DFI Lanparty UT Ultra-D northbridge alternative

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computergeek22
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DFI Lanparty UT Ultra-D northbridge alternative

Post by computergeek22 » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:09 pm

I've narrowed my choice down to three northbridge coolers:

1) Zalman ZM-NB32J- I will most likely have to bend the pins to get an EVGA 7800 GT through. I've heard these don't cool as well as the stock fan and they aren't good for o/cing.

2) Vantec Iceberq - i've heard these are really loud and I'll probably undervolt the fan to make sure it stays silent. I'm not sure how they cool though but I've not heard of any issues and it would fit with a 7800 GT without any modification to the heatsink/fan.

3) Thermaltake crystal orb - Another Thermaltake product which I'm not sure of. I can fix the sound issue with undervolting and again, I wouldn't need to modify the heatsink/fan to fit my video card.

Which one of these coolers would be the best and if you guys have any other solutions that would also be helpful. The zalman is about 8 bucks and the thermaltake around 10 but the iceberq is on the expensive side at 18 bucks.
Waiting for suggestions.
Thanks

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:14 pm

Note: I will be *mildly* overclocking. I probably won't change stock voltages but I will be raising my FSB to the max at stock voltage.

teknerd
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Post by teknerd » Sat Oct 08, 2005 12:39 pm

unless you can go passive i would leave the stock cooler on the board. the dfi nf4 boards have a relatively good fan and fan control system built onto the board. you can customize the temperature at which the fan turns on and how long it take to ramp up.

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:43 pm

If I go passive (the zalman) and do bend the fins will there be a heat disadvantage to the stock cooler? Keep in mind that I'm planning to O/C but I want the quietest pc possible and I've heard that the stock cooler on the DFI is quite noisy though some people have said that removing the cooler and adding AS5 helps. I might just try using some AS5 with the zalman passive cooler. DO you think this would be sufficient even when overclocking? If it is then I'm set.
Thanks for the response.

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:10 pm

stock cooler is louder than my car.

is zalman water cooling out of budget?
passive zalman northbridge still gets hot, just less hot. I would suggest some low voltage fans blowing across that area if you want to overclock it a bit.

are you overclocking and undervolting? (you can with venice cores it seems)

Qwertyiopisme
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Post by Qwertyiopisme » Sat Oct 08, 2005 11:55 pm

If you manage to get air from some other thing blowing past the zalman then you will probably get sufficient cooling. bending up the cooler completely will make it cool better, as it will be easier for air to come into it.

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Sun Oct 09, 2005 12:15 pm

I'm planning to buy a p180 antec case. I hear those cases have a vga heat duct. If i use an old 80mm fan which i will probably undervolt to push in fresh air near the video card, you guys think that would be sufficient. I'm not planning to o/c hardcore probably to around 2400mhz-2600mhz on a 2200mhz 3700 san diego which i heard is quite possible even at stock voltage. Nonetheless, I think if i manage to push in some cool air into that area of the mobo it would be the best solution. I don't want to mod the case in any way so putting a fan near or right over the NB would be impossible because
A) my video card
B) my case wouldn't allow it unless modding.
I think an 80mm fan in the VGA duct pushing fresh air in should do it. Don't you think? :?:

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Sun Oct 09, 2005 12:16 pm

el jefe, water cooling is out of the budget.

~El~Jefe~
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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Sun Oct 09, 2005 8:12 pm

computergeek22 wrote:el jefe, water cooling is out of the budget.
why the dfi?

if you go overclocking and control, Epox is much cheaper alternative.

if you go antec slk 3700 bqe or cheaper 3000 series youll have enough with the epox to get a zalman reserator. You will get the same performance out of it. epox is the cheaper dfi (1/2 price)

-----------
Zalman makes 92 mm fan with an arm extension that attaches flatly and neatly to a PCI bay screw. it can be aimed anywhere, especially on a northbridge. zalman passive and a 5volt fan on it would make it more than decent providing the case has some decent front pressure from a front fan pushing positive pressure into the case.

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Sun Oct 09, 2005 9:45 pm

the epox is only about 30 bucks cheaper( epox - 90 bucks; dfi-130) and the case u suggested about 40 bucks. so that's about 70 bucks savings from the p180 and dfi mobo not including the heatsink (50), extra fan (20) and nb and another fan(15). A total savings of about 155~160 bucks. The reserator on pricewatch is around 200 bucks. 40 bucks more than a system as quiet but aircooled. Considering the following
A) out of my budget
B) I'm not going to o/c hardcore
I don't think this would be a plausible solution. Though I wouldn't mind a watercooled computer.

I guess i'll just have to use the vga duct and make do.

rawgerz
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Post by rawgerz » Sun Oct 09, 2005 10:29 pm


computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:33 pm

Nice mod ragerz, not too hard either. I'll try that if that doesn't work I'll bend the fins but the little fan you used. How did you get it to stick to the heatsink like you did?

