Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Royal clearance/cooling. Any suggestions?

[PositiveSpin]

There are two different clearance issues with the Gigabyte 8N-SLI Royal, and I'm looking for suggestions.

This motherboard, for those that don't know it, uses NForce4 for Intel chipset.

First: I'd like to run the "dual power" card because I'll be running two video cards and a dual core 3GHz P4. Problem is that with that board installed, there's no clearance to run a Zalman 7000 HSF - I started off planning to run a 7700 (well, it is a dual core 3GHz...), but that's no good. Then I tried the 7000 - nope. I can't imagine fitting an XP-120 either. The stock Intel cooler fits, but that's a horrible idea. I could run a water cooler (like a Zalman Reserator), but that's lots of fuss. Or should I just give up on using the dual power card? After all, it will mess up the airflow, being a big flat surface parallel to the back panel.

Second: I'm as concerned as most about the northbridge running hot, and whether I can run it passive (it comes without a fan on it, but there's a 40mm fan supplied to clip to it). I have a Zalman NB47J that I can put on it, but then there are more clearance issues for the CPU HSF. Maybe the answer is to water cool both the CPU and the north bridge?

Does anyone know if a Scythe Ninja would have the same clearance issues? I'm not inclined to buy any more HSFs that may not fit

For that matter, does anyone know if it's OK to run without that power board? After all, without it I can use almost any HSF.

[Rokugo]

i Have a similer mobo and i use just put an XP-90 on it with no problems and i use the Duel Power card i can even swap ram without having to take the cooler off.. i think the xp-120 would fit but it would be very tight... the problem with the Thermalright cooler is the mount they provide uses a 3mm screw.. but gigabyte uses a plastick lock pin type thing i got mine mounted with 2 #6-32 nylon bolts and nuts worked like a charm

as for the chipset cooler im not sure still using the noisy stock 40mm fan.. not sure what to go with there myself

[fergy]

I have the same board as Rokugo - can recommend the Scythe Ninja - OK clearances, although I did put RAM in slots 3,4 rather than 1,2 to keep away from heatsink. Guess if you compare the board layout pictures at the Gigabyte site you'll see it the Royal looks OK

The DPS thing is a gimmick - its not essential, as it says in the manual. Gigabyte have changed the design of it at least once, so I'm not sure what version you have. In mine, the cooling bit is on a heatpipe that doglegs away from the socket it plugs into, but it then sticks up into the PSU - I never even tried to fit it as it seemed unlikely to have clearance.

The Northbridge cooler is a problem. Again Gigabyte have changed their approach with differnt boards - mine (Rev 2) has a small whiny 40mm fan in a gold-colored 'cage', but the video card overlaps about 1/3 of it, so am not sure what to do here either. Mine sits at 69C constantly. Much hacked Zalman passive seems only way to go.