Calling anyone with a ASUS A8N-E and a VF700-Cu and a Passive Northbridge Cooler!

[Speed]

Hello,

As most people with a modern fan cooled Asus motherboard will know, their nothbridge fans can make a hell of a noise. Strangely enough mine doesn't all the time but most of the day at least, not sure if they are temperature controlled or it just has funny moods.

Either way I own an ASUS A8N-E and want to fit a passive northbridge cooler to it, now I have done this before, on a lower specification rig using the same motherboard. This rig isn't used for gaming and the cooler works very well, I've had zero problems with it. I used a standard Zalman ZM-NB47J which had no problems with clearance or anything like that, it was easy to fit as well.

So I decided that I might as well go ahead and fit it to my gaming machine, which has the same motherboard, the only problem I thought I might have would be with overheating during games, something that the other machine would never do as it can run any. But I never got that far, there is no clearance between my aftermarket graphics card cooler, also a Zalman product, in this case the very good VF700-Cu.

So before I start bending parts of it what I'm wondering is if anyone has the same board, graphics card cooler and a passive northbridge cooler, a tall order I know. But anyone with most of these products I'd love to hear their recommendations and any advice.

I also noticed that Zalam now have a new Northbridge cooler, the ZM-NBF47. Does anyone have any experience with it? Is it any good? Could it solve my clearance problem? Looks easier to modify if it doesn't.

Thanks,

Mark
Speed

[arthurleung]

AFAIK the VF-700 is on the center of the card, so its unlikely to cause any trouble.

Though in the worse case, you can cut/snap off part of the heatsink to give clearance to both the heatsinks.
(Or just push the fins away).

[Speed]

AFAIK the VF-700 is on the center of the card, so its unlikely to cause any trouble.

Though in the worse case, you can cut/snap off part of the heatsink to give clearance to both the heatsinks.
(Or just push the fins away).

Well like I said, I've tried it and there is no clearance. They touch each other and stop the card from seating correctly, like you say however I just need to cut/bend some of the fins. Either way I'd like to know if other people are having the same problems or whether I'm doing something wrong?

Also does anyone know if the new ZM-NBF47 is any better?

[BigBry]

Can't you fit the VF700-Cu round the other way ie upside down.

I'm pretty sure that's what I did and it worked ok. I used the blue NB heatsink and didn't need to cut or bend it. It's a A8N-e board with a 6800GS graphics card and it stays cool even on the 'silent' setting.

[amjedm]

I don't have any advice apart from I've seen a picture of the Zalman ZM-NB47J (on silentpcreview.com) with the fins bent. It seemed like the heatsink had a parting in the middle as the fins were really bent to the sides/back. I believe the person had similar issues to what you have.

[Speed]

Can't you fit the VF700-Cu round the other way ie upside down.

I'm pretty sure that's what I did and it worked ok. I used the blue NB heatsink and didn't need to cut or bend it. It's a A8N-e board with a 6800GS graphics card and it stays cool even on the 'silent' setting.

Hmm, any chance of a picture or two?

I don't have any advice apart from I've seen a picture of the Zalman ZM-NB47J (on silentpcreview.com) with the fins bent. It seemed like the heatsink had a parting in the middle as the fins were really bent to the sides/back. I believe the person had similar issues to what you have.

Was that on the main site or the forums?

[amjedm]

Was that on the main site or the forums?

It was in the forums. May have been in a thread about "NForce 4 Chipset Fan Replacement" or in the General Gallery sub Forum. If I come across it I will let you know.

[Speed]

It was in the forums. May have been in a thread about "NForce 4 Chipset Fan Replacement" or in the General Gallery sub Forum. If I come across it I will let you know.

Think I've found it, thanks very much!

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19902 - was the thread you mentioned
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/vie...=163789#163789 - a link from the first thread found the pictures.

[amjedm]

Think I've found it, thanks very much!

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=19902 - was the thread you mentioned
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/vie...=163789#163789 - a link from the first thread found the pictures.

No probs mate, hope it helps you out.

[BigBry]

Hmm, any chance of a picture or two?

Sorry, it's too much agro getting the system out and I haven't the time. I'm pretty sure the way the Graphics fan cooler is constructed that putting it upside down gives you a bit of room in a different location at the rear of the graphics card. The NB cooler then fitted fine in that extra room.

[Speed]

That's fair enough, but I think upside down is the wrong term. If i'm right you are talking about turning the cooler 180 degrees compaired to this picture here http://www.eirikso.com/wp-photos/DSC02384.jpg. So that the largest section of fins are nearest the motherboard.

If that is what you are thinking of then that is all dependant on where the core is on the card, I'm pretty sure I tried that when I first mounted it and on my card (BFG 7800GT OC) it doesn't fit.

[BigBry]

I'm not going to argue over the term used but that's the way I was referring to, it's not the way the instructions tell you to mount it hence my use of the phrase upside down. I know that when I first tried to put the 6800GS back it caught on the fins so I turned it around.

Now back-to-front or rear mounted, that's another matter

[Speed]

I'm not going to argue over the term used but that's the way I was referring to, it's not the way the instructions tell you to mount it hence my use of the phrase upside down. I know that when I first tried to put the 6800GS back it caught on the fins so I turned it around.

Now back-to-front or rear mounted, that's another matter

Ah right yeah, fair enough. Upside Down just didn't seem right but back-to-front would be better that what I said.

Thanks for your input though, still helpful!

[BigBry]

It will be interesting to know if you try this and it works, or if not what the solution was.

Good luck

[Speed]

It will be interesting to know if you try this and it works, or if not what the solution was.

Good luck

Try mounting it back-to-front? Well when I firsted mounted my VF700 it wouldn't fit that way around due to the placement of the core. So sadly that won't work for me.

[this_is_gav]

On my old A8N (Deluxe one though), I installed a ZM-NB47J too, and it interfered with my Arctic Cooling heatsink, so I just cut away a few of the fins on the Zalman. It worked perfectly. Just used some pliers (the long nose ones) and worked each fin back and forward from the base until it came away. No issues - I guess one side of the Northbridge chip is slightly warmer than the other, but as the heatsink is all connected in one solid lump, that won't be more than a degree or 2 tops.