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Mon Oct 10, 2005 7:33 pm

Also, was the little fan really helpful and did it decrease temps a lot?

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Mon Oct 10, 2005 8:45 pm

Yet another idea I had was putting a fan in the front of my p180. I was thinking of this fan because it seems to be really quiet at just about enuf airflow. I'll leave it at its default setting and hook up the other 3 p180 fans and a nexus 120 for my cpu heatsink to my fan controller ----> Cooling the northbridge yet being ultra quiet. What do you think?

The fan: http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/Fee ... 6811999072

rawgerz
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Post by rawgerz » Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:10 pm

i took the fan from a uh power regulating board? that came with my motherboard gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI it sticks out like a pci card and i really dont understand the function but i did have a heatsink with a fan on it and i later found out it did not need the fan it was basically room temp
i secured it onto the new zalman with 1 of the 4 screws that held the fan on the old heatsink just screwed it in between the fins, i just basically put it on there for an "OH SH*T" problem but actually never used it and removed it.

i used this heatsink with a vga cooler from zalman on my 6600GT it flows air right over the heatsink keeping the temps in a safe 90 range. i would not recommend going without one, unless that is that these chipsets can take the 125+ temps GPU's have.

also do not just Bend the fins out of the way you may short circut something that comes into contact, i found that since it is made of aluminum they BREAK after bending them twice or so
Remember this is going to be a tight fit and i did use a different MB than you, and i found a good idea was to place electrical tape on the corner of my VGA to prevent any accidental shorting. it worked out great though, its still working just fine

i have 2 case fans one in the front pannel and the side cover almost right over the chipset which does help but ive found the zalman GPU cooler to help much more. the case fan you linked to will be completely silent but it doesnt move much air at all, hardly worth the sacrafice i have vantec stealth fans in mine at 19DB i can hear the side pannel one whine very faintly they should be listed on newegg, a front case fan will not keep the temps down below 120 alone trust me especially if you have hard drives infront of it
Just play it safe, keep rechecking the fit of your VGA card, and backup your data just in case, never know might not work for your mb but its a cheap sink and worth a try. if you have a dremel you can go a step farther than me and grind down the fins you break off too

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:00 pm

I was thinking of doing something similar to this: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... ge=2&pp=25
Tell me what you think. Also to provide airflow, I'll probably use the top front 120mm fan holder w/a nexus 120 or something.

ArcticOC
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Post by ArcticOC » Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:47 pm

I like it like this.. Gives me high clocks and almost no noise

My tread at XS:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... hp?t=73430

Admiral Ackbar
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Post by Admiral Ackbar » Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:16 am

ArcticOC wrote:I like it like this.. Gives me high clocks and almost no noise

My tread at XS:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... hp?t=73430
Where did you get the northbridge cooler? What is it made from?

KorruptioN
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Post by KorruptioN » Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:23 am

Admiral Ackbar wrote:
ArcticOC wrote:I like it like this.. Gives me high clocks and almost no noise

My tread at XS:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/sho ... hp?t=73430
Where did you get the northbridge cooler? What is it made from?
I think it's an Arctic Cooling Freezer heatsink, with the centre section cut out. Great idea.

nici
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Post by nici » Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:42 am

Yup its an AC Freezer brutally mutilated to fit :lol: A very good idea though :) Look for a thread called something like "nF4 chipset cooling options", plenty of ideas there especially for the DFI Ultra-d :)

So far ive done this to my chipset,

Mutilate a NB47J

Image

Watercool with zalman gpu cooler

Image

Go with the GPU in lower slot and passive NB47J
EDIT: Theres a 80mm nexus fan in the picture, so it wasnt completely passive, just noticed that.. :oops: Anyway, believe it or not the 50mm fan does a much better job at 5V than the Nexus did at 12V, probably because the 50mm fan is so close to the chipset.

Image

Add a fan to the NB47J, dropped temp 15c during load. 50x10mm fan, rated 27dB(A) at 12V and its running at 5V being inaudible as long as you dont shove it up your ear :lol:

Image

SO as you can see theres plenty of options 8)

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Wed Oct 12, 2005 7:52 pm

what a mess :)

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:43 pm

I want a silent pc so bad. I'm currently running a Palomino AMD XP 2000+ with bad case airflow and a zalman flower heatsink with a noisy 38 DBA fan running sooo damn loud. I try to silence my computer by decreasing the voltages using a Nexus fan controller but whenever I lower the voltage on my fans, my cpu temps hit 60-66 C. I think I found a solution to the NB cooler problem: I have one of these(link below) in my current case and I'll try undervolting them to make sure they stay quiet if not I might just scrap the idea of adding one of these but I think it would be good so anyway here is the fan:

http://www.bestbyteinc.com/prodinfo.asp ... variation=

I will also add a Nexus 120 in the front or use one of the thinner tricool fans in a p180 to blow air towards the bent up zalman blue heatsink like above.. I hear the 7800 GTs run cooler so I shouldn't have too much of a problem.
Thanks for all the help guys!

