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Turning off the chipset fan

E

Evgeny

Member
I've got an ABIT KT7-RAID, which has a chipset fan on it... I turned this fan off (it was making an annoying whining noise) and noticed no difference in temperature (as measured by MBM). Is this fan only necessary for overclockers or am I missing something?

Evgeny
 
The northbridge fan went out on my Asus A7V133 and the only thing it prevented me from doing was booting to 133MHz FSB. I could boot to 132Mhz FSB with no problem but not 133MHz until I replaced it with a Thermaltake Blue Orb.

IMO a decent heatsink on the northbridge would do much better than any 40mm fan would.
 
I have my FSB set at 145 right now and i have the fan on my epox 8k7a unplugged. That little ah heck was annoying. I do have a nice case temp though otherwise I would not do it.
 
right, we're in the winter season, if you hit summer and got a 104 heatwave, and your ac broke, I wouldn't risk turning the fan off... I know my cpu in winter sits at 104, in summer, it hits 114-126 w/o ac. So unless you have a/c in the summer, truning the fan off can cost you a mobo.
 
Lots of boards with any of the modern chipsets have a sink and no fan, many of them have little or no thermal interface material, either.

Chipset fans seem to be a marketing gimmick, or they're just cheaper than a decent heatsink. I'm sure that many owners don't even realize that the fan has died, but the computer sure seems to be running more quietly.....

If you feel that a replacement sink is necessary and you own some thermal epoxy, then one of the wing fin coolers from 2cooltek will do a good job. They also have a Zalman kit- little monster sink and thermal epoxy that's actually a better deal than the price of a sink and separate epoxy.

Put it on and forget it, you definitely won't hear it.

 
I sent off an email to Epox since my chipset fan started growling, and they are sending me a new one without any hassle. I have already taken it off, cleaned and relubed it. I would recommend having a chipset fan, especially since the NB gets rather toasty when o/c'ing.
 
You guys are Lucky. me and many others at PCA have not had any luck with EPOX at all.

As for the heatsink, I just use a large heatsink no fan. running 163 fsb on my ak31.

Greg
 
Actually, forcesho, I'm in summer season (for another 1.5 hours anyway), but you've got a point nevertheless. I haven't tried it with a high ambient temperature... better keep that in mind next summer! Of course, I'll probably have a new MB by then! Thanks for your responses guys, that annoying little fan is going to stay off for now.

Evgeny
 
yeah I wasnt sure if ur in summer season yet 🙂 anyway if ur going to do some serious overclocking, at least a heatsink, no fan required..
 
same thing happened to me, John. mine was making this high, rubbing noise, so i took it off. i attached the 60mm fan that came with my heatsink for my retail 1600XP and just put in one screw. works just fine, but it looks a little strange. let me know if they actually sent you one because i will do the same and get a replacement.



t4t3r
 
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