Fan on NorthBridge (KT133A) necessary?

[Haasje]

I have an Asus A7V133 motherboard with an AMD Thunderbird 1 Ghz and I wonder whether the standard fan on the NortBridge is really necessary. I asked this because it makes some high-pitch noise, and I would like to turn it off therefore.

Do you think it needs this fan? Many KT133A-motherboards come with a fan for it, I heard.
Could it be replaced by a heatsink without fan? Or could I just take away the fan and replace it by... nothing?

If this is doubtful, could I try it or will I cause damage to my motherboard?

Thanks for any help,

Andreas.

[WillysNut]

When overclocking via FSB changes, Active cooling on a northbridge is a good security measure. It assures the chip stays at a constant temp especially when pumping data at higher than normal FSB speeds.

How are you overclocking your system...multiplier or FSB..how much? If a small northbridge fan is making noise, chances are it's bushing or bearings are shot and there's increased friction leading to noise.

Are you going to hurt your mobo by removing the fan and leaving the heatsink? Probably not. Might you shorten the useful life of the northbridge if your overclocking with high FSB speeds, possibly.

Best way to check is to remove the fan, leave the sink, start your computer w/ the cover off and check the surface temp of the heatsink w/ the backside of your finger (not palmside..your skin is too tough..doesn' t sense temp as well). If the sink feels really hot..get a fan. If it seems okay...I wouldn't worry about it.

Hope this helps

[_Will_]

the mobo coolers on the abit kt7a sadly come with a very noisy and have a "about to rattle off and destroy parts" sort of sound

not only my machine either....it comes standard :P

[-=UR=- Ranger]

Use a Tennmax Lasagna cooler instead..Cools very well is not very noisy. Blue Orb will also work very well but is a bit noisier.

[Oni]

The fan on my A7V133 also makes a very annoying vibratey noise, but it goes away after a minute or two usually.

[smokeslikeapoet]

I've read 2 different reviews on A-Bit MB's that say to knock out that whine, take the blunt end of the screwdriver and give it a good whack. I'm not kidding! It's been a few weeks so I can't give you references on this, but I swear on my $#!tty motherboard. Can anyone back me up?

[cowanrg]

Originally posted by Oni
The fan on my A7V133 also makes a very annoying vibratey noise, but it goes away after a minute or two usually.

take the fan out, and get some compressed air, (or your mouth), and blow the sh** out of the thing. i had that happen with a smaller fan of mine. it just needed some cleaning.

if that doesnt work, try the whacking idea. its usually just a bearing or dust. it should be fixable without buying something.

[_Will_]

Originally posted by smokeslikeapoet
I've read 2 different reviews on A-Bit MB's that say to knock out that whine, take the blunt end of the screwdriver and give it a good whack. I'm not kidding! It's been a few weeks so I can't give you references on this, but I swear on my $#!tty motherboard. Can anyone back me up?


lol....i think im just gonna replace it with my old celery heatsink and fan

[Warlord2]

agg why did you guy have to bring this up

now I have a fan in my case wining like a #####



:(

[Haasje]

I removed the fan and ran a chess program (with large hashtables enabled) for more than half an hour. After that I touched the KT133A-heatsink (is it really a heatsink? It has a plastic look and feel) and it certainly was not too hot to touch.

I also checked the Lasagna BGA-coolers (thanks for the reference!) but they do not seem to fit: my original fan has a (diagonal) hole-to-hole distance of 5 cm, while the Lasagna BGA-A has 5.9.

Next thing to do is to clean the original fan and put it back, to hear whether that makes a difference.

Although I don't overclock, I am still a bit worried about the lifespan of a KT133A-chipset without fan.

Best wishes,

Andreas

Asus A7V133, Thunderbird 1 Gb, 768 Mb RAM, IBM 45 Gb 7200, external CD-Rom/CD-writer/modem

[foxmulder]

As I also have an ASUS A7V133a I hate that fan too. Mine does the exact same thing. I'm gonna try it without the fan or move to watercooling.

[Big Mike]

The fan on my A7V-133's Northbridge went south a few weeks back, ive been running stable at 140 FSB ever since without a problem, I do have some nearby fans that bathe it with a bit of air though.