Noisy chipset fan issue

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
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Well, it's been a while since I have visted and really participated in these forums but nothing brings a man back like problems with their comp equipment. At Christmas I built a new machine including a DFI lanparty Ultra-D mobo, Opteron 165, and 7800GT. Because this build was destined to be as silent as you could make an air cooled rig I put alot of thought into it. Everything from under-volted rifle bearing fans to replacing the chipset cooler was done. It's that last part that is now causing me problems.

For the first few months the Evercool VC-RE worked very well to keep my Nf4 chipset "cool", it maxes out at about 53 C under heavy gaming. While this seems hot as most of you know these chipsets can take alot of heet before they have issues. My problem is that recently my evercool began making noises. Since the begining I have used the included mobo monitoring program (smartguardian) to drop the RPM's on the evercool to just under 3000. This kept it so quiet that it could not be heard over the whisper of my Yate-Loons running at 6v. Now that it is making so much freaking noise I have lost that whole silent pc thing.

Is there anything I can do, short of replacing the fan, that would quiet this down? I can't see an easy way to apply teflon grease as there is no access point on the top of the fan. If there is no way to repair it, has anyong had sucess cooling this chipset passivly without cranking the intake fans in the case and heavily moddifying a zalman?

Thanks for any help or suggestions.

-spike
 

XJustMeX21

Golden Member
Nov 26, 2005
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have you tried putting a little oil in the motor? i've had to do this to an iceberq chipset cooler and my stock abit nf7 cooler after about 4 months it worked great for 6 months after that.
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
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As I stated above, I cannot figure out how to put oil in the fan due to the lack of an opening on top. Most fans have a sticker you can peel back and add oil to, this fan is solid plastic on top with no way into the bearings that I can see.
 

Operandi

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Oct 9, 1999
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The Microcool Northpole XE Whisper could be an option. SPCR used one in one of their Pentium M builds and it meet with their approval so you know its going to be very quiet, it should also last unlike that Evercool junk.

It looks like its a bit shorter then the passive Zalman heatsinks, but may or may not be small enough to fit under your video card. I'm assuming that?s the problem with the Zalmans in your application?
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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Thermalright HR-05 is good too, and costs 1/2 as much as the Jing-Ting cooler
 

Lord Banshee

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Sep 8, 2004
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the Thermalright HR-05 doesn't fit the Ultra D does it...


Maybe if you use the second PCI-E slot it would
 

996GT2

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2005
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Well, Thermalright's website lists the Ultra-D as compatible with the HR-05, so I assume there's a way to make it fit.
 

Munky

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Feb 5, 2005
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I'm sure with some effort you could put oil in that fan. I have the vc-re cooler too, and if you use a narrow straw to get some oil under the fan, tip it upside down to get the oil inside, and spin it around - that might do the trick. You'll probably have to remove the cooler, and it might get a bit messy, but it could be done. Worst case, you may just have to buy a new one, but they arent that expensive.
 

Spike

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Aug 27, 2001
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Thanks for all the suggestions, I have never heard of the jing tin, anyone have a link to a good reseller/review? I would like to continue to use the top PCI slot for better performance as well as the possibility (however unlikely) of going SLI in the future.

Munky, I was hoping there was a way to oil/reduce noise of the fan without removing it because if I take that step I might as well replace it. As you pointed out, at ~$8 it's not that expensive. I just don't want to be in this same situation in another few months, maybe the evercool just does not like being run at such a low speed.

Operandi, that fan linked looks WAY to high to fit under the GPU in the first slot, it has to be basically as tall as just the fan itself to fit under. I still hear of issues with performance when switching to the second PCIe slot plus my Audigy 2 is down there so it would not fit with the Zalman VF-700cu I have on the 7800GT.

I appreciate all the feedback, keep it coming!

-spike
 

Bull Dog

Golden Member
Aug 29, 2005
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Originally posted by: Lord Banshee
Originally posted by: 996GT2
Well, Thermalright's website lists the Ultra-D as compatible with the HR-05, so I assume there's a way to make it fit.


where do you see this?

i see this
LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Not Compatible

source:
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main...ort_faq_motherboard_hr05_socket939.htm

The HR-05 works on the DFI-nForce4 Ultra-D if you use the 2nd PCI slot. Mod the Ultra chipset to a SLI one, then move the jumpers on the board to SLI mode and put the card in the second slot. You will see no performance loss this way.
 

Lord Banshee

Golden Member
Sep 8, 2004
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Bulldog do you even have to mod it though?

If you set the jumpers to SLI mod then it should set each PCI-E by 8X.

I was reading sites some people got 5% slower some got .05% slower in benchmarks.. i have not tried it myself and i might give it a go this week (after finals) and see. I would like to get rid of this noisey stock DFI fan this friday :)

OP:
Do you know if the VC-RF is the same exact fan as the VC-RE as jab-tech is selling the "RF" for about 10 bucks.

