"Nystagmus" wrote in message ...
> > I have an Aopen AK79G Max motherboard - and I am not an overclocker.
> > Never have, never will. I have enough trouble getting stable hardware
> > without cranking up the voltage
The fan on the northbridge is
> > annoying loud even though it's small. So, I unplugged it and am
> > currently using it right now with no issues. My question is - over
> > time, will I damage the chipset? I see a lot of boards by MSI also
> > using the Nforce2 chipset and they have passive northbridge heatsinks,
> > so I would think I'm fine by doing this. Can someome tell me if this
> > is true?
> >
> > -PSX
>
> Mike,
>
> I have the AK79G Max (great board btw). I have in the past taken off the
> north bridge fan for the same reason as you. It was off for about 3 months
> until I came across a free replacement. Of course I left the heatsink on.
> Never had a problem without the fan. I read some reviews of the nvidia
> chipset and the reviews hinted that the fan was for show. Like you I do not
> OC and I wouldn't even try without the NB fan.
>
> Nystagmus
>
Thanks for the update - I had just unplugged the fan to see how it
would run, and it ran fine for a few hours - but the heatsink was
extremely hot to the touch. With the fan running, it was very cool...
and I too have read that with the nforce2 chipset, you don't need a
fan. I have an Abit board running the nforce2 chipset that I replaced
the northbridge fan with a passive heatsink, and it runs great... but
my only concern was that this Aopen board has an integrated VGA card
with it. According to this page:
<a rel="nofollow" style='text-decoration: none;' href="http://www.coolerguys.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=980" target="_blank">http://www.coolerguys.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=980</a>
It says
"ZM-NB47J is compatible with all Northbridge chipsets that do not have
a built-in graphics chipset. "
That scares me about unplugging that fan and leaving it run for long,
especially if a monster heat sink like this one isn't rated to cool an
integrated northbridge like the Aopen board has. I wish somebody from
Aopen could confirm or deny my question... Thanks again for the info.
>> Stay informed about: Aopen AK79G Max & Northbridge chipset fan