All NF4 chipsets air cooled

[quisman]

Perhaps we could have a sticky or post here what everyone has done to make DFI's worthless HSF setup better. I know the high temps are "acceptable", but to me it is still unaccpetable. I had a vga water block on the chip and it was substantially cooler but am changing back to air with my new setup.

 

the good ol search button brings up something different each time I use it, so maybe we could get a sticky or at least a compilation here. Whatcha all think ?

 

I have a Expert sli-dr on order and am mostly wondering what aftermarket coolers will "bolt on" without modifying. So far I have made a passive HS from a P4 cpu HS and also used my water block. Now I just want to bolt something on and run w/ it. Preferably not passive.

 

I have heard of the following working so far....

 

Vantec Iceberg: one for the NF3 assuming it will work on 4's also

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showpost.p...&postcount=1241

 

Evercool VC-RE Twinkling VGA Cooler

http://www.jab-tech.com/product.php?produc...&cat=223&page=1

[lowboy]

The Evercool works best as has more surface area in the fins and has over twice the cfm of the vantecs and solid copper.

[Kemp]

Danger Den has a beta water block out for the dfi boards. I am using one and its a very good block, temps are obviosly really low but most importantly the horrid sound that I heard from that chipset cooler is gone. Perhaps in the not to distant future they will be avialable to everyone.

 

-Jared

[Muppet]

Danger Den has a beta water block out for the dfi boards. I am using one and its a very good block, temps are obviosly really low but most importantly the horrid sound that I heard from that chipset cooler is gone. Perhaps in the not to distant future they will be avialable to everyone.

 

-Jared

 

I'd be interested in that, i've just installed a Danger Den TDX watercooling setup.

I did remove the chipset cooler and cleaned it and replaced with AS5 and my temps are about 8 degrees cooler, but to add a waterblock and get ride of the noise would be awesome

[Smoken Joe]

There are tons of posts on modding the heatsing in the modification section do a search in this part of the forum. No need for a diffrent fan if you have good case temps and air flow around the heat sink. I have temps in the 30's and the fan on 1000-2000RPM you can not hear it. If you case does not have any airflow there you can just put a 80cm fan on that area to do the same thing.

 

 

 

BTW in my opinion the case fan that comes with the case is great it is probibily the only active fan that can be made silent that I hae had.

[Muppet]

There are tons of posts on modding the heatsing in the modification section do a search in this part of the forum. No need for a diffrent fan if you have good case temps and air flow around the heat sink. I have temps in the 30's and the fan on 1000-2000RPM you can not hear it. If you case does not have any airflow there you can just put a 80cm fan on that area to do the same thing.

 

 

 

BTW in my opinion the case fan that comes with the case is great it is probibily the only active fan that can be made silent that I hae had.

Yeah the problem there is the 512mb version covers at least half the heatsink so no way am i getting good air flow to the chipset

[Smoken Joe]

Yeah the problem there is the 512mb version covers at least half the heatsink so no way am i getting good air flow to the chipset

 

Errr the GT covers it too and dumps all the heat there at least half of the heat on the 512 goes the other direction. Seriously try a 80 or smaller case fan directly on the area blowing from behind the video card.

 

 

This is not exatly what I am talking about this is after water cooling but you can get the idea. There are some other good ideas in the memroy cooling section. The chipset really needs very little movng air but it cant just sit there stagnent. If you dont have some air blowing across the sink it will get hot. If you dont have a PCI card you can also put a larg fan where the PCI slots go also putting more air right to the video card and chipset.

 

[Doomz]

I put on the Zalman VF-700cu vga heatsink on my nf4 Ultra-D as showen in this previous thread.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread...29&page=1&pp=15

 

I did this to get lower temps. My stock cooler had a buzzing noise that eventually went away. It fits under a 7800gtx in the 16x slot but needs some of the back fins chopped off and filed down as low as the stock cooler. The front fins need to be bent around the usb, sata and some capacitors. They could be filed back underneath until they clear everything without bending them.

 

I used AS5 TIM but after putting the heatsink on I rebuilt into a different case that has a side panel fan so I cant tell how much temperature has dropped. I think about 5c atleast. With the side fan turned on chipset temp has been down to 38c which is 10c lower than my previous lowest temps with the old case/heatsink.

 

Here are pictures, all about 900kb each.

 

http://img458.imageshack.us/img458/9711/fi...dinplace5mr.jpg

The Zalman sitting in place without screws. This is when I had finished bending the fins away from the usb's etc.

 

http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/2830/finished3gq.jpg

The finished heatsink. The videocard goes across the lowest part that I filed back. The fins in the middle did not need cutting as much as I have done.

 

http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/614/78006yx.jpg

With 7800gtx in 16x slot. This is before I finished bending the fins.

 

http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/760/7800back8eq.jpg

The back of the 7800

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/3419/7800bothsides1cc.jpg

 

http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/871/beforechop6qv.jpg

Before I bent and chopped it.

 

Some tips for anybody who does this.

*Use a VF-700cu not a VF-700alcu

*I used a screwdriver to wrap the fins arond and bend them

*The Zalman backplate probably wont fit under your mainboard. It went on tight using the screws and rubber washers that came with it but I left off the backplate.

*If the fins are not moved away from the USB ports and capacitors the heatsink will not sit flat on the NF4 chip. The fins may also short out the curcuit on the USB's.

*The screw holes on the top bracket need filing in about 1/2mm on each side to line up with the Ultra-D holes.

*Do up the screws on each side evenly, not one side then the other.

*Dont do any bending etc while the heatsink is on the mainboard and be careful of the capacitors, one in particular.

*Dont breath in the copper dust if you file the heatsink by hand.

