MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Northbridge Cooler

[mackiefloyd]

I am lookin to replace the northbridge cooler on my msi neo4 platinum. The stock cooler is the loudest fan in my case and is starting to drive me crazy. The northbridge is so close to graphics card that it leaves very little if any clearance for a new cooler. Anyone successfully switch a cooler on their MSI neo4 platinum and if so what cooler will fit?

[JustAnEngineer]

I have the same observation about the fan on the K8N Neo4 Platinum's northbridge.

I have purchased (but not yet attempted to install) a Zalman ZM-NB47J. I intend to drastically shorten a few heatsink pins on one side using a Dremel cutting wheel to avoid interference with my video card.

[sativa]

yeah the northbridge cooler on my neo2 plat is loud as hell too. i slow it down via MSI's CoreCenter software. you may want to check it out.

[mackiefloyd]

After posting I read elsewhere that using that zalman cooler and cutting off some of the fins does work. Maybe I will give that a try, its only like 5 bucks on newegg. The northbridge fan on the msi neo4 platinum must be the worst I have ever seen. Not only is it incredibly loud (even when turned down all the way in core center) but it leaves no room to replace it with anything else.

[RHITee05]

I installed the ZM-NB47J on my Neo2 Platinum several months back, with great success. Trimming a few of the fins was easy, and it goes right in the stock holes. It's great to be rid of that annoying little fan, and the board still runs solid as a rock. Matter of fact, I had it running nice and happy at 300 HTT last night for testing. :-) Great mod, and well worth the few bucks it'll cost you.

[JustAnEngineer]

I installed the Zalman ZM-NB47J on the NForce4 Ultra northbridge of my MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum today. It seems to be working fine, but I had to cut off a few pins so that the heatsink could fit under my video card. I'm not sure what made MSI's engineers think that it was a good idea to line up the northbridge with the PCI-Express X16 slot.

http://www.littleblackdog.com/viewtopic.php?t=36523

Note: To remove the stock heatsink & fan, I had to get access to the bottom of the motherboard to release the retaining pins. The design of the retaining pins included with the ZM-NB47J is similar, so if you ever want to take it off, you'll be pulling your motherboard out of the case again.

With appropriate adjustment of the clamps to position the heatsink off-center on the northbridge chip, one probably could have gotten away with cutting off only 5 pins, instead of the 9 that I removed.

[mackiefloyd]

Just installed the zalman heatsink today, and it seems to work great. I cut off six pins and it just fits. System runs stable and after putting a new CPU heatsink fan and a new VGA fan along with new case fans and a fan controller, my system is whisper quiet. No more annoying NB fan! Thanks for the advice, the modified zalman heatsink was definately the way to go with the MSI board.

[Ragnar Dan]

I wonder if you had gotten this Zalman instead, which is apparently 10 mm shorter, whether you could have gotten away with not cutting it at all.

It may be too tall still. And it's an extra $5. But I'd like to see how it works compared to the other one.

[JustAnEngineer]

Ragnar Dan, you didn't look at the photos that I posted. I had to cut off those pins almost flush with the base of the heatsink.

[Ragnar Dan]

Yikes, yeah, I didn't check the pics.

I'm left to wonder what the intended target of that other HS is, and if the difference in the length of the center parts helps in any board. For an extra $5, it looks like you'll get less cooling, a bit more reflection (of which I'm not a fan), and that's about it.

[JustAnEngineer]

What you get for the extra $5 is the thermally-conductive epoxy in the syringes. That lets you permanently install the heatsink where you don't have mounting holes. For motherboards or graphics cards that have mounting holes, I would much rather use the spring-loaded plastic retaining pins.

[Ragnar Dan]

Good observation.

I agree with you, though at least they had the sense to include both in the smaller model (ZM-NB32J for those not clicking on links).

[JustAnEngineer]

I've got my eye on one of these:
Thermalright HR-05 and HR-05-SLI

The -SLI version is offset to enable it to work on MSI motherboards that stupidly have the NForce4 northbridge lined up with the PCIe X16 slot. You can even add a 70mm fan if you really want to over-volt your northbridge.
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main ... r05sli.htm

Here's an even larger one:
http://www.thermalright.com/a_page/main ... fx_sli.htm

[Ragnar Dan]

That mobo's time has come and gone. Let it go.

[JustAnEngineer]

I ended up installing a Thermalright HR-05 SLI/IFX with an 80x15mm fan on this motherboard when I rebuilt this old system for my mother earlier this year.

[IAmGhostDog]

I ended up installing a Thermalright HR-05 SLI/IFX with an 80x15mm fan on this motherboard when I rebuilt this old system for my mother earlier this year.

Four year old thread bump?
If you would have said something a couple two three weeks ago, I'd of given you a complete board.
Just recycled it. Was just sitting taking up space.

[JustAnEngineer]

Four year old thread bump?

When liquidsquid wanted an MSI motherboard, I was reminded why I haven't purchased any MSI motherboards since this poorly-designed K8N Neo4 Platinum.

Mom's system:
MSI-7125 K8N Neo4 Platinum (NForce4 Ultra chipset)
Opteron 175 (2.2 GHz dual-core)
4x1 GiB PC3200 (DDR400)
Radeon HD4870-1GB
NVidia SoundStorm audio
750 GB Western Digital WD7500AAKS Caviar Blue
DVD-RW
Rosewill card reader
3½" floppy drive
Antec EarthWatts EA-430D Green
CoolerMaster Elite RC-335-KKN1-GP
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Dell UltraSharp 2000FP

[LoneWolf15]

Four year old thread bump?

When liquidsquid wanted an MSI motherboard, I was reminded why I haven't purchased any MSI motherboards since this poorly-designed K8N Neo4 Platinum.

I never had issues with mine, although 40mm (or smaller) fans in general are a pain. It served me well with a single core A64 (Winchester), then an X2-3800+, then an X2-4800+ with no problems.

[IAmGhostDog]

Four year old thread bump?

When liquidsquid wanted an MSI motherboard, I was reminded why I haven't purchased any MSI motherboards since this poorly-designed K8N Neo4 Platinum.

Mom's system:
MSI-7125 K8N Neo4 Platinum (NForce4 Ultra chipset)
Opteron 175 (2.2 GHz dual-core)
4x1 GiB PC3200 (DDR400)
Radeon HD4870-1GB
NVidia SoundStorm audio
750 GB Western Digital WD7500AAKS Caviar Blue
DVD-RW
Rosewill card reader
3½" floppy drive
Antec EarthWatts EA-430D Green
CoolerMaster Elite RC-335-KKN1-GP
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Dell UltraSharp 2000FP

I ran that board for six years with zero issues.
Thought it was pretty solid.
The only reason I retired it, I built a new system in April.
With a MSI board I might add.