Northbridge fan on MSI K8N Neo4-F

[MajinGeoDooD]

Man is that fan NOISY. It's been bothering the crap out of me. Does the chip REALLY need the cooling from the fan, or can I just unplug the sucker? Has anyone tried it?

 

[Harvey]

A north bridge fan is noisier than your CPU fan? :shocked:

It sounds like your fan may be defective. Contact the dealer who sold you the board and MSI tech support to ask about it. If they say that's normal, you could buy a replacement fan that may be quieter. They're pretty cheap.

 

[MajinGeoDooD]

I've actually heard from a few people that the NB fans on these boards are notorious for being loud. I did the age old "poke a stick in the fan" test and that is indeed where the loud sound was coming from.

Any idea where to get a cheap, but effective enough to cool the NF4, NB fan with a 3 pin connector? *edit* NM on that, silly me didn't think of checking NewEgg .

Also, according to my monitoring software, the fan is 7000+ RPM.

 

[Harvey]

If the chip needs that much cooling, I think the only way to accomplish it at a lower RPM would be to use a larger fan and an adapter to funnel the air flow to smaller surface area of the chip. Good luck finding it.

 

[MajinGeoDooD]

Well I don't have much space for a larger fan, my video card sticks a bit over the fan.

Here's a pic

 

[kevinf2090]

i think this only happens on some, i have the platinum edition of the board non sli and the fan has been silent.

 

[Budman]

took mine about 2weeks then it started getting louder & louder...

Selling this pos board & grabbing a Chaintech Ultra board.

 

[Diasper]

Go for a Zalman passive NB. Looks like it'll fit fine.

When I built my bro's PC I managed a cut down in half Zalman NB with a 7800GT on a DFI board (- even worse arguably) and temps have all been below 50C with a 120mm fan blowing from the front when a 2.6ghz OC and 260fsb (P180 case with HD cage removed).

If you have slightly more restricted airflow which might be likely but given you'd have to cut off less if perhaps no pins you should get pretty comparable temps.

Just make sure you aline the pins so the 120mm fan blows through the heatsink ie the lines of the same length pin are going horizontally. If I had some pics I could better explain but let me try and use a quick sketch...

- represents a shorter pin
= represents a longer pin


- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
============ <---- AIR
============
============
============ <---- AIR
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -

Pic of the Zalman if it helps

Alternative look to getting it replaced with that Evercool GPU heatsink or else the Vantec Icebreg 4 for a similiar but higher quality fan setup to the original.

 

[aiya24]

Originally posted by: MajinGeoDooD
Well I don't have much space for a larger fan, my video card sticks a bit over the fan.

Here's a pic

wow dusty...jk

anyway, i hooked up a zalman fanmate2 to my NB fan. turned it down to about 5000rpms and i cant hear it anymore. temps are the same even with my oc.

most mobos cant use the tall blue zalman heatsink, like the neo4 series.

 

[MajinGeoDooD]

Yea, my board definitely can't use that Zalman heatsink.

After doing a bit more poking with a screwdriver I was able to quiet the fan down a bit. I just poked it in the center a couple times so it quickly stopped, and I guess that slightly changed the position/movement of the fan.

Whatever..

Thanks for the help though, guys.

 

[the cobbler]

Originally posted by: Budman
took mine about 2weeks then it started getting louder & louder...

Selling this pos board & grabbing a Chaintech Ultra board.

whoah, find a quiet NB cooler and seriously rethink that notion.

I have both boards. I love the Chaintech. LOVE it, great easy clocker. Does way over 350+FSB. Very simple bios though, which limits what you can do without volt mods or when using RAM that needs dividers.

But my Neo4-F kicks its arse six ways from Sunday. Rock solid board, gives you more to work with to squeeze out the extra performance. Better performance, no contest.