rawgerz
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Post by rawgerz » Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:41 am

although im not sure which flower sink you have, i used to have an AMD athlon xp 1800 with the CNPS3100-Plus
and got temps of less than 95F and that was with the fan on the 5V setting (~1700rpm) if you have absolutely no airflow into your case, or you turn your cpus fan down past 1200rpm. Or unless theres not enough thermal grease it should not heat up that much

and that fan you linked to is basically JUNK look at the specs
Fan Spec:
Dimensions 90x90x20mm
Noise 30.76dBa
Air Flow 5.77CFM
Speed 2500RPM

6 CFM is practically nothing, that thing generates more noise than it does airflow
If you want completely silent get a water cooling system, if you want your compter to be about 25DB (bearily audible) put some fans such as these
1 or 2 as inakes and use your powersupply as the exhaust, your pc should then be near silent after you solve your cpu situation (my advice on that is if you used that artic silver remove it and use what came with it, i've read AS fails over time)

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Thu Oct 13, 2005 4:25 pm

Rawgerz, I don't need to fix my current proc/heatsink issues because I'm going to build a brand new system w/ the following:

Antec neoHE 500 or Antec SP-500
Antec P180 Case
2 Nexus 120 case fans
Scythe Ninja Heatsink
DFI Lanparty NF4 Ultra-D
AMD 3700+ San Diego or 3500+ Venice
EVGA 7800GT or 6800GT
OCZ Dual Channel 1gb (not decided on speed but I heard that with my current mobo it craves good ram so probably DDR 500 or something)
Hitach Deskstar T7k250 160 GB Sata II (simply can't afford 74gb raptor)
Zalman NB47J heatsink - bent up with one of the nexuses blowing on it

Using Pricewatch this all comes to around 1300 bucks which is perfect and a good sytem to last me for 4-5 years more like my AMD 2000+.
My procesor runs hot because it is a Palomino. Those things were really hot and in addition I have crappy airflow and probably a bunch of dust on the zalman heatsink fan. I used the cheapo paste that came with the heatsink. It's one of those heatsinks where you had the fan holder that you had to screw in to the pci slot holders on your case. Anyway, I think the above mentioned system is pretty good and a good upgrade from my current:

AMD 2000+ Palomino
DFI NFII Lanparty Rev. A
Geforce 3 ti200
256mb PC2100 ram
Seagate 80GB Sata st380013as

BTW I already have the fan in my current case so I'll scrap the idea but do you think having one front case fan blowing on the nb will be enuf? I think it should but then again I've heard it runs hot - very hot.

rawgerz
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Post by rawgerz » Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:39 pm

well in my i run 2 case fans one on the front and one on the side pannel, in addition to a zalman mounted on my 6600 and CPU, if your going to go passive with your NF4 chipset your going to want to either have
1) a side pannel case fan
2) a zalman GPU heatsink at full 12V (helps mine since it blows right across the card to the chipset)
maybe you could get away if the front fan was completely unobstructed at full power maybe 35CFM (ie no hard drives in the way) but i would recommend you follow one or both (like i do).
I do not know IF chipsets can take the ammount of heat that GPU's make, i did not let mine go above 122F before turning on a fan but that was only IDLE temps. IF it is like a GPU chip i wouldent think even temps as high as 70C would harm it but i do not know for sure.

I love my amd venice the huge chip surface helps in transfering heat, and my zalman CNPS7000B-CU never goes above about 105F and thats at the lowest rpm

You'll probably want to use a new h/s on ur 6800 or 7800 ive found both the VF-700's work mostly the same in temps (5C diff)
Also i dont want to knock your new system but i have heard that those Hitachi drives fail often, i personally went for samsungs because they really are super quiet. i did have that exact same Seagate you had, two infact for RAID and i could NOT stand their head chatter! i littereally thought they were failling. although i have not tried the new Maxtor 16MB's they do say they are pretty quiet
Good article here actually http://www.silentpcreview.com/article244-page3.html
But overall it will have really huge preformance increase over your old, Dual channel especially :wink:

Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI
GF 6600GT
AMD 3000 venice
2x 80GB samsung

computergeek22
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Post by computergeek22 » Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:38 pm

Thanks rawgerz for your time and patience to help me out. BTW, are you sure they fail because at Newegg almost all the customers had a good thing to say about this drive except that it had a faulty sata connector which I think, if I'm careful, shouldn't be a problem. Also, at least for the next 2 years or so I'll probably be gaming still and anandtech.com did a review on this HD and it faired pretty decently: http://anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2454&p=10
I've also heard that they're pretty quiet under idle. I don't care if they're a bit loud under seeking because i just want my pc to be silent when I'm in the room and when my computer is idling. I don't mind a loud computer when gaming cuz my speakers will probably drown out the noise. I just don't want a damn vacuum-like-noise when i'm studying! I'm gonna give the hitachi a try because the samsungs are nice but they're not as fast as the Hitachis. Plus they (Hitachi drives) come with a 3 year warranty.

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