Also i can not find one site that has the jing tin heatstink (sp?) in stock :(
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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Originally posted by: Lord Banshee
Bulldog do you even have to mod it though?

If you set the jumpers to SLI mod then it should set each PCI-E by 8X.

I was reading sites some people got 5% slower some got .05% slower in benchmarks.. i have not tried it myself and i might give it a go this week (after finals) and see. I would like to get rid of this noisey stock DFI fan this friday :)

OP:
Do you know if the VC-RF is the same exact fan as the VC-RE as jab-tech is selling the "RF" for about 10 bucks.

Also i can not find one site that has the jing tin heatstink (sp?) in stock :(

there almost the same except the RF is more intended as a chipset cooler so it has a metal cover to protect the fans. But honestly save the 3 dollars and get the RE. I have one on my system with SLI and it has no problems whatsoever.

VC-RE at Jabtech

Im still investigating ways to solve this problem on my brothers LP SLI-DR. My other alternative to you would be get the new venus board or even the expert series like i did and watercool that sucker :p

I am not watercooling my NB unforntunately. Having 2 7900's overclocked and a overclocked CPU is about pushing the limits on my loop. I would probably need to add another D5 pump in my loop to help and im currently waiting on that.
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
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So that funny looking heatsink with the fan attached to heatpipes is better than the VC-RE? I assume since people are reccomending it that it will fit on the Ultra-D without getting in the way of the PCIe slot?

I did not know that by putting the jumpers in SLI mode on an un-modded board will help performance. My understanding was that set both slots at 8x and while the current cards do not come close to saturating even the PCIe 8x bus I hear that there is still performance loss. I will look into that funny looking cooler if I can find a place that has it in stock
 

DerwenArtos12

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2003
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Ok, here we go:
before
As you can see, this is one crowded system. With everthing I had crammed into that case, it's not wonder the chiset was getting no air. If you look VERY closely you can see the upper 1/3 of the chipset cooer just above the VC. Thats about the only area it had to move air.

Here is a closer look at the VC and chipset, i'm amaized temps were only in the high 40's full idle and maxing out around 55.

Here is the jingting, completely dis-assembled and waitin for installation. Upon origonally dumping out the bag that all the parts came in, I thought there had to be enough hardware to mount the thing twice. And, while I do still have a small pile of hardware left over, I did use roughly 3/4 of the hardware. YMMV of course as that is the idea behind this cooler, maximum flexibility to offer better cooling in virtually any system. Also, the copper base is incredibly well lapped, you can see the swirl marks from it being cut still but barely. I was attempting to take a picture of a screw sitting on it but, the camera kept picking up things in the background so, instead here is a picture of my AV duct on my ceiling as a reflection on the copper base.

For those of you less familliar with the DFI NF4 line of boards here is a pic of the bare board with stock cooler still installed.

As I hinted to last night, getting this cooler mounted with a NV silecer on a 7800gt is more than a tall task. I'm not one to say something is impossible, strickly out of my stuborn nature but, I was ready to call it quits and re-install the stock cooler multiple times. It took me all of two hours to find a position that suited my situation and it is a TIGHT fit still. And there are comprimises that had to be made. Two of the SATA ports are quite blocked off, the cooler would have to be moved to reach the CMOS battery. In addition, the copper base is anything but sitting on the chipset fully. I had to use the flexibility of the mounts to pull it very far off to one side, one reason I may not be seeing ideal cooling numbers.
Pics of final resting place:
from bottom of motherboard
from side of motherboard
from above
with VC installed

upon installing the VC I quickly ran into a more than small problem. The kit comes with some thumb nuts to tighten onto the screws that come through the motherboard, to make life a little easier but, there was a major clearance issue between the top, closest to the IDE connectors, thumb nut and the graphics card. They were rubbing, it was warping the board slightly and I could not have said for sure one way or another if it was jumping a pair of leads on the oposite side of a capacitor. The fix was extremely easy though, simply removed the thumb nut and replaced it with one of the standard nuts that came with the kit, completely solved the clearance issue and wasn't all that difficult, thank god.
picture of clearance issue

as you can see, it works just fine with the ultra-d, it takes a heck of a lot of effort if you have a silencer on your video card otherwise, works great, lower than stock temps even when run passively.
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
6,770
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Thanks for that long post. As I am at work currently I cannot view the pics (they block bbzzdd unfortunatly) but I will check this out tonight and see if that is what I want to attempt.

Thanks again!

-spike
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
6,770
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I cannot get any of the pics to load from home, I keep getting an error that says pics.bbzzdd cannot be found. Any help?
 

Spike

Diamond Member
Aug 27, 2001
6,770
1
81
Ok, now I can see the pics and what you are talking about. I found a friend with a VC-RE so I bought that from him for $5 and will give it another go. If that does not work I am all about a more "exotic" cooling approach and will check out the cooler you have. Thanks a ton for all your effort in putting together a great post!

-spike