Chipset Fan dying

Joram · Joined: Jun 24, 2003 Posts: 263 Location: Mesa, AZ

Howdy everyone,

This time I am looking for the best option for replacing my dying chipset fan. My motherboard is a Foxconn NF4UK8AA-8EKRS. I believe it's a 40mm fan with heatsink veins surrounding the fan. So far I am not finding a similar fan, all the heatsinks I see are under the fan. With my graphics card (PCI-E) extending over the fan, I need a low profile cooler.

Any suggestions? I'm going to keep searching, but any input I can gather will help.

Thanks for your time and patience

goretsky · Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:58 am Post subject:

Hello,

It looks like you need a low-profile 40mm heat sink with a fan embedded in it. Is that correct?

These are rarer to come by now since most manufacturers have move the southbridge out of the way of the expansion card slots, but I did find a few things which might work:

BuyExtras has this page of video card and chipset fans.
EnzoTech has a couple of low profile heat sinks here and here which might work; it is not clear to me whether a fan is included or not.
Geeks.Com sells this cooler from nVidia for southbridges.
Sidewinder Computers has a page of fans here, some of which are meant to go on top of or inside a chip's heat sink.
StarTech sells a chipset cooling kit that contains a low profile fan and heat sink.
Vantec has this VGA/chipset cooler which might fit. You will need to check the dimensions carefully, though.

I have bought from Geeks.Com, and Sidewinder before, and bought parts by StarTech and Vantec at computer stores.

One thing to keep in mind is that you are going to need to do a bit of careful measuring to make sure the replacement fan or heat sink fits correctly.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Joram · Joined: Jun 24, 2003 Posts: 263 Location: Mesa, AZ

Holy crap! That's more than I could find!

Many many thanks!

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

Ok,,,,,,,here's the deal.
Many manufacturers buy their fans from the lowest bidder. Most of these little fans are proprietary to their manufacturer and will not be found in your neighborhood computer store, or anywhere on line for that matter.

So when those little proprietary fans go bad, it's time for the tech, tinkerer or geek to get creative.

My own GPU cooling fan on my " WinFast" Video Card started howling one day.
I cleaned and re-oiled it and that lasted for almost six months.
Then, one day, the little fan locked up tight and fried itself. Cheeeech!

With the video card laying on my repair bench, I started looking around the shop for a likely replacement.
I found a nice little fan on an old K6 CPU cooler.
The CFM rating would be at least twice that of the original fan.
I set it on top of the GPU heatsink and secured it with HOT GLUE.

The little fan came with a dual Molex connector, so I just plugged it into a spare power plug from the main PSU and I was up and running with a nice cool GPU. (Graphics Processor Unit)

<<-- click to expand

Please forgive the blurrrrrrry picture. I don't have a camera with a close-up lens.

I'm not stretching it a bit when I say I had already spent HOURS, scouring the internet for direct replacement fans for that Video Card.

Fans like the one I used are readily available over the net.

Maybe this little dissertation has sparked someones own creative abilities.

Be creative.....and have fun.

Wishing y'all a great 2009!

The Doctor Cool

Joram · Joined: Jun 24, 2003 Posts: 263 Location: Mesa, AZ

Thank you for your help everyone. I found a fan/heatsink through one of the links posted. I'll have it by Fri or Sat...

I think I'm about due for a new computer all together the way things are starting to fall apart... Confused

Thanks again!

drwho07 · Joined: Nov 29, 2007 Posts: 1546 Location: Central FL, USA

Don't despair......it's just that home computers are made with "Consumer Grade" (also called "Hobby Grade") components, mostly made in China by the lowest bidder.

That is the lowest quality electronic components you can buy.

If our PC's were made here in the US, out of Mil-spec components, the average desktop PC would probably cost in the neighborhood of $5,000 to $10,000 for the basic unit. Much more for the Graphical Work Station or the High End Gaming PC.

So be ready to perform periodic maintenance on your PC and also be ready to replace parts as they fail.

I just tore down my own PC a week ago and replaced two drive coolers and serviced my CPU fan and GPU fan. (clean & oil )

A full tear-down for maintenance is something I do about twice a year.
I have a very busy system and maintenance is just a part of doing business for me.
I've just ordered a much faster CPU and soon I'll be ordering 4 gigs of much faster ram memory. It's always something. Wink

Good luck with your new fan.

Cheers!

The Doctor Cool