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D945GCLF2 replace loud GPU fan

D

dustout

n00b
Joined
Mar 18, 2007
Messages
62
I picked up a D945GCLF2 yesterday and while it has worked perfectly it runs quite loud thanks to a fan located on top of the GPU (i believe the bios called it a MDF fan, or something along those lines). So i was hoping you guys could suggest a quieter fan that would work in the place of the current one. As for space i have quite a bit (approx 5cm over the current heatsync), as for money I'd be willing to throw down up to $80.


below is a link to the MOBO i am referring to and on the picture it is the only fan :)
http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/Motherboards/D945GCLF2/D945GCLF2-overview.htm
D945GCLF2.jpg
 
That's a nice little board. How does the dual core Atom work out for you? I only used the hyper threaded one in my EEE.
 
kirbyrj said:
That's a nice little board. How does the dual core Atom work out for you? I only used the hyper threaded one in my EEE.
Click to expand...
I only had one day to play with it before leaving back to Calgary, but so far i can confirm that Ubuntu installs and functions perfectly on it, it can play a 720p video, multitasking doesn't seem to slow it down, and it shares over SMB like a monster.

The only issue that i saw was with Elisa, but odds are a google search will result in a fix :)
 
OK, my D945GCLF2 board came with the (latest low-profile Northbridge heatsink fitted with a 40mm x 40mm x 10mm fan made by T&T, ref 4010H12S NF1 0.16A 12VDC.
Worked fine for almost two weeks @ 30 - 60 minutes a day ... then went noisy.
A slight tap quietened it (I have it fitted to a heavily modified HSPC Tech Station like the Top Mount design only much better, so playing about is easy).
Then it took two taps ... eventually it just stayed noisy.
I took the fan off (removed the Intel-intentionally-wobbly Northbridge heatsink [see documentation on Intels website] as that's safer than trying to fix a fan in situ onto a bare silicon chip).
I tested the original fan independently and ... it's horrible. The plastic fan chassis is incredibly thin at 3 points. It does not benefit from structurally inbuilt webbing at all, so any deformation e.g., by heat etc is directly transferred to the weakest areas.
I replaced this cheap, nasty Intel / T&T item with a top-of-the-range Papst drop-in replacement see Ebay item id 360105094024, using ShinEtsu Microsi paste. Seems like Intel went from a 20mm thick fan to a 10mm thick fan & low-profile Northbridge heatsink fairly recently to drop the overall height of the board.
STOP!!!
Any such "modification" invalidates the Intel 3-year warranty. I read elsewhere that Intel requires such trivial fixes to undergoe a RMA process FOR THE BARD NOT SIMPLY THE FAN that can take weeks ... if eventually approved by Intel. Given the 3 year warranty, I anticipate Intel is swamped and will continue to be until they replace the truly awful T&T fan with something better.
WARNING!!!
Replacing the Northbridge heatsink with a passive alternative is dangerous. The Northbridge fan also cools the (again, awful both in shape, efficiency and position) CPU heatsink. It also sends air over the exposed Southbridge chip to cool it (YUK!). My Southbridge chip was always pretty warm so I have fitted BGA ramsinks to the Southbridge and they do the job very nicely, cooled by the new fan.
I have been running this setup for over 3 weeks almost non-stop for testing other stuff like a PCI graphics card that runs under VISTA Ultimate DX10 etc etc and ... it works. Quiet, cool & a cheap fix.
I'm posting this here because I honestly believe this simple solution will help other owners of the noisy D945GCLF2 board to get the best out of a superb CPU and without full knowledge they may waste lots of time, effort & money.
FWIW BIOS temps @ ambient 21C:-
Startup
CPU ............... 37
Internal .......... 28
Remote ........... 32
After 10 minutes
CPU ............... 38
Internal .......... 28
Remote ........... 33
FWIW
As most people know, BIOS temperatures are true, reliable (no O/S effect) and represent good working data for CPU usage at moderately high CPU usage.
 
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