A8N-Sli Standard - Northbridge Noise

[mrchu]

I am very impressed with the performance of my system etc... only issue now (which is commonplace) is the noise produced...I aim to replace the CPU fan and the northbridge fan (currently spinning at 6500 rpms...is this too high? considering I'm literally only viewing this web page nothing else)...currently my cpu is running at 988 mhz with cool n quiet in operation, however the noise output is still considerably high so I believe it is the northbridge fan...now onto my question (finally), I have an xfi elite pro, and a 7800gtx in a standard atx case...so there isnt a great deal of room, can anyone suggest a suitable, much quieter northbridge fan? or perhaps a means of making this one run slower?

thanks for reading

mobo is A8n-Sli Standard

[d3fiant]

u may find ur bios allows reduced rpm control like on some Abit boards but note that may also afect CPU HSF. Other methods include an inline resitor which reduces power to the fan, think Zalman do them, while we r discussin Zalman another option is their passive northbridge coolers which are effective if ur case airflow is well organised

[Madafwo]

I have the same problem, same board, same graphics card, and I don't think there is enough room for either of the zalman northbridge coolers, I was thinking of going for the Akasa Cool blue chipset cooler myself but I haven't really seen anything about it, like noise levels or whether its even an effective cooler.

[Noni]

I have save problem, same graphic card too.

I thought of a idea. Buy a zalman northbridge cooler, it will fit on the standard 7800GTX.

I havent tried though

Now, add a low spinning fan just on the side to cool the northbridge. Should be MUCH quieter.

Thanks.

[Thorsson]

Does the GTX, which is a long card, sit above the chipset fan at all? If not then you will get the Zalman in no problem. The latest Asus fans aren't as noisy as the old ones, but the Zalman runs a bit cooler as well as being totally silent.

[Madafwo]

From what I can see the card over hangs the chipset fan but there aren't that many components by it so it gives you about 2-2.5 cm to play with in total, if you were to take off the standard chipset fan.

[farooqm]

You can request a replacement for the one on your board from Asus... known issue and Asus will send you one out FOC. The one on mine was the same, the replacement I got is much quieter and seems to run at 51xxrpm.

[Thorsson]

That's weird. I have the Deluxe. My old fan ran at around 7800rpm, but it fluctuated. The new one does a steady 6250 (and is not really noticeable unlike the old).

The Zalman HS is about 4-5cm high, so I don't think you'll fit it.

[chazt]

I'm using a coolriver deluxe water cooling kit i bought from scan for about £60. Really quiet and cooling is reasonably good as long as you don't want massive overclocks. It has waterblocks for CPU, NB and GFX but i don't use the GFX block as the retention device is well dodgy.