Zalman 9700 doesnt fit EVGA 680i??

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MX-5 Dave

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Jan 14, 2007
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So I was installing my hs/fan today, the brace that goes on the back of the motherboard doesnt fit. WTH is with that? There are 2 little resistors on the back that the bracket hits. I had to dremel the bracket to clear them. I rotated it every way, I flipped it over, there was nothing that makes it clear without cutting material on the bracket.

Its on there now just fine, but why the hell would they make it not fit a reference design 680i board??
 
MX-5 Dave said:
So I was installing my hs/fan today, the brace that goes on the back of the motherboard doesnt fit. WTH is with that? There are 2 little resistors on the back that the bracket hits. I had to dremel the bracket to clear them. I rotated it every way, I flipped it over, there was nothing that makes it clear without cutting material on the bracket.

Its on there now just fine, but why the hell would they make it not fit a reference design 680i board??
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The 9500/9700 were made specifically for the 680i? I don't remember reading that. Anyway, I had the same issue with my 9500 and I twisted the offending peices of plastic off with a pair of needle nose pliars so it would fit.

The eVGA forums had quite a few posts about that and supposedly the newer revisions of the board do not have the resistors on the back of the PCB.
 
MX-5 Dave said:
So I was installing my hs/fan today, the brace that goes on the back of the motherboard doesnt fit. WTH is with that? There are 2 little resistors on the back that the bracket hits. I had to dremel the bracket to clear them. I rotated it every way, I flipped it over, there was nothing that makes it clear without cutting material on the bracket.

Its on there now just fine, but why the hell would they make it not fit a reference design 680i board??
Click to expand...

The problem isn't with Zalman. The issue lies with the design of the reference 680i board that puts resistors on the back of the board in the CPU socket area. The engineers should have figured out that this would be a problem with many CPU cooling setups. The Zalman cooler in question has been out much longer than the eVGA 680i and other reference 680i boards have been out.

tesfaye said:
The 9500/9700 were made specifically for the 680i? I don't remember reading that. Anyway, I had the same issue with my 9500 and I twisted the offending peices of plastic off with a pair of needle nose pliars so it would fit.

The eVGA forums had quite a few posts about that and supposedly the newer revisions of the board do not have the resistors on the back of the PCB.
Click to expand...

I suppose it may depend on the part number. All 122-CK-NF68-AR boards will have the resistors. Though I think newer boards have smaller resistors than the older ones do. I am unsure about the other part numbers and if they have the issue or not. I do believe that the 122-CK-NF68-A1 does have the issue as well, but as I already stated, I am unsure on that point.
 
I'm pretty sure they removed the resistors for some of the later AR boards, and the A1 boards have them removed. I didn't have to modify anything installing the backplate for my HS.
 
jmackay said:
I'm pretty sure they removed the resistors for some of the later AR boards, and the A1 boards have them removed. I didn't have to modify anything installing the backplate for my HS.
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I have an A1 board. Just arrived today. The 9700 backplate does not fit. There are three tiny resistors that fall under it.

Newegg RMA FTW.

And yeah, NVIDIA should have considered aftermarket cooling options when they did the ref design.
 
Strange... I had no problems mounting my ultra-120 and the mounting bracket looks similar.:confused:
 
mine fits just fine.

P1010178.jpg
 
My new 680i doesnt have the 3 resistors in the way. The first one did. It wasnt that hard to modify the bracket to clear them.
 
ianken said:
I have an A1 board. Just arrived today. The 9700 backplate does not fit. There are three tiny resistors that fall under it.

Newegg RMA FTW.

And yeah, NVIDIA should have considered aftermarket cooling options when they did the ref design.
Click to expand...
I think Zalman should have considered the possibility of resistors on the bottom of the board and used a sturdier material that would have allowed them to not use a grid of plastic that sits really close to the solder points on the back of the board.

It's rare that you see resistors on the rear of the mobo but I've seen other motherboards with them. I wonder if that was the original design or a last minute fix. At the end of the day it's not a big deal, just twist the peice of plastic off and install.

So you returned the motherboard because it had the resistors on the back of it? Did Newegg swap it for you? Just curious.
 
Just got the latest eVGA 680i board and my zalman 9700 fits perfect.

Also M3_Dust what is that above your memory slots? Which product? I am very interested in some sort of memory cooling now that my MOBO manufacturer just released a memo concerning memory failure. And I know heat is the leading killer. Thanks.
 
Maleix said:
Just got the latest eVGA 680i board and my zalman 9700 fits perfect.

Also M3_Dust what is that above your memory slots? Which product? I am very interested in some sort of memory cooling now that my MOBO manufacturer just released a memo concerning memory failure. And I know heat is the leading killer. Thanks.
Click to expand...

jmackay said:
I'm pretty sure he is using this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835704001
Click to expand...

yep, that's the one. I guess it helps, I got the new RAM and the cooler at the same time, the stock voltage is 2.2 to run @ 1066mhz and it's running totally fine at 1175 with the same voltage, it doesn't seem to get hot.

can someone suggest a monitoring utility to see RAM temps and voltage?
 
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