nForce MCP massively hot ... aftermarket fan suggestions?

[DaKid]

Hiya guys,

I've just built up my PC (well, in fact spent most of Saturday building it then had to wait til yesterday to install the RAM), and all is mostly good with it. Spec is as per thingummy on the left.

I got the basics installed and went into WoW. I've forced 4xAA and 16xAF in the graphics card settings, and was running @ 1920x1200 (native res). After about five minutes, the screen froze and reverted back to a static image of what I'd been looking at in game about five minutes previously. This held for a few moments before the PC bluescreened and automatically rebooted. As it restarted, I went into the BIOS and checked the temperatures. All were seemingly normal apart from the MCP was at 110 degrees Celsius.

I don't know much about temperatures, but I do know that that's rather a lot, so I let it cool down and then added the optional fan that came with the motherboard, to attach to the Heatstink that's connected via a heatpipe to the MCP. I hadn't attached it by default because it states that it's only necessary when using passive or liquid cooling, whereas I have 2x120mm Sharkoon fans front and rear, and an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro HSF on the CPU. After fitting it, even a hard session didn't seem to push the temp above 60 degrees, and I had no more problems, so this would appear to have been the cause.

The problem is that this little fan runs at 5,000rpm and is pretty much the only audible thing in the case. I'm after some help please to try and cool it in some other way, without having this racket going on inside my computer. Any suggestions? Maybe a quieter, after-market fan for this MCP heatsink, or a friend even suggested a spot-fan that I could point at the heatsink that might be less noisy.

Advice gratefully received

[shaithis]

Have you overclocked the system and increased voltages to the various parts of the motherboard?

[dave87]

Just use the blue Zalman heatsink - passive, but if you've got decent airflow it'll be fine

[s_kinton]

Just use the blue Zalman heatsink - passive, but if you've got decent airflow it'll be fine

Another vote for the Zalman passive cooler.

It sounds to me like your airflow isnt very good. 60c with a fan is very hot imo. My chipset runs at 28c idle and about 35c load.

[frazered]

zalman fan mate to slow the mcp fan down

about 2 squid from scan

[DaKid]

No overclocking anywhere, although I have told the BIOS to use 0% overclocking on my RAM to enable it to run @ 1000Mhz instead of 800Mhz - the default otherwise.

My airflow is fairly clean ... the only big problem is my 8800GTX which slices the case in half and stops good airflow getting to the top half of the case. I was wondering; is it possible to move it to the second PCI-E slot? The mobo installation instructions say that if I'm using only one PCI-E graphics card I should put it in the slot closest to the CPU, but is that merely a recommendation for some arbitrary reason, or will it simply not work properly if I move it elsewhere? I'd get much better airflow if I could put it in the lower slot.

Two images below of PC ... one halfway through build, while still outside the case; second just this morning showing the airflow within the case.

[DaKid]

By the way, you can see the MCP HSF just between the GFX card and the main CPU HSF .... the black rectangle with nvidia written on it is the top of the fan ... the heatpipe can just be seen running from that to underneath the GFX card where the MCP itself lives.

[aidanjt]

The thermal paste job underneath the heatsink of the MCP and SPP is probably a piece of crap, get some good stuff, AS5 is still king, clean all that crap off, and repaste it with a nice thin layer on both chips, rub a bit in on the base of the heatsinks, and stick it back on. You'd be surprised how bad some motherboards are done.

[directhex]

The thermal paste job underneath the heatsink of the MCP and SPP is probably a piece of crap, get some good stuff, AS5 is still king, clean all that crap off, and repaste it with a nice thin layer on both chips, rub a bit in on the base of the heatsinks, and stick it back on. You'd be surprised how bad some motherboards are done.

i loved it when a mate's graphics card heatsink was attached 1) with no thermal paste 2) with thick matt-black paint all over the heatsink including the back

[Splash]

Do what with the who now? Did they also disable UAC in Vista because they "know what they're doing with the compootor and all that"?

[aidanjt]

i loved it when a mate's graphics card heatsink was attached 1) with no thermal paste 2) with thick matt-black paint all over the heatsink including the back

Wah?!

That's worse than the 9600XT I got that had this flaky silver gunk applied with a plastering troual, all over the resistors and everything.

[DaKid]

So, apart from looking at the thermal paste (does Arctic Silver ever go off? Have some from like three years ago I can use if not!!), does anyone have any suggestions for alternative HSFs or cooling, or for ways to improve my airflow (specifically whether I can use the second pci-e slot insead)?

[aidanjt]

It doesn't 'go off' pesay, but it does chemically seperate if you don't keep it chilled. If you squeeze some out and mix it about before applying it'll be fine. I'd suggest trying the thermal job before replacing the heatsinks.

[Clunk]

Ive got a tube of as2 or 3 that is still fine

The thermal paste is definately one of the forst things to check.

Just to double check that heat is definately the problem, and not the motherboard (which I reckon it could be), get a large desk fan, take the side off your case and blow the fan inside and see if it still had problems.

[EtheAv8r]

Do you have a fan in the front of the case.... and are the fans blowing the right way ... your case has among the best airflows of any......

[this_is_gav]

Do you have a fan in the front of the case.... and are the fans blowing the right way ... your case has among the best airflows of any......

... mid-high range cases