Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu HSF doesn't fit N7F-S v2.0???

(repost from cooling boards)

I bought this HSF from a local store for $39 bucks before I realized it probably won't fit my new MB (not here yet... Newegg will be delivering soon!!). But someone posting on Newegg reviews says he has the same MB and I quote him,

"I have a Abit NF7 v2 board and this was a snap to put on it, although it is listed as incompatible. I just switched up the blue and the silver sides, and cut off the first hole on the retainer on the blue side. Fits like a charm and is silent."

Anyone else knows what this guy's talking about or had to go through something similar? If not, any recommendation on a similar noise level/effective HSF? This HSF is very quiet and cool from what I've read.

TIA

yeah... that's wut i did cut the first hole (the outside holes) u'll know wut i'm talking about once u try to put the hsf on..

about switching the blue/white?? imo not necessary i dunno why it has to be in that order.. maybe switching is not a bad idea... but 'im just in the positions it suppose to be and i had to bend the capacitatros a bit to fit the white.. but so far its ok. and fits well... but once u cuts those outside holes, u can't use this hsf for amd64s keep that in mind

Kaswyn said:

(repost from cooling boards)

I bought this HSF from a local store for $39 bucks before I realized it probably won't fit my new MB (not here yet... Newegg will be delivering soon!!). But someone posting on Newegg reviews says he has the same MB and I quote him,

"I have a Abit NF7 v2 board and this was a snap to put on it, although it is listed as incompatible. I just switched up the blue and the silver sides, and cut off the first hole on the retainer on the blue side. Fits like a charm and is silent."

Anyone else knows what this guy's talking about or had to go through something similar? If not, any recommendation on a similar noise level/effective HSF? This HSF is very quiet and cool from what I've read.

TIA

Click to expand...

awstrat said:

yeah... that's wut i did cut the first hole (the outside holes) u'll know wut i'm talking about once u try to put the hsf on..

about switching the blue/white?? imo not necessary i dunno why it has to be in that order.. maybe switching is not a bad idea... but 'im just in the positions it suppose to be and i had to bend the capacitatros a bit to fit the white.. but so far its ok. and fits well... but once u cuts those outside holes, u can't use this hsf for amd64s keep that in mind

Click to expand...

What exectly did you do that makes it no longer compatible with the Athlon64?

I am glad you got it to work. I have the Zalman CNPS7000A-Cu cooler on a ASUS
A7N8X Deluxe board. Maybe I overreacted a little but I was deperate for better cooling after my CPU diode temperature climbed to 78C one day. I gues that was why my computer did not want to boot to Windows with the old cooler.

How much better is the Zalman cooler than your old one? I am running about 10C cooler with mine.

Sometimes I wish I had gotten the Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu aluminum-copper cooler since it is a lot lighter. I try to be careful moving the computer because my heavy all-copper CNPS7000A-Cu might break away from the board if jarred too much. I hope that never happens. It would make a mess of everything if it did.

I was able to fit the HSF w/my ABIT NF7-S rev 2.0. Went out and bought a $10 small hack saw from Home Depot and cut the outer "hole".... took me about 30 mins to cut it, while watching TV. I even took the whole HSF apart just to cut that piece because I didn't want to damage the fans.

awstrat said:

about switching the blue/white?? imo not necessary i dunno why it has to be in that order.. maybe switching is not a bad idea... but 'im just in the positions it suppose to be and i had to bend the capacitatros a bit to fit the white.. but so far its ok. and fits well... but once u cuts those outside holes, u can't use this hsf for amd64s keep that in mind

Click to expand...

Well, the reason why you switch the white and blue is because if you use the white side on the capacitor side, there's a good chance the capacitor will still touch the metal clip from the HSF. But if you use the blue side on the capacitor, (blue and white are slightly different) you won't need to bend the capacitors. I was afraid I'd break one off haha

And I only cut one "hole" side... I didn't do the other. Didn't need to, because there was nothing else on it's side.

But yeah, I know that once you cut it, you can't use it for Pentiums or the AMD 64s because they require that second outer hole.

I'm running 2500+ mobile barton @ 15x160=2400Mhz (having a problem with going higher than 160 FSB, so will have to do the mod everyone's talkn' about), and today it's frikken 90+ degrees outside or so, and my CPU is idle @ 42-44 degrees, and full load @ 46-47 degrees.

That HSF ROCKS! Quiet as hell too.

The only thing is with that HSF, you have to take your whole MB out of the case to screw the blue/white clips or whatever you call them, to the MB.


EDIT: Added pics

Here, you can see where I cut it off...(where the screw's at) it looks sorta like the capacitor and the metal clip are touching, but they're not.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/picturesnstuff/Cut.jpg


And here, you see what it would look like without it being modified.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/picturesnstuff/Uncut.jpg