohol, and align the zalman and it's clips over the northbridge. Put back in the graphics card to make sure they will fit together. You might have to remove a few fins from the zalman- but its big enough for that not to matter much.

Carefully remove it and tighten those j shaped brackets from the underside. This takes a bit of trial and error untill its aligned correctly with the holes on the motherboard. You might also want to remove the square standoff sticker from the stock cooler and put on the zalman to stop electrical contact with the resistors- but make sure its aligned correctly.

keep in mind while doing this, that the core is fragile, and exposed without any plastic insulation, or heat spreaders.

-auz