northbridge fan on Abit IS-7 sounds like vacuum

[kaizersose]

i cleaned all the dust on the thing and cant find whats making the noise. how difficult is is to replace with a heat sink, or should i just try to send it back to abit? it is less than a year old. thanks in advance

 

[John]

Remove the fan and put a drop of 3-in-1 or teflon oil on the bushing located in the center of the fan housing.

 

[RussianSensation]

1 - THERMALTAKE EXTREME SPIRIT VGA CHIPSET - $14
2- THERMALRIGHT NB-1 NORTH BRIDGE COOLER (FAN INCLUDED) - $10
3 - THERMALRIGHT NB-1C COPPER CHIPSET COOLER W/ FAN - $27
4 - Zalman Passive Northbridge Heatsink ZM-NB47J - $4 + Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive - $6.45
5 - Microcool Black SouthSink - $7 also available in silver colour
6 - Microcool Northpole Chipset Cooling Kit - $30
7 - Swiftech MCX159-P? for Intel® processors - $33

And of course:

8 - Official ABIT Northbridge Chipset Fan for IC7/IS7/AI7 Series (3-Pin Connector)
This is the same NB that Abit IS7 v1.2+ boards come with now since V1.0 and 1.1 used to have the old style northbridge that failed often.

 

[gururu]

take the fan off? is it even necessary? I have an IS7-E2, and it didn't come with a fan.

 

[kaizersose]

Originally posted by: gururu
take the fan off? is it even necessary? I have an IS7-E2, and it didn't come with a fan.

i assume it has a heat sink though?

i contemplated removing the fan and just checking to see what the temps are. the system it is in isnt used for anything serious, just office work.

 

[Drizzy]

I had to take mine off.. they are defective and this happens all the time.. sounds great now.

 

[Davegod]

4 - Zalman Passive Northbridge Heatsink ZM-NB47J - $4 + Arctic Alumina Thermal Adhesive - $6.45

other one i suggest would be contact abit and see if they'll just mail you a replacement - i'd probably still go for the zalman and consider it a noise-reduction upgrade though.

 

[Zepper]

those abit northbridge fans are lousy. The official replacements from excaliberPC have maybe a two week warranty! Get a Zalman et al. passive heatsink.
..bh.

 

[kaizersose]

Originally posted by: Drizzy
I had to take mine off.. they are defective and this happens all the time.. sounds great now.

did you leave it off or replace it with an aftermarket heatsink?

even without the fan, there is a small round HS that might be able to handle things. it really sucks because it is the only think making noise in the system.

 

[RussianSensation]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I have P4 2.6 @ 3.06ghz and I have the same problem as you. I just simply unplugged the fan and have been running it like that for 6 months now. But since I ordered a new psu recently, I decided to order Zalman heatsink and some adhesive. Still if you arent overclocking just turn the fan off and voila. I'd let you know what the changes are, but I dont know a program that measures the temperature of the northbridge to compare before and after.

Here is a review comparing expensive $30 microcool to the cheap $4 Zalman. Overclocking performance was identical (but that might be a motherboard limitation)
Review

 

[kaizersose]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I have P4 2.6 @ 3.06ghz and I have the same problem as you. I just simply unplugged the fan and have been running it like that for 6 months now. But since I ordered a new psu recently, I decided to order Zalman heatsink and some adhesive. Still if you arent overclocking just turn the fan off and voila. I'd let you know what the changes are, but I dont know a program that measures the temperature of the northbridge to compare before and after.

Here is a review comparing expensive $30 microcool to the cheap $4 Zalman. Overclocking performance was identical (but that might be a motherboard limitation)
Review

sweet. no overclocking here so i am going to just unplug it. gotta love the simple solution.

 

[Fripple]

Hey Everyone,

I have been having the same problem with my NB fan. The one thing that I noticed with the Zalman heatsink is that the IS7 mobo doesn't have any mounting holes. At least on mine, it has special mounts that are designed for the heatsink that comes with it. Did anyone find a way around this?


Also, in regards to just unplugging it, I do use my computer quite frequently for things such as playing Half Life 2 (which is obviously demanding) and I was wondering if the general feeling was that unplugging it would cause considerable damage.

Thanks in advance for your time!!

P.S. if the Zalman doesn't work, are there other options that are disigned to work with a mobo that doesn't have mounting holes?

EDIT: Alright, so I replied before I looked at all the options (sorry for the lack of compitence) but my other question still stands, would I be okay with just unplugging the fan that I have on there now and just running it with the heatsink?

 

[MDE]

Originally posted by: Fripple
Hey Everyone,

I have been having the same problem with my NB fan. The one thing that I noticed with the Zalman heatsink is that the IS7 mobo doesn't have any mounting holes. At least on mine, it has special mounts that are designed for the heatsink that comes with it. Did anyone find a way around this?


Also, in regards to just unplugging it, I do use my computer quite frequently for things such as playing Half Life 2 (which is obviously demanding) and I was wondering if the general feeling was that unplugging it would cause considerable damage.

Thanks in advance for your time!!

P.S. if the Zalman doesn't work, are there other options that are disigned to work with a mobo that doesn't have mounting holes?

EDIT: Alright, so I replied before I looked at all the options (sorry for the lack of compitence) but my other question still stands, would I be okay with just unplugging the fan that I have on there now and just running it with the heatsink?

Just unplug it, it'll be fine.