I need to replace the cooling of the Northbridge chipset on an ASUS A7V266 board, but I am not sure what to get. This is what I know, it needs to have a fan with a 3-pin connector, and it needs to fit properly. Any ideas?
ZM You can cool it passively with the ZM-NB northbridge heatsink. I've been cooling 2 of these motherboards for years like this. Away with the annoying fan! http://www.zalmanusa.com/ The yellow ones are the older types, the blue, different shaped one, is the version as you probably find them in shops today. I have 2 old types and 1 blue one (cooling an overclocked MSI K8N Neo2, no sweat (airflow recommended though)). Flexible heatsink, so you can reuse it.
Sure...if you like sitting at your computer using earplugs :S. Chipsets aren't that big, so having a fan requires it to be 4-5cm in diameter because of the surrounding devices. Such fans need high RPM and thus usually are quite loud. The one currently on the A7V266 isn't even a real heatsink. Just a plate of aluminum with som 'fins' on the side. Not that much surface to disappate heat. This Zalman heatsink is all about that. But it's your choice, all I can tell you is that 2 mobo's like this have been running with unstability in an nonperfect ventilated area for years...
Well, the case is not the best design, and air-flow is not the greatest because of it. But, if the only option is a passive cooler, that will have to work.
Why worry when there's additional airflow from the CPU? All the Asus board that's I've played with recently are passive cooling only.
The chipset fan on my A8N-E was a total screamer so i just unplugged it and the temperatures seem fine when I check after an hour on HL2 (about 35 C).
Just order a Thermalright HR-05 Northbridge Chipset my ic7-g north bridge jsut died on me...after 2 years serving me well.
my AI7 northvirdge heatsink died after a year .. if not mistaken its the same as IC7 send for rma & they gave me a new board with a different heatsink .
