Passive cooling on NF4 Ultra Chipset [QUESTIONS]

[lytalbayre]

Have an Asus A8N-SLI with a Zalman NB47J on my chipset. Have an Antec P160 case with a 120mm fan blowing on 2 harddrives and then onto the chipset and video card.

MY QUESTION IS THIS:

The P160 has temp guages. I put one on the tip of the zalman cooler and I get temps reported at 55-67c for the chipset temp. However, in the BIOS or windows software, the MOB temp is always reported in the 30c range... so what gives??

What is an acceptable temperature for the nforce4 ultra chipset.

Also, don't tell me those stock chipset coolers work anybetter. A small circle of 1cm aluminum pins being blown with maybe 10-20CFM can't possibly cool better than a 2inch tall mutliple pin passive heatsink.... could it???

Thanks.

 

[Bull Dog]

Well I would trust the external thermal probe sooner than I would thust the bios readout. As for acceptable temperature.....Well as long as it doesn't see the wrong side of 70 you should be ok.

 

[lytalbayre]

bump for more feedback

 

[RallyMaster]

Small fans like those don't even get 10 cfm. You should be thinking more like 4 to 8 cfm. Passive sink is only good if you have decent airflow in that area. If you don't, you'll overheat pretty quick.

 

[Big Lar]

Originally posted by: lytalbayre
Have an Asus A8N-SLI with a Zalman NB47J on my chipset. Have an Antec P160 case with a 120mm fan blowing on 2 harddrives and then onto the chipset and video card.

MY QUESTION IS THIS:

The P160 has temp guages. I put one on the tip of the zalman cooler and I get temps reported at 55-67c for the chipset temp. However, in the BIOS or windows software, the MOB temp is always reported in the 30c range... so what gives??

What is an acceptable temperature for the nforce4 ultra chipset.

Also, don't tell me those stock chipset coolers work anybetter. A small circle of 1cm aluminum pins being blown with maybe 10-20CFM can't possibly cool better than a 2inch tall mutliple pin passive heatsink.... could it???

Thanks.

55-67C, thats too hot if you are overclocking, and looking for stability. You'll want to get that temp down to 35 to 40c.

Just installing a low profile fan on the sink will help loads, as obviously the sink is doing it's job as to absorbing the heat, but if the heat has nowhere to go, the chipset stays hot. Another option is to install an 80mm fan on the mobo tray, and get the air movement that way. Reliable ways to do this that come to mind are Contact Cement,(what I use, but I have an old tray), or make a bracket for it if you go that route.

 

[ChiPCGuy]

The Zalman NB47J is an excellent passive cooler as long as you have good airflow through your case (sounds like you do) and if possible, it is best to have a CPU HSF that blows on it as well (like a XP-90, Zalman CNPS9500 placed horizontally) which will serve two purposes and eliminate (yet) another fan in your system.

Edited to say: fortunately you picked a motherboard that does not place the MCP in a heat pocket under a video card! You would have to resort back to an active HSF for the MCP if you wished to heavily overclock on other motherboards.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

in fact an airflow makes a big difference. and regarding temps, check with ur hand, if its too hot to touch u need more airflow. if its just warm then its ok. my 2 cents.

 

[Unkno]

hey lytalbayre, could you try touching as close as possible on the chipset (with the passive cooler installed)....at 55C or so, is it possible for you to put your finger on it without feeling hot?

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah I havnt heard good things about those zalmans and passive cooling. This is what im looking for and what many people recommended to me.------> link

Here is a review of it. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Swiftech/MCX159-CU/4

The downside is, its definitely not cheap. Costs about as much as CPU cooler!!


Here is ANOTHER one I was recommended a bit ago as well and its only $8. http://www.jab-tech.com/Evercool-VC...er-pr-2291.html

 

[Unkno]

Originally posted by: modempower
Yeah I havnt heard good things about those zalmans and passive cooling.

lots of people use the zalman passive cooling (me included)....OP, did you try touching the heatsink to see if it burns or not?

 

[lytalbayre]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. The heatsink (At least on the top) is very hot, I have to move My fingers after a few seconds. I haven't touched closer to the chipset. But, I've ordered a swiftech MXC159-Cu cooler and I should be installing that soon, so no worries.

I guess my beef is that it is counter intuitive. When you compare a heatsink like the zalman to some of the stock coolers, there really is no comparison. The stock coolers are just a small ring of pins with a fan in the middle, and I'm hard pressed to imagine how they could possibly cool better than something massive like the zalman passive cooler.

But, the point is moot now since I've purchased the swiftech (also bought an XP-90C). If anyone is in the market for a cheap XP-90 and a zalman passive cooler, I'll let both go for an astonishingly fair price... just PM me.

 

[PacDwell]

This maybe a dead thread now...but just to let people know that on the Asus A8N boards the motherboard temperature reported by the BIOS is infact the mobo temperature and NOT the chipset temperature.

The nforce4 chipset does get very warm, and with a stock cooler can probably get upto 80-90 degrees. The Zalman in a well air'ed case gets upto about 60 degrees...