After less than one year of use on my motherboard the fan on the Northbridge chip of my A7V133A started to make noises signaling that it wasn’t going to live much longer. After my friend’s having gone out on him as well (coincidence?) I decided I didn’t want to try to play the warranty game and started looking for a replacement. After asking around from my friends and my local computer store I found out that my chipset fan takes the same heatsink/fan (HSF) as Nvidia uses for their graphics cards.
I hopped online and headed over to one of my favorite online vendors ( shameless unpaid plug) and found they sell two models of fans that would suit my needs. First, (and most expensive) was the Crystal Orb. A nickel-coated copper fan that would score many points with the ladies—if only I got off my ass and cleaned up the interior of my case. Second, was the Blue Orb. The Blue Orb is made from anodized (blue, imagine!) aluminum with the classic Orb look. Since I am a cheap bastard I decided the Blue Orb was the one for me and I placed my order. Four days later my package arrived.
I was impressed with the amount of accessories provided with the kit. Thermaltake seems to have included an accessory for every situation you could get yourself into.
Beside the fan itself they included an adapter, in case of no header to plug into. I am assuming that is in the instance of a video card installation. Also included were two clips to secure the fan and if those wouldn’t work for you they also threw in a piece of thermal double-back tape. Finally, they threw in a small tube of silicone heatsink compound to help everything match up nicely.
The Installation
After deciding the clips were the parts I needed for my install situation I started pulling apart my computer. In any case I can think of the motherboard would need to be removed to get access to the back of it so we can remove the old HSF. Luckily, my case comes with a tray that holds the motherboard and all the cards thus making my job a little easier.
Here’s a direct shot of our objective. That little guy in the middle there. Doesn’t look so tough, does he? To give myself a little more working room I first pulled out all my cards and removed the fan from my processor HSF.
Now that I have a little more working room I will remove the screws securing the motherboard to the tray so I can access the rear of the motherboard.
These two little guys are what we are looking for. I used a pair of needle nosed pliars to gently squeeze them at the points that secure them. If you do it right as soon as the little ears will fit through the hole the force of the spring will pull it through the hole. After removing the old HSF I applied some heatsink compound to the chipset, carefully wiping off any extra. I happened to use Arctic Silver II. I have seen reviews that say one brand makes more of a difference and I have seen reviews that say it doesn’t matter, they all work the same. YMMV. I used Arctic Silver because I had it. Place the fan on the chipset, making sure to line up the clips with the holes they should go thru and snap those guys through.
Here is a shot I took right after I snapped the clips in. I turned the fan so that some of the slack wire would be taken up threading around the HSF. I’m not sure if I am happy that they give you enough wire to go anywhere you need or annoyed that you have to find a place to cram all the extra wire if you don’t need it. The way my luck runs I guess I should be happy it reaches at all…
After wiping the tears and giving a good nose blow I reattached the motherboard to it’s tray, screwed my cards back in and slid the motherboard tray back into my computer. Ten minutes and a few wire connections later my computer was back together and operational. I would provide stats on how well the new chipset cooler works as compared to the old one but I don’t think it would be a good test as the old one was on it’s last legs and the fan was getting bound up (less than one year old, nice QA Asus) and I wouldn’t have gotten a fair representation of the OEM fan.
Thermaltake:
Pros: Easy install, Nice accessory kit.
Cons: HSF is large, some motherboards may have trouble fitting it.
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