Zalman Northbridge Chipset Cooler - OPINIONS???

[Gog]

I have this fan on my northbridge (Gigabyte GA-7DX mobo) that is driving me ape😀... it eminates this high pitched noise that is more annoying than my heatsink fan. I plan on replacing both...

I intend on purchasing this Zalman as a replacement for the northbridge heatsink fan combo... anyone ever use this or read reviews of it?

I would greatly appreciate any advice on how it performs and how to attach it... 🙂

 

[bandXtrb]

I run the GA-7DXR with a alpha PAL8032 (i think?), it accepts an 80mm fan. Don't know about the Zalman, though. I see they didn't do their fin design on these.

I agree with you, the Northbridge fan is horrible. I replaced it with a Papst 8412NGL fan ($20 each, ouch!). The fan is twice the size (40 --> 80mm). How did I attach this to the Northbridge you ask? Well I didn't, I sort of hung the fan in front of the chip by zip ties tied around the spikes of the CPU heatsink (cpu slot it is right above northbridge). As long as its close enough, its okay. I put one of these fans on my heatsink and case rear as well. They are nearly silent. After the installation, I booted my system and I was amazed at the difference. "This is how it should be," I thought.

Here is an image

In general, larger, slower fans (such as the Papst) are quieter and just as effective -- if not more so -- as smaller, higher RPM fans.

 

[blade]

That will work just fine. Many are going to "passive" chipset cooling because many of the fans some motherboard makers include are cheap so they don't last, as the cheapy ones on the shuttle ak-31. I just replaced mine with this, but that zalman will do you fine.

As how to attach it you will first need to remove your old one and you may need to remove your mobo and pinch the pins or carefully cut them off. Then gently use a flathead screwdriver to pry the old heatsink from the chipset. They usually put on some cheapy adhesive so once you get the heatsink of just roll the adhesive off, then clean it with alchohol. Instruction how to attach the zalman are at the link you posted. 😉

 

[Gog]

Nice setup BandXtrb, I like what you did because it doesn't seem too complicated to setup and becaues it works! I have some extra Panaflo's (L1A's) and I think I'll try to do the same you did... btw is the fan is blowing on or away?

I've somewhat shied away at the thought of messing around with the northbridge and the heatsink thats attached to it... removing the mobo from my case, removing the heatsink... all too much trouble for me and the possibility of messing up my mobo is always there. Thanks for the advice🙂😉🙁😱:disgust:

 

[bandXtrb]

All fans are blowing outward.

I didn't read your post well the first time. I think its a great idea to try to use passive cooling wherever possible. There is somewhat of a chance that the heatsink alone may not be enough, especially if your case does not have good cooling. I would give it a shot though. However, I don't know how easy or not it is to remove the original heatsink.

If you want to do what I've done, all you need to do is remove the four screws in the corners of the fan and it will come off. Then you need to figure some creative way to hang your L1A. The CPU heatsink's spikes were convenient, so I used those. (you may need to remove your CPU fan temporarily. I'd only use the very outer spikes so that the string or twist-ties, whatever you choose to use, do not get too hot). The fan needs to be close to the chipset. I think the worst thing that has happened to me is the chipset overheated and the system hung. However, proceed at your own risk.

 

[tallest1]

What happens if you don't use a fan at all? I took my fan off long ago....

 

[Gog]

Tallest1, which mobo and chipset do you have? In some cases if you remove the fan you can cause system instability because of the higher temps... I guess it depends where you live.

 

[chiggachu]

I have the GA-7DXR as well...just replaced that lousy northbridge fan last week!! It was awful...and so was my video card fan, so I just got the ICEBERQ cooler kit that blade was talking about. It seems to cool the thing pretty well (from the reviews that I read), and now i also have a quiet vga cooler! I think that's a better deal than the zalman, which looks good (I had my eye on it as well), but it's pretty excessive...

 

[whitelight]

the zalman will work just fine. but since i don't overclock my fsb, i just took off my fan on the northbridge and my comp is running as stable as it was before. i'm using an epox 8k7a.

 

[Jhhnn]

The Zalman sink will work just fine. Lots of boards just have a waffle pattern sink about 1 cm tall, no fan. I suspect that chipset hsf combos are actually cheaper in quantity than semi-decent passive sinks, and that's why manufacturers use them. Great marketing gimmick, too..... Only later do we discover that they're miserable whiney bits of dung.

 

[frastini]

hey i just cut my knuckles for the last time trying to quiet down my shuttle ak31 north bridge fan,

the zalman looks great.. and I wont have to worry about my chipset fan going lawn mower mode..

has anyone here actually used passive cooling on a kt266a? I'm concerned about stability...

Frost

 

[Pheran]

I'm using the Zalman heatsink on my KT7-RAID, it works great. That stupid northbridge fan was really annoying.

 

[Jhhnn]

Uhh, like I said, lots of kt266a boards don't come with a northbridge fan- my Epox ep-8khm is just one of many, and the sink on it (while decent) is nothing next to the zalman.

Check it out for yourself- go to Newegg, motherboards, AMD, kt266a, pop down thru the images- some have fans, some don't, some have pretty piddly heatsinks, too, if you ask me......

 

[Gog]

For all those of you who actually own the Zalman Northbridge HeatSink... how hard was it getting on? did you have to remove your mobo to get it on or was it just screw on?\

How was it getting off the old heatsink?

 

[blade]

has anyone here actually used passive cooling on a kt266a? I'm concerned about stability

I'm using a lesser one than that zalman and it does fine on my ak-31.



Gog, I haven't used that zalman yet but it will be easy to install, I have installed similar ones. It has 2 options, either use the included thermal adhesive or use the included thermal grease (or a beter one like arctic silver) then use pushpins (doesn't say if they are included but I assume they are) secure the sink to the mobo.

The hard part might be removing the one on your mobo. Different mobo's attach a chipset heatsink differently. If it has pushpins then you will need to remove your mobo and pinch or carefuly cut off the pushpins from the backside. You might can do it without removing the mobo but doing so with a razor or whatever could potentially damage your mobo, with such limited space. It's safer to remove the mobo first.

Then you'll need to remove the sink. Most put on a cheapy thermal adhesive so you'll need to pry the sink off (carefully). Then remove the adhesive. Most is cheap so usually you can roll it off with your fingers. Then clean up with alchohol. Then attact the new sink. 😉 It is easier than it sounds, but people have damaged their mobo when trying to be in a hurry, so go slow and be careful of those sensitive mobo capacitors and circuits. One slip could me a non-working mobo.

 

[Pheran]

Originally posted by: Gog
For all those of you who actually own the Zalman Northbridge HeatSink... how hard was it getting on? did you have to remove your mobo to get it on or was it just screw on? How was it getting off the old heatsink?

I did have to remove the whole motherboard from the case so I could get at the bottom of those pushpins. Once I got those out I didn't have any trouble removing the old heatsink, I think it was just thermal paste in there. I couldn't reuse the pushpins to attach the Zalman because it was a bit thicker than the old heatsink, so they weren't long enough, so I just used the included thermal adhesive.