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Northbridge HSF Question

Cook_1

Cook_1

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Messages
1,250
Alright, I have the DFI Lanparty US NF4 SLI-DR board and I also have a 7800GTX. Now I'm sure there are more then a few out there that know the issue I'm speaking of. For those that don't, the GTX is such a large card that you have to press it down over the Northbridge HSF to get it in the PCIE slot.

I'm using the Vantec HSF over the Northbridge and it is a lot easier to put my card in because it's a bit lower then the stock HSF that DFI puts on there. My question is (hoping that someone can answer this from experience) but would a waterblock be an even better choice? I mean would a waterblock be thinner or would the hoses from it be in the way?

I already have my CPU and GPU on watercooling, so it wouldn't be that big of a hassle to just put the Northbridge on the chain.

Any insight on this?
 
They have Waterblocks exactly for this problem.
They are really low profile and have the barbs in spots that avoid hitting the card.
 
Thanks, that was exactly the answer I was looking for!

I was looking along the lines of this. I know some people are going to heckle me for having 1/4" fittings, but I went with the TT Bigwater because I found it for under $80 shipped over the holidays with coupons and blow out pricing.
 
Cook_1 said:
Thanks, that was exactly the answer I was looking for!

I was looking along the lines of this. I know some people are going to heckle me for having 1/4" fittings, but I went with the TT Bigwater because I found it for under $80 shipped over the holidays with coupons and blow out pricing.
Click to expand...

That probably wont work on the DFI board. The Alphacool and the AC blocks will however.

To answer your original question...no a waterblock will not be slimmer than your current fan. It will not make it easier to put the card in either. All it will do is eliminate the fan noise, if it has been bothering you.
 
Fan noise isn't the problem, it's the temps and the fact that I have to smash my card into the fan to get it to fit in the PCIE slot.
 
I don't know about your board, but the A8N SLI has a NF4 block made by Danger Den that is designed the replace the fan and allow you to avoid any vid card related problems.
 
If you are not running SLI you can move the vid card to PCI-e slot#2 and unshroud the northbridge completely.
Then you could run a Maze4 with no problems.
 
sprocket said:
If you are not running SLI you can move the vid card to PCI-e slot#2 and unshroud the northbridge completely.
Then you could run a Maze4 with no problems.
Click to expand...

I have done that, but then the Bus goes down to x2 intead of x16. I have already contacted DFI support about this to see if there was anything that could be done to make the second PCIEx16 run at x16 but the guy responded as no, and that I'm just going to have to press my video card against the northbridge HSF.
 
Cook_1 said:
I have done that, but then the Bus goes down to x2 intead of x16. I have already contacted DFI support about this to see if there was anything that could be done to make the second PCIEx16 run at x16 but the guy responded as no, and that I'm just going to have to press my video card against the northbridge HSF.
Click to expand...
the second slot should go down to 8x, not 2x.......

either way, did it affect your gameplay? it could just be a faulty reading, if it's not affecting your speeds in-game.
 
It might have been a faulty reading (not really sure), is there anyway to test that?

It did feel faster going back up to the first PCIE slot, but that could just be a mental thing to from seeing the difference in bus'.
 
try running 3dmark with it in each of the slots and see what the difference in score is.

Daishi is right it should be at x8 not x2
 
Cook_1 said:
It might have been a faulty reading (not really sure), is there anyway to test that?

It did feel faster going back up to the first PCIE slot, but that could just be a mental thing to from seeing the difference in bus'.
Click to expand...
maybe try running the in-game FPS test in something like FEAR to see if it is making a difference. if it isn't, it's just the read back. if it kills your performance, nothing lost, back to picking a low profile chipset block.

edit: it's my belief that 3Dmark, being a synthetic benchmark, is going to exaggerate any difference in performance, having detected a lower PCI-E frequency, to a degree that a real game will not see.
 
Cook_1 said:
I have done that, but then the Bus goes down to x2 intead of x16. I have already contacted DFI support about this to see if there was anything that could be done to make the second PCIEx16 run at x16 but the guy responded as no, and that I'm just going to have to press my video card against the northbridge HSF.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I left out a step.
You have to rejumper the board to "SLI enable".
This makes both slots 8x.
You'll not notice the hit going from 16x to 8x.
 
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