• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

NB cooling: stock fan or passive Zalman?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

kevral

Registered
Joined
Sep 13, 2003
Anyone happen to know if changing the northbridge cooler on an Abit NF7-s v2 to a passive Zalman NB47J would be an improvement?
Bought one for my southbridge and the thing is massive. Figured maybe I should put it on the NB instead, and get a smaller one (easier to glue) for the SB.

Any useful way I could measure the difference if I try and see? Don't have an external thermometer.

What would you recommend to cool the two bridges?
 
this is quite interesting. I have a NF7-S v2.0, and I'm thinking of the same thing - getting the zalman passive cooler for the northbridge.

I think if you have a lot of airflow around the northbridge area it should be an improvement. like if you had a blowhole.

with bad airflow it might be worse though.
 
I dunno, do you really ever notice how loud your NB HS is? i mean really...i'm not saying you cant improve it, but i dont know if your going to get much, if any improvement by this.
 
For sure, as long as you have a little airflow. For one the stock one is usualy not seated well, uses plain goop, and is just some pressed aluminum with a fan on it, its dinky. The Zalman one is a big hunk of copper with abou 3X's the surface area. If you have a HS that blows air over it that is good, if not just put a little fan on or near it and it will be fine.
 
I changed the NB out on my Abit KX7 333r mobo. It does a heck of a lot better cooling than stock hs/f did. I can't really tell how much of an OC'ing difference it does b/c I can't run over 198FSB without something whiggin' out and shooting me a BSOD.
Wished these boards had a PCI lock.
So I am sticking with 166FSB and it does wonderfully at that speed. It gets warm but doesn't need very much airflow to do its job. My 92mm Zalman does a good job shuffling air around near the NB.
 
RangerJoe said:
[color=33FF00]screw getting the zalman, go for the new swiftech one. it is SOOO hardcore.[/color]


lol, good point.

I havn't seen any reviws but it looks like its basicly one of thier CPU HS's but a smaller square of it... Badass.
 
[color=33FF00]very true. i mean. how COULD that be bad? 40x25mm fan, on a slab of copper, with aluminum coiled pins....i see nothing about that...that is bad.[/color]
 
That is one big heatsink.
But I doubt it will fit next to an slk900. Looks like the Zalman just might.
 
I put a zahlman NB heatsink (the gold one with all pins same height) on my NB. The stock NB fan had a high pitch noise. My Vantec aeroflow blows air out of all 4 sides so the passive heatsink gets some airflow. It is still very warm to the touch.

My mobo is a Soltek 75MRN-L which has the Nforce2 chipset with integrated Geforce 4 video. I'd been using the integrated video so the NB was working hard. I haven't checked the NB heatsink temps since adding the 9700 video card.
 
Just bought one my self, as you can see from my sig i have a zalmon with a 120mm delta screamer (190cfm on full, approx 100 at 7v), due to the size of the fan i should get good cooling on the northbridge!! :)

But, i still need money for watercooling! :D
 
The zalman with a 40mm fan might not be a bad idea. Iv been thinking about doing that or getting a crystal orb. Right now im just running the stock HS with a 40mm fan and i took off that thermal tape junk and put as3 and im gettin temps of 30ºC and like 32ºC under load.
 
Back