Noisy Motherboard fan (northbridge)

[emad]

I recently got my computer built and so far, it's running great. My one gripe though, is the Northbridge fan (mobo cooler). This thing is loud, and not in the usual way. Right now, not including the northbridge, I've got three 120mm fans (one on the power supply), a 92mm intake, a small fan (probably 60mm) for my video card, and my cpu fan. The motherboard's fan is louder than all 6 of these fans combined. Stick my finger in the fan to stop it and the computer becomes very noticeably quieter. The noise is just unbearable at times and it's keeping me from letting the computer run 24/7 like I usually do.

That said, I tried looking into replacement heat sinks. I know I can go a passive route because the northbridge "heat sink" is nothing more than a circular metal plate (probably aluminum) with a 7000rpm 40mm fan in the middle. My problem though, is that I don't think I can fit a tall heat sink into the northbridge because of it's position. It falls right underneath my PCI-E slot which is currently filled by my Radeon X800xl.

Anyone have suggestions for replacement fans or heat sinks that'll fit this area? Anyone's computer offering similar problems?

I have an MSI k8n Neo4 Platinum if it helps.

Here's a picture of the space I currently have to work with:

 

[Matrixhasu77]

I'm not sure if Thermalright makes Northbridge heatsinks but they do make excellent CPU heatsinks. I purchased an SLK-800A and immediately noticed a temperature drop from around 130 F to an average of 90 F at full CPU load. I also have a Vantec Tornado that I'm using for pushing air over the CPU as well because it moves 84.1 CFM. However, I would definately recommend Thermalright for heatsinks because of how the overall CPU temperature in my main desktop has dropped significantly.

You might also look into buying a Fan controller if you don't have one already. I knew when I bought the Tornado that I would need a controller due to the fact that the fan is incredibly loud. Vantec also makes several models of fan controllers. I purchased the Nexus NXP-201-BLK. It works well but over time one of the controllers on it has stopped functioning I think due to the fact that my Tornado requires a hefty 12V.

 

[tait]

The northbridge fan and heatsink on my Abit IC7-G is identical to yours, and I had the same problem. I ended up just removing the fan and leaving the heatsink on. At first I was worried about the heat, but i've of heard others doing the same and never having a problem. Mine survived the summer heat, so meh, I know it's all good.

 

[emad]

I found a nice and beefy Zalman heat sink for a good price. I'll order it early next week and see how that goes. I typically wouldn't mind popping the fan out, but I don't exactly know how to take the fan off the heatspreader. If I can figure that out at least, I can install a 40mm Papst/Panaflo/Silenx in it's place. It would spin at around 3000rpm tops and it'll make less than 14 dB of noise

 

[Robin]

Sorry to revive an old thread but it wasnt worth starting a new one...

I just have a question....

What is a normal temperature for an nforce 4 northbrige chip?

Im running an AMD 64 3200 on an ECS 939 board and I have a noisy heatsink on the northbridge.... I have just replaced it with the zalman passive heatsink (the blue one!) and im using a temperature probe and getting about 36-42 degrees on the chip.... the silly thing was I didnt check its temperatures with the stock heatsink on before so I would know whether this new reading is high/low/dangerous??!

The heatsink is tepid to touch so it seems ok but I was just wondering if anyone has an nforce 4 and knows a safe opperating temp...

Thanks in advance....

 

[emad]

Sorry to revive an old thread but it wasnt worth starting a new one...

I just have a question....

What is a normal temperature for an nforce 4 northbrige chip?

Im running an AMD 64 3200 on an ECS 939 board and I have a noisy heatsink on the northbridge.... I have just replaced it with the zalman passive heatsink (the blue one!) and im using a temperature probe and getting about 36-42 degrees on the chip.... the silly thing was I didnt check its temperatures with the stock heatsink on before so I would know whether this new reading is high/low/dangerous??!

The heatsink is tepid to touch so it seems ok but I was just wondering if anyone has an nforce 4 and knows a safe opperating temp...

Thanks in advance....

Those are the same system temps I get with my blue zalman. It'll go as high as 40 when the system is under stress and my fans are all set to low rpm. 37 on idle and low rpm fans

 

[toyomatt84]

I run Swiftech's nifty little number, for cooling. I haven't seen it break 34 deg. C. Even with the overclock I used to run.

 

[Robin]

Thanks for the quick reply 👍

Ok, after a few days of running with the zalman heatsink I get an idle of about 37 and a load of 41..... which seems to be in keeping with what has been said above.... I get a system temp of 28 (using nforce monitor) which is lot higher than it was before with the fan northbridge but I have no idea where the system reading is taken from (im thinking its something to do with having a passive setup now)..... oh well the trade of for silence is heat I suppose...

Now Im looking into soundproofing foam and have just discovered that my neat silent cooler master led fans cannot be undervolted because the leds start to flash in like a strobe effect due to not recieving enough voltage which has really annoyied me, I thought that they would just be dimmer... not flash! .... so I may just have to have them full speed and not temperature controlled...

Robin

 

[Sprite]

edit, forget what I posted sorry, but Ive had no fan on my Northbridge for 4 years with the pc running in excess of 24hours at points with no problems, so I guess it isnt that important to have. just another fan to make noise.

 

[Robin]

Ok, so today I bought some Dynamat thinking it would soundproof my pc.... I was very wrong. Don't get me wrong Dynamat is excellent on a car (which is what its ment for) but for computers it is realitively useless.

Basically if you want to get rid of low frequency vibrational noises (case, fan, hdd rattle) is it great because it makes anything you stick it to sound like lead or wood but for high frequency like air wooshing noises its useless.... you need soft airy foam.

Products like acoustipack are basically these 2 ingredients in one package covering both high and low noises. So basically tomorrow im off to buy some foam and hopefully will end up with what im looking for.

I did notice one thing with dynamat though.... sticking little pieces to heatsinks (especially the GPU's one) makes a lot of difference as those little fans vibrate quite alot and sticking some on the PSU casing helps.

Dynamat is not really good for your PC.... Im gonna stick the rest I didnt use under my cars bonnet!

Robin

 

[emad]

the acoustipak stuff isn't that much better unless you're willing to take the time to cover every surface of the pc. Even then, it's probably cheaper to just slap a dense foam block onto each panel to minimize vibrations and focus money on things that are the cause of all the noise - like silent fans and vibration reducing grommets for 'em

 

[Robin]

the acoustipak stuff isn't that much better unless you're willing to take the time to cover every surface of the pc. Even then, it's probably cheaper to just slap a dense foam block onto each panel to minimize vibrations and focus money on things that are the cause of all the noise - like silent fans and vibration reducing grommets for 'em

I agree, the more money spent on silent parts the better....I have grommets on the fans and it has made a difference, the dynamat stops any vibrations in the case aswell. I did get some foam and will try that out but im also going to try and sort my noisy graphics card out with an 80mm fan mod. Thinking of getting the new zalman cpu cooler but the stock AMD one doesnt seem to be that noisy...

Robin

 

[emad]

I agree, the more money spent on silent parts the better....I have grommets on the fans and it has made a difference, the dynamat stops any vibrations in the case aswell. I did get some foam and will try that out but im also going to try and sort my noisy graphics card out with an 80mm fan mod. Thinking of getting the new zalman cpu cooler but the stock AMD one doesnt seem to be that noisy...

Robin

Most people swear by the zalman cooler for their video cards, but you'll have to clip 1 or 2 fins off of it to make the cooler fit beside your northbridge. For your cpu, give the Thermalright XP-120 running a Nexus or Yate Loon fan for cooling it.