Fan Noise

[Buck Turgidson]

A fan on the mobo on my PC is making a lot of noise. Can someone tell me
what this fan does, and if it is easy to replace? What happens if I unplug
it, to stop the noise. It is the fan on the lower left of this picture,
adjacent to the memory slots.

Thanks.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8N_SLI-F

 

[Sleepy]

A fan on the mobo on my PC is making a lot of noise. Can someone tell me
what this fan does, and if it is easy to replace? What happens if I
unplug it, to stop the noise. It is the fan on the lower left of this
picture, adjacent to the memory slots.

Thanks.

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8N_SLI-F

its the motherboard chipset and on those boards it commonly has a heat sink
and fan because people use those mobo's when they intend to overclock.

you can get a Zalman heatsink without fan that'll work fine. Its a taller
heatsink
to dissipate the heat without needing a fan.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/northbridgecooling/zm-nb

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Thanks.

its the motherboard chipset and on those boards it commonly has a heat
sink
and fan because people use those mobo's when they intend to overclock.

you can get a Zalman heatsink without fan that'll work fine. Its a taller
heatsink
to dissipate the heat without needing a fan.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/northbridgecooling/zm-nb

Any idea how to remove it and replace it? It is held down by two posts, and
in the center of the post is a tiny spring-loaded plunger that you push down
on. But I can't seem to get it out.

I squirted a drop of machine oil in there, and it seems quiet now.

 

[Rookie]

Any idea how to remove it and replace it? It is held down by two
posts, and in the center of the post is a tiny spring-loaded plunger
that you push down on. But I can't seem to get it out.

I squirted a drop of machine oil in there, and it seems quiet now.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Just my 2c.

 

[Joel]

If it ain't broken, don't fix it. Just my 2c.

The man reported it's broke and asking how to remove the broken fan, and
replacing the heatsink.

 

[Rookie]

The man reported it's broke and asking how to remove the broken
fan, and
replacing the heatsink.

If I understood correctly, the fan was noisy, but a drop of machine oil
fixed the problem?

 

[Paul]

its the motherboard chipset and on those boards it commonly has a heat sink
and fan because people use those mobo's when they intend to overclock.

you can get a Zalman heatsink without fan that'll work fine. Its a
taller heatsink
to dissipate the heat without needing a fan.

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/northbridgecooling/zm-nb

Thermalright HR-05-SLI Copper Heatsinks only - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109131

Thermalright HR-05 Copper Heatsinks only - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835109128

http://www.thermalright.com/new_a_p.../hr05_sli/install_chitset_cooler_hr05sli.html

http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cooling/Thermalright_HR-05_SLI_IFX_5.html

Those are probably a bit better than a Zalman chunk of aluminum,
as the heatpipes help move the heat to all the fins. On straight
aluminum, the tops of the fins aren't very effective, as it is
hard for the heat to flow uniformly through the fin.

For any new cooler, there are lots of mechanical details to
worry about, like bumping into video cards.

You have to be a bit careful, when selecting replacement heatsinks.
At one time, a Northbridge might have used 2W, and the heatsink
was something of a joke. Now, some of the chipsets are in the
20W vicinity, and a better cooling solution is required. If
all the chipsets had publicly available specs, it would make it
a bit easier to say how good a heatsink is required.

A parameter called "theta_R" or thermal resistance, is a way of
rating the performance of heatsinks. This one is rated at 1.25C/W.

http://www.swiftnets.com/products/mcx159-CU.asp

If the computer case air temp was 35C, the chipset used 20W of
power, the chipset temp would be = 35C + 1.25C/W * 20W = 60C.

I won't bother to look up the Zalman, as I doubt they'd bother
to rate it. I have some heatsinks from a heatsink catalog, which
give an idea as to performance.

Length Width Height still with
mm mm mm air fan
200LFM

35x35 374624B60024 35.00 35.00 10.00 23.40 7.55 Black anodize
35x35 374724B60024 35.00 35.00 18.00 15.30 5.15 Black anodize
35x35 374824B60024 35.00 35.00 25.00 12.00 4.27 Black anodize

Those are 35mm square aluminum heatsinks from Aavid. They aren't as
tall as the Zalman, but also note the performance. With still air,
the tallest one is close to 10 times worse than the MCX159-CU, with
its fan. And even if you fit a fan, 4.27C/W is still pretty bad
performance. That is why I'd be suspicious of using a Zalman,
even if I put a fan on it.

I cannot find a rating for the Thermaltake, but at least some
reported chipset temps seem pretty decent.

If you don't like all the work it takes to install stuff like that,
then replacing just the fan might be an option. Some chipset coolers
make even that difficult, by using custom fan assemblies.

Paul

 

[Joel]

If I understood correctly, the fan was noisy, but a drop of machine oil
fixed the problem?

So it's broken, isn't it? and a drop of oil will temperary fix the broken
fan, but the man still have to remove it first, right?

 

[kony]

Any idea how to remove it and replace it? It is held down by two posts, and
in the center of the post is a tiny spring-loaded plunger that you push down
on. But I can't seem to get it out.

I squirted a drop of machine oil in there, and it seems quiet now.

Ideally you would put a couple drops of VERY thick oil in,
instead of the typically very thin machine oil. It will
last much longer before relube is needed.

The push-pin mounts on the 'sink can be installed from the
front of the board, but not removed. To remove it you can
either:

A) Destructively remove by snipping the pin in half with
wire cutters/etc, and use new pins that come with some
replacement 'sinks.

B) Pull the whole motherboard out and you have access to
the pair of tabs on the back that need to be compressed so
it's small enough diameter to slip out of the holes. There
are two good ways to compress the tabs, one is to use
needle-nose pliers to hold the sides in, the other is to
take the ink cartridge out of a cheap plastic pen (like a
BIC, though I have used some generic pen so I don't know if
a Bic branded pen has exactly the right diameter) and slip
it over the stud on the back side of the board then pull it
out from the front.

 

[Sleepy]

Any idea how to remove it and replace it? It is held down by two posts,
and in the center of the post is a tiny spring-loaded plunger that you
push down on. But I can't seem to get it out.

I squirted a drop of machine oil in there, and it seems quiet now.

those pins usually have an 'arrowhead' at the end so that as they're pushed
through the mobo
they grip it from underneath - frequently you have to take the mobo out of
the case to to get at the back and
remove those pins.

those fans are small and spin quite fast - they commonly are noisy and fail
quite quickly - you can oil it but
better to bite the bullet and replace it with the Zalman heatsink.

If you're not overclocking then you could try disconnecting the fan and
removing it from the heatsink
- with enough airflow in the case you *might* find the heatsink alone is
sufficient even though its a small 'sink.

 

[kony]

If you're not overclocking then you could try disconnecting the fan and
removing it from the heatsink
- with enough airflow in the case you *might* find the heatsink alone is
sufficient even though its a small 'sink.

It's unlikely that minimalistic small 'sink can keep the
(nForce4) chip cool enough without a fan. A strong case
airflow, preferribly with a front case fan blowing straight
at it, might suffice if a larger passive 'sink like one of
the Zalmans was used but IMO they'd be borderline, a better
fanned heatsink ought to be used as the replacement.