Modoc Posted September 16, 2005 Posted September 16, 2005 Hey yall I'm in the process of building the system in my sig and after I finished bench testing, I took the chipset fan off to see what we had for TIM. On the fan itself there was a square pad of like spongey crap (I ain't talking about the yellow TIM pad). I guess this is so the fan doesn't make direct contact with the chipset...okay, makes sense. My question is, Has anyone taken this pad off and put the fan back on the chipset without any problems to the fan or chipset? Also has anyone else had troubles with an ATI X800XL video card hitting the chipset fan when it's in the first PCIe16x slot? Any answers are appreciated. Thanks. Modoc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceanSeasforMe Posted September 16, 2005 Posted September 16, 2005 The pad protects the corners of the chipset from being cracked. (bad) Yea it was a tight squeeze both times I instaled an 800xl. (both in sig) I also redid the chipset TC both times for clearance and extra cooling. So long as it is not interfereing with the fan blades or holding the chipset at an angle its ok. lots and lots of threads in Modifications. This is a good one to start with. Cleaning your NF4 Chipset fan and replacing with AS5 (or other thermal material!) http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20827 *(even the small amount you gain when you switch Thermal Compound should be enough to get the card to seat.) Edit, I built one machine without the outer pad and its running fine, its more of an install thing and if you put uneven pressure on it it could break. I have seen others without the outer pad also, but I think it is recommended to keep it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickey987 Posted September 16, 2005 Posted September 16, 2005 Yah I took the shim off. I was cleaning off the thermal pad but it just wouldn't come off...it was stuck on there good. I tried alchohol but it didn't help and in the process of removing the thermal pad and removed half of the shim by accident...so I just removed it all. Nothing bad has happened. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modoc Posted September 16, 2005 Posted September 16, 2005 Hey thanks for the quick replies. Yeah, "shim" that's the word that wouldn't come to me....all I could think of was spongey crap!! I took the shim off without mangling it too bad removed the TIM and put some AS5 on there and put the shim back on. Should be good now. Modoc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
uwackme Posted September 16, 2005 Posted September 16, 2005 Yes, it does serve the purpose of keeping the HS level on the core. One thing to watchout for is using a AC cooler on your video, one screw bumpout hits the DFI fan and can "tilt" the HS if the little shim-thing is gone. So just make sure after installing the video card with huge coolers that the NF4 heatsink is still level and firmly in contact. We need to find a nice solid copper fanless heatsink alternative. For we with good airflow in the case, the DFI fan is not needed.....but a hefty lowprofile hsink would be sweet. Alot of "lite" aluminum stuff is out there, salvaged from GFore2 boards, etc, but nothing nice solid copper. OR DFI could call who ever did the ABit heatpipe NF4 cooler and get one made for the DFI boards. I'd pay $50 for it retail...if that helps. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
G.N.U.Fragman Posted September 16, 2005 Posted September 16, 2005 Global Win makes a socket 370 pure copper cpu cooler.......just take off the fan and about ½ the finns and move the shim with a stanley knife and drill 2 holes......and remove the copper the 2 places the mobo components will stick up.....and theres your passive profile....works great cost 7$ ....... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_xhp_ Posted September 17, 2005 Posted September 17, 2005 DFI could call who ever did the ABit heatpipe NF4 cooler and get one made for the DFI boards. I'd pay $50 for it retail...if that helps. There is something like that: http://www.mcubed-tech.com/eng/shop.htm -> Borg nf4 heatpipe heatsink 59€ But the chipset position on DFI sucks and the dimensions are 21*36*36mm (HxWxD) so it won't work with the GPU card in the first PCE slot . However the heatpipes are only 7.5mm tall (there is a version with 6mm) so you could make a custom base or modify the 21mm tall one ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
uwackme Posted September 17, 2005 Posted September 17, 2005 Wish someone had it here in US. The heatpipes are pretty flexible, so you can actually manipulate it to stand up almost straight, almost in the same "plane" as your video card, but farther in front of the video card location. That is basically the components for a Zalman GForce4 heatpipe cooler, re-arranged slightly. Hmmm, thats a good idea....time to did up one of those and customize. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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