a8n-sli chipset heatsink fan

[Aquila76]

Dream Operator:
The 12V rail is a little weak at 18A by today's standards, but it should support your config fine, at least boot/run Windows fine. I'd check on board #2 to make sure the Ceramique didn't spill over onto the NF4 chip's pins or drop on the board somewhere.

 

[seattledesi]

frakkin fan is whining on me.. can the papst testers post their results please..

can someone confirm the fan removal and replacement steps..

I can remove the grill easily by removing the 4 corner screws.. i see the 3 screws behind the fan.. being a noob, i'm a trifle nervous.. will the fan pop up once i unscrew the 3 screws?

How does one replace it with the new papst or other 40mm solutions?

Some pics would be nice..

 

[killa62]

well i'm in the process of ordering a papst fan
right now, i'm running stock but i took off the metal covering over the chipset, all that does is generate more noise, reduce airflow and not allow your finger to get cut off. anyways i'm running with almost no airflow in my case (2 120mm case fans controlled by antec neopower fan rail=~500 rpm fans lol) and folding 24/7 i'm getting 46 degrees from the thermal probe that came with my antec p160 which is taped on my chipset. Temps stay around 45-48 and go to maybe 50 during gaming, but that is the highest.
Here's a picture of the chipset with the shroud removed and how my thermal probe is attached..
here
if your fan is rattling, take a piece of tape or the sticky part of a post-it note and stick it on the center of the fan.. It'll stop rattling. if it starts again, remove the tape. Lol, it works for me
Lastly, my system is stable as hell, uptime right now is 17 days without rebooting my computer.

 

[bbarlow10]

Anyone know where you can buy the Titan VGA heatsink rgrimm mentions on top of page 10?

Looks like the best alternative to stock that:

1) Uses the mobo 3 pin connector and measures rpm
2) fits under a NV5

 

[rowr]

Originally posted by: induveca
Hey guys, been following this thread for a while.

Found a fan which works GREAT, and also even dug through the crates at home depot to find screws which would easily screw onto the existing heatsink through the new fan.

I hope this saves you guys a lot of time. Note however, the fan is a 4 pin fan........so if you want to plug it into the Northbridge fan slot you'll need a 4 pin to 3 pin connector. I just plugged it into a 4 prong.

This fan has an RPM of 4300, and is only 19 DBA! It's also made by a GREAT company, Papst. My northbridge temps idle at 32-34 C and it's completely quiet!

I bought the fan for about 16 bucks here:
(NOTE: Remove the current fan, it's simple and temps are lower without leaving it in there.)

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/40mmpapst.html

If you want to purchase the same screws I used to mount it to the existing heatsink, here's all the info off the HomeDepot Screw Bag:

#4 x 5/8" Metal

Pan Head
Phillips
13 Pcs 24791
ZINC/CINC

Crown Bolt Inc

The Bar Code number on the back of the little bag is 30699 24791

Hope this helps everyone! Note, I'm using this fan with 2 eVGA 6800 Ultra cards. It's a very tight fit, but it pops right in. It baaaaarely bends a single fin on my EVGA heatsink, but it's not a problem at all. For those of you without hte gargantuan eVGA Ultra heatsinks even less of a worry.

Also, anyone out there who has a PC Power and Cooling 510 SLI PSU.......please note.........the fan in that thing is LOUD as well. I was super excited to remove the stock northbridge fan, only to be driven crazy by the PSU fan.

I was lucky enough to have an old PC with a PC Power and Cooling 510 ATX PSU which I found to be very quiet. I just swapped out the fan in that one and threw it in the SLI version.

For anyone who is driven batty by this same problem, just give PC Power and Cooling a call and ask to buy the same fan (NOT THE DELTA FAN!) in the "standard" 510 ATX PSU.

Good luck, and quiet SLI computing. :-D

Hello, I joined just to post some followup to this. First off, a big thank you to Induveca. Following the complete and accurate information in your post here I was able to replace this horrid little fan. I'm quoting your whole post for reference to others. It took me about fifteen minutes to swap the fans out, I have the same video card as you do(but only one until I need another ). As Induveca says, you have to bend the lowest fin of the heatsink to fit the fan + screw, but this really shouldn't be a problem. I got the fan from the same place, same screws, and everything fit just fine. I pulled the old fan and screwed in the new, screwing the threads into the gap between the existing heat-sink fins.

I put a couple of photos up, too, here they are(1600x1200):
http://www.muppetlabs.com/~ben/pcfix/

This is the last system issue I have with my new computer. Thanks ever so much!

 

[seattledesi]

so the old asus fan simply come off when you unscrew the 3 screws?

And to screw the new papst, i just use the old 4 corner screws?

 

[seattledesi]

btw, won't any 40mmx10mm fan do? There are lotsa cheaper fans than the papst..