*Wrap the heatsink in a cloth to avoid getting scratches on the base when filing. I put many scratches on the top accidently.

 

Dont forget to read the Angry Games instructions on taking off the stock cooler.

http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20827

[Sorrento]

Perhaps we could have a sticky or post here what everyone has done to make DFI's worthless HSF setup better. I know the high temps are "acceptable", but to me it is still unaccpetable. I had a vga water block on the chip and it was substantially cooler but am changing back to air with my new setup.

Its funny how every motherboard manufacturer I know, except the ones that use passive cooling, have the worse chipset heatsinks. From Abit and their really terrible fans; theirs just trapped dust in the chaft which eventually blocked its spinning, to Asus and their crappy heatsink fans, to DFI which I don't think will ever fail but actually are very noisy.

 

I think DFI's has a flaw in its intake design, it restricts air flow and thus the fan emits a lot of noise while a low pressure zone is created on top. I tried mine with out the covering plate and the fan was silent even at maximum speed, yet this affects the fan function of pushing air thru the fins as well since with out the plate there is no way of stopping the air that escapes thru the top of the fins. Again I doubt it will fail like Abit's and Asus', hehe for me thats a good thing

 

Right now I have a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and also an Abit NF7-S V2.0 working, this last one 24/7, and I am suprised the MSI's chipset fan is still in AOK condition... while I changed the stock Abit's cooler for a passive Zalman since the beggining of its operation; lets say I have experience with the NF7-S... bad experience, same with Asus.

[Smoken Joe]

I tried tuning off my fan on the chipset guess what? Temps are uder 49 wile doing prime or the vidows version of memtest at 264 FSB and extra volts through the chipset. and just the fan on the PWMCI does anyone try to turn the fan down and add a fan before they replace it

 

 

 

 

Yup evey abit MB I have has has had issues with its fan. I kind of wish they were passive but that is not likly in a performance MB now. I have had the DFI over a year sonstantly running - though only at under 3000 RPM not the 7000 it can run at default settings.

[Sorrento]

The chipset doesn't get that hot during Prime95, at least not in my system... the real test is to play a 3D game, that gives me the maximum chipset temperature so far. Maybe it is because I have SLI, but what I can tell you right now is how the two video cards don't share any heat to the chipset anymore; must be the chipset normal stress with SLI.

 

The DFI chipset fan is well built, at least thats what I can think when looking at it closely. The Abit and Asus chipset fans had this "let dirt inside shaft" flaw which eventually blocked their spinning, the DFI seems to have literally covered any chance of dust going in... and I am not sure but it looks as if it doesn't have a shaft in the middle at all.

 

However the noise at high speed is unaceptable, at least for people who also work with music and sound aplications. I believe this is not the fan itself but the whole heatsink design; like I said I tried it outside the case with out the top cover thingy and it was silent at full speed.

 

I never had a chance to test the stock heatsink with the new case and watercooling, but right now with the IceberQ 4 the temperatures never touch 40º C... while they were around 55º C with the old case (Xaser III) and a gzillion fans, plus a blower fan pointing directly towards the chipset; with out this blower fan the chipset temperature reached 65º C under 3D load. Back then the two 6800GT video cards were a huge heat source not only for the southbridge but also the entire system.

 

To be honest after some thinking I believe the diference between the IceberQ 4 and the stock DFI heatsink is between 2 and 3º C in favor of the copper heatsink... nothing more. What really made a huge diference was the extra ventilation of the new case (Stacker + XFlow Fan) and the watercooling of the two video cards (gpu/ram/regulators).

 

Btw, a friend's IS7-E's northbridge fan died... or is about to die, it is making a lot of noise. I told him to take care of his computer, not to put it in the floor where it catches a lot more dust than on top of the desk... but ohh no, he didn't listened. Its not my friend's fault, its Abit's... at least their motherboards are/were very good.

[ReelFiles]

Its funny how every motherboard manufacturer I know, except the ones that use passive cooling, have the worse chipset heatsinks. From Abit and their really terrible fans; theirs just trapped dust in the chaft which eventually blocked its spinning, to Asus and their crappy heatsink fans, to DFI which I don't think will ever fail but actually are very noisy.

 

I think DFI's has a flaw in its intake design, it restricts air flow and thus the fan emits a lot of noise while a low pressure zone is created on top. I tried mine with out the covering plate and the fan was silent even at maximum speed, yet this affects the fan function of pushing air thru the fins as well since with out the plate there is no way of stopping the air that escapes thru the top of the fins. Again I doubt it will fail like Abit's and Asus', hehe for me thats a good thing

 

Right now I have a MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum and also an Abit NF7-S V2.0 working, this last one 24/7, and I am suprised the MSI's chipset fan is still in AOK condition... while I changed the stock Abit's cooler for a passive Zalman since the beggining of its operation; lets say I have experience with the NF7-S... bad experience, same with Asus.

 

 

I replaced the stock "magnetic levitation" fan on my SLI-DR, to an Evercool VC-RE and temps went from upper 50's to lower fourties with some AS5 knock-off called Silver Grease that came with the VC-RE. And the stock fan DID die on me. One day it sounded like a damn mixer the next day it was spinning so slow I could read the letters DFI on it (~600Rpm) Needless to say temps were through the roof.

 

Also my wife's PC is a NF7-S V2.0 Paired with a Gig of Corsair Value Ram and an Athlon XP 3200+ all at stock speeds, This proc just will not oc stable:( I never even bothered to check the Chipset temps on it, but she gets random freeze ups every once in a while, when she plays the Sims 2 etc. The PC runs basicaly nonstop, for maybe 2 years now. Maybe the chipset is overheating. The fan also makes a whining noise once in a while that stops when I tap on the case a bit, but it's still going strong.

 

Just my 2 cents