Northbridge fan

[hofinder23]

I just took off the northbridge fan on my ASUS A8N-E board. There was some white stuff (assuming it was thermal grease) that I cleaned off. I then attached the new northbridge fan that ASUS shipped me. The new northbridge fan had a sticky pad on the bottom of the fan.

Is that a thermal pad? Do I need to add some extra thermal grease between the new northbridge fan and the sticky pad? Or is the thermal pad (if it is a thermal pad) good enough? i've never used thermal pads before.

 

[The J]

Nope. That sticky stuff was the thermal pad. You should be good to go.

 

[NuroMancer]

Originally posted by: The J
Nope. That sticky stuff was the thermal pad. You should be good to go.

Correct, but you might get better results using thermal grease or AS5 instead of the pad.

 

[Unkno]

the new NB fan that asus shipped you is not good....better off getting a Zalman NB47J passive cooler with AS5

 

[hofinder23]

how is the new northbridge fan not good? it's still better than the old one right?

also, if i try to use thermal grease instead of the pad do i have to strip the pad before adding the grease?

 

[Unkno]

actually, i have heard that the replacement fan is different from the one that comes with the A8N-E....the replacement fan basically doesn't have much surface area, thus is worse than the stock NB fan. Well, it really depends on which one asus gave you

yea, i think you have strip off the pad first

 

[hofinder23]

Originally posted by: Unkno
actually, i have heard that the replacement fan is different from the one that comes with the A8N-E....the replacement fan basically doesn't have much surface area, thus is worse than the stock NB fan. Well, it really depends on which one asus gave you

yea, i think you have strip off the pad first

the replacement fan is different then the one they gave me. it loads on sideways so then the surface area isn't completely covered. it's mounted on a 45 degree angle. it's covering the chip in the middle though. is that enough?

how easily do northbridge chips fail/die? what would happen if it did? get a new mobo? do you suggest i take off the pad and put on thermal grease instead?

 

[imported_Dimicron]

I'd say it takes a lot to kill a northbridge chip. My gf's computer has a MSI K7N2G-ILSR (nforce2-IGP based motherboard) and the fan on it's heatsink died a long time ago. The system is still solid though. All I've done is unplugged the fan from the motherboard and tied it to a run of cables so it's out of the way. The temps stay pretty much the same as while the fan was on, I think if anything it only bumped the temps up a degree or two. They stay around 35C now on the mobo (The CPU, a barton 2800+, only dreams of being that cool ). The only way I'd consider replacing the heatsink/fan on it is if I used the integrated graphics on it.

 

[hofinder23]

one issue was... the northbridge chip is embedded in something else i don't know what it is. the new fan ASUS sent me covers the chip just fine. but it doesn't cover the surrounding black part that the chip is embedded in. does the stuff around the chip need to be in contact with the thermal pad too???

 

[crimson117]

No. The socket does not and should not be in contact with the pad / heatsink.

 

[crimson117]

I don't have anything additional to add, so I thought I'd make a useless post to hit 900

 

[hofinder23]

Originally posted by: crimson117
No. The socket does not and should not be in contact with the pad / heatsink.

what do you mean socket should not be in contact with the pad? no matter what it will be. the heatsink is the same size as the embedded area around the northbridge chip. the only thing is is that it's placed at a 45 degree angle.

 

[BlackFalcon]

Originally posted by: hofinder23

Originally posted by: crimson117
No. The socket does not and should not be in contact with the pad / heatsink.

what do you mean socket should not be in contact with the pad? no matter what it will be. the heatsink is the same size as the embedded area around the northbridge chip. the only thing is is that it's placed at a 45 degree angle.

Yes, the heatsink might be the same size as the socket; however, the northbridge chip is usually very slightly taller than the surrounding substrate. Thus, the heatsink, if properly mounted and balanced, will rest on the chip but "hover" above the rest of the socket's area.