 

[killa62]

As Induveca says, you have to bend the lowest fin of the heatsink to fit the fan + screw, but this really shouldn't be a problem.

Couldn't you just screw on 3 screws and leave the 4th screw off, would that work or is the fan not stable?

 

[seattledesi]

how about these sunon fans?

http://www.3dcool.com/Details.asp?cid=74&id=188

maglev fans.. supposedly quieter.. though they rate it at 29db.. are the papst really 19db?

 

[A1bert]

A big thank you to Jimbob for his excellent post about modding the Arctic Cooling NV5 silencer to fit a Zalman 32mm heatsink underneath. Armed with the information in that post I managed to fit the heatsink and successfully took a hacksaw to my cooler's casing - now I have a nice quiet machine with lower chipset temps. Thank you again, Jimbob.

Someone here mentioned that they had difficulty getting the push pins out of the board when removing the original fan - I resorted to cutting the ends off with a pair of nail clippers. A word of warning though - the springs on the push pins will send them ricocheting around the room in an amusing but ever-so-slightly dangerous manner.

BTW now I have removed the horrible screeching little fan I'm at a loss as to what I should do with it. I could just throw it away but I'd like a little payback for putting up with the whining little blighter. Any suggestions?

 

[CrazyHandsMatt]

I have a swiftech MCX159-A, it works perfectly, just fits without touching my graphics card.

Swiftech MCX159

 

[bbarlow10]

seattledesi: I got that fan. It's pretty quiet, though I wasn't able to use it/listen to it in my case.

Replacing the stock fan with a 40X40 would be great, but unfortunately it just doesn't fit with my Ultra/NV5. I've got a Zalman 47 with 3 rows of pins cut down on there now, but it gets very hot (and my office is cool now, I sudder at the thought of temps in the summer).

I'm not a big proponent of modifying the NV 5 to fit a Zalmann either , I would think that would really mess up the airflow over the GPU heatsink that the fan produces. Does it? I know the temps are higher, how's the air flow?

 

[Solema]

Yeah, I am in the same boat, bbarlow. I wasn't happy with the increased GPU temps that the one user who modified his NV5 reported. I'm desperate to find a solution that doesn't require modding my NV5. Help us!

 

[A1bert]

I was waiting for a less radical approach to come along but I'm afraid the whining of that little fan got the better of me and I went looking for a hacksaw...

I haven't noticed any increase in GPU temps since modding my NV5. I think Jimbob reported a small increase but he also said he had made some other changes to his case at the same time, including some noise insulation foam type stuff if I'm not mistaken.

There might be a small impact on the amount of airflow going over the GPU heatsink but I don't think it'll be significant. The great advantage of the Jimbob mod - if I may call it that - is that the NV5's fan blows air down over the Zalman chipset heatsink keeping it far cooler than the pos fan that Asus shipped this board with. From the quiet computing point of view it is also good as one fan does the work of two.

 

[Sakaali]

There seems to be two different kinds of Papst 412FM concerning to the connector: mine was delivered with 3pin connector. Ordered in Finland and it surely is 412FM. Though I didn't manage to install it yet because I have no compatible screws.

 

[rowr]

Originally posted by: seattledesi
so the old asus fan simply come off when you unscrew the 3 screws?

And to screw the new papst, i just use the old 4 corner screws?

There's four screws that hold the little metal cover plate on, and then three smaller screws beneath the fan blades that mount the fan to the heatsink, so you need to rotate the blades to get at some of the screws.

I used new sheet metal screws and screwed them into the gaps between the fins on the existing heatsink. The original screws are too short to fit through a 10mm thick fan assembly, they only hold the metal plate over the fan.

btw, won't any 40mmx10mm fan do? There are lotsa cheaper fans than the papst..

A different fan should work fine. I didn't see a lot of options for fans that were that size and that quiet, and I really wanted a fix before the dying fan choked.

By the way, endpcnoise is in vancouver, wa. Mine was in my hands in seattle by 10 the next morning, after ordering at 1:30 the day before. Shipping was a little ridiculous.

 

[rowr]

Originally posted by: rowr

By the way, endpcnoise is in vancouver, wa. Mine was in my hands in seattle by 10 the next morning, after ordering at 1:30 the day before. Shipping was a little ridiculous.

Neglected to say I went for the cheapest shipping.

 

[rowr]

Originally posted by: killa62
Couldn't you just screw on 3 screws and leave the 4th screw off, would that work or is the fan not stable?

That occured to me after the fact. The fan felt quite solid, I imagine 3 would hold it in place just fine. You may be able to avoid munging the fin at all that way.

