Hi all
after following some topics about nforce3 Mobos I got me the gigabyte K8NSC (939 socket, newest bios). The noise of the northbridge cooler makes me mad! Anything else´s just fine but this thing drives me crazy. With the bundled Easytune5 Software it should be possible to control the fan speed. But the option is just greyed out. Also Alfredo Comparettis FANSPEED (which serve me well in the past) didn´t solve the prob.
A passive cooler might be difficult to install for the boardlayout has the northbridge chip quite close to the agp slot.
Anybody with this software tool working? On which bios version (mine is F6)?
New MoBo Noisy like hell
there are cheapo fan regulator blocks (a pot and a voltage regulator) that you can 'insert' before the fan. tune as you like 
since it's weekend your other option is to connect the fans powerline (usually the red cable) to one of the empty 5V connectors (diskette drive is easy). Don't worry, I have this setup on a P4 chipset cooler for months now (the machine is usually on 24h)
btw I'm writing this on a HP Visualize Workstation which features 2 case fans, 1 PSU fan, 1 CPU and 1 chipset fan....
cheers, Tom

since it's weekend your other option is to connect the fans powerline (usually the red cable) to one of the empty 5V connectors (diskette drive is easy). Don't worry, I have this setup on a P4 chipset cooler for months now (the machine is usually on 24h)
btw I'm writing this on a HP Visualize Workstation which features 2 case fans, 1 PSU fan, 1 CPU and 1 chipset fan....

cheers, Tom
right, that was a severe punch on the ears... and emphasized by the fact that all those fans have different diameters and rotation speed.
It's a very good noise generator with quite a spectrum - and btw the chipset thingy was the most penetrating, too
Just couldn't withstand when I saw the Visualize in a 2nd hand shop. Dual P3/1G, 1G Ram, 64MB OpenGL card, CD-Writer and a solid case plus a Win2K pro license for 250 Euro.
cheers, tom
It's a very good noise generator with quite a spectrum - and btw the chipset thingy was the most penetrating, too

Just couldn't withstand when I saw the Visualize in a 2nd hand shop. Dual P3/1G, 1G Ram, 64MB OpenGL card, CD-Writer and a solid case plus a Win2K pro license for 250 Euro.
cheers, tom
I have found a passive heatsink thats only 2,5cm high so it might possibly fit. Question is if it will discipate enough heat. And what happens if not? Just instability or burning up?
The sink had been on an small asus grafics card (V9520). And since graphic chips get way hot I think it´ll work. What do U think?
Btw Astroman: Just got the visualize just 4 fun or for 3d? Could U happen to be the "Astroman" I met on Lake-Free Cinema4d Forum?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Rogurt on 2005-09-25 09:52 ]</font>
The sink had been on an small asus grafics card (V9520). And since graphic chips get way hot I think it´ll work. What do U think?
Btw Astroman: Just got the visualize just 4 fun or for 3d? Could U happen to be the "Astroman" I met on Lake-Free Cinema4d Forum?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Rogurt on 2005-09-25 09:52 ]</font>
Yeah, if it heats too much, it'll start being unstable, then you might get some internal damage at higher temps.
On the other hand, the nForce3 chipset on my K8NS 754 is passively cooled. I figure there's more stuff in the 939 version (gigalan etc) that might warrant some more cooling, but the difference can't be that huge. A low speed fan should do the trick, or just a more efficent passively-cooled heatsink.
Worst case you can try the passively-cooled heatsink you mention with a fan (not screwed in, just standing there to get some airflow) on it and test it out, if it looks stable after a few hours of operation, try again without the fan. The nForce3 chipset handles all the PCI and SATA stuff (at least on mine), so if it gets unstable you should notice it fairly quickly.
On the other hand, the nForce3 chipset on my K8NS 754 is passively cooled. I figure there's more stuff in the 939 version (gigalan etc) that might warrant some more cooling, but the difference can't be that huge. A low speed fan should do the trick, or just a more efficent passively-cooled heatsink.
Worst case you can try the passively-cooled heatsink you mention with a fan (not screwed in, just standing there to get some airflow) on it and test it out, if it looks stable after a few hours of operation, try again without the fan. The nForce3 chipset handles all the PCI and SATA stuff (at least on mine), so if it gets unstable you should notice it fairly quickly.
I had the hope that the 'workstation' board might have a good data throughput for my 2 old Pulsars (PCI), but with the pre-installed (ACPI) version of Win2k pro it's somewhat misbehavingOn 2005-09-25 09:42, Rogurt wrote:
...Btw Astroman: Just got the visualize just 4 fun or for 3d? Could U happen to be the "Astroman" I met on Lake-Free Cinema4d Forum? ...

Since the 'engineering' 3D-card is plugged in, it would be fun to get some hands on experience in this domain, and it could provide a multiprocessor environment for developement as well.
I've set all fans to 5V, it's not perfect but one can stand it now - unfortunately I have no idea what a decent performance in 3d looks like today

I downloaded a Maya 7 learning edition to have at least something happen on screen...
you see, I'm a novice in this domain and not the guy from the 4D forum

cheers, Tom