 

[imported_Sami]

I changed the fan today. Here are my experiences:

1. First try removing the metal cover plate ONLY. I didn't When I took
the fan and heatsink completely out it runs very silently without obstacles
near it. Some components on the motherboard may disturb the air flow
and the metal cover does it for certain. I asked from a pro - it doesn't
need it - it's just looks and protection for your fingernails. Doing this alone
may help you. I didn't choose that however...

2. When I took the whole thing off I accidentally broke the other plastic
pin. Be careful. If you take the heatsink off, you need to lift motherboard
at least half way out to squeece the pins under the board so they come up
without breaking.

3. I bought a new 40 mm MicroCool NorthPole. I know, it's like 25 ? - don't
have the receipt here now. But it's a relatively good choice. The local pro
shop (www.coolputer.fi) recommended it. Installation was relatively easy,
no plastic pins at least But it alone woudln't do the trick. Because at
8000 rpm it's almost as noisy as the original fan. Probably noisier otherwise
(because it's also much more effective) but it blows up from the motherboard
and there's no obstacles in that way to make noise.

4. At the same time I also bought Zalman fanmate 2 (9 ?). You can control the
fan rmp (voltage) with it. Because I have an overkill fan, I can drop it's rpm
to 4000 with probably the same effect than the original fan with 9000 rpm.
Asus Probe gives me < 40 celcius all the time.

And now it's silent. Not inaudible, but it's no longer the noisiest part of my
computer!

The cheapest way is to take the metal cover off and if you are certain a smaller
rmp will do, buy the fanmate. But I don't find my method that bad, if you want
to try the same. Maybe even a smaller / even more silent fan would do.

Good luck. If you don't mess anything up, it's worth the trouble.

Sami

 

[sxr7171]

I'm pretty much convinced that a 40mm no matter how quiet will always be annoying. I tried the following Sunon: http://www.buyextras.com/su40malefan1.html. It is a lot quieter than the stock fan and it is pretty quiet for something spinning at 6000 RPM. However the high pitch of the sound is just driving me up the wall. It is quieter than my Panaflo 120mm L1A at 12v but the pitch of the noise makes it a lot more annoying than the Panaflo could ever be. I think that a better intake fan on my Super Lanboy (has intake just in front of where my the NB is) would be the better option.

BTW, I found that Speedfan actually reports the temperature of the NB itself (as opposed to some random MB temp). My temps are quite low without the fan plugged in, so I might just go with the Zalman NB47J alone, pending some additional stress testing.

I'm slowly moving toward thoughts of using really high powered intake and enhaust fans (like Panaflo 120mm H1A) and using a fan speed controller to slow it down when not needed but to go all out when gaming. I don't care if it sounds like a vacuum cleaner when gaming, I want it silent at night however. I don't create load at night so it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[killa62]

Would it be better to mount the 40mm fan
upside down or rightside up?
Because there are video cards in the way spewing hot air, i think that it would be better to mount it upside down (sucking air thru the fins and spitting it out) than rightside up (blowing air across fins)
What do you guys think? Mounting it upside down would draw cooler air across the fins as the air would not be warmed by the vid card first...

 

[seattledesi]

Originally posted by: sxr7171
I'm pretty much convinced that a 40mm no matter how quiet will always be annoying. I tried the following Sunon: http://www.buyextras.com/su40malefan1.html. It is a lot quieter than the stock fan and it is pretty quiet for something spinning at 6000 RPM. However the high pitch of the sound is just driving me up the wall. It is quieter than my Panaflo 120mm L1A at 12v but the pitch of the noise makes it a lot more annoying than the Panaflo could ever be..

i dont get it.. u r saying its quieter than the case fans, but its high pitched? Please describe high pitched..

 

[sxr7171]

Originally posted by: seattledesi

Originally posted by: sxr7171
I'm pretty much convinced that a 40mm no matter how quiet will always be annoying. I tried the following Sunon: http://www.buyextras.com/su40malefan1.html. It is a lot quieter than the stock fan and it is pretty quiet for something spinning at 6000 RPM. However the high pitch of the sound is just driving me up the wall. It is quieter than my Panaflo 120mm L1A at 12v but the pitch of the noise makes it a lot more annoying than the Panaflo could ever be..

i dont get it.. u r saying its quieter than the case fans, but its high pitched? Please describe high pitched..

My case fans are 120 mm at 2000 RPM, the Sunon is 40mm at 6000 rpm. Think about how 2000 Hz might compare to 6000 Hz. Not that those at the exact frequencies the fans produce but think relatively.

 

[seattledesi]

so higher pitch frequency but lower decibel volume.. right?

 

[bbarlow10]

Sounds like it...

Get it? Sounds like... oh nevermind.

My Zalmann 47/Silencer NV 5 combo seems to be working well...better than I expected anyway. I've not actually tested the HS temperature, but the mobo temp has remained the same and my computer hasn't crashed. I still may try a Vantech Iceberq cooler though.