IC7-Max3 Chipset Fan Died

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SB22

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 21, 2003
Messages
1,141
I have two Abit IC7-Max3 motherboards, and both of them had the Chipset fan die on them. I have even purchased the replacements from Abit, and both of those died no more than 3 months later.

I'm looking for an alternative chipset heatsink/fan solution, but there are a couple problems I run into.

-Needs to attach with clips, the board does not have mounting holes.
-Cannot be too tall because I have a Zalman 92MM Copper CPU HS/Fan that overlaps the chipset a little.
-I would rather not attach with thermal epoxy.

So far I haven't found anything that fits the criteria. So what have you other Max3 owners done?

Also, I've been running both my boards without the fans for a while now, but the heatsync is still attached. They've been doing just fine, but I would rather get a replacement. Do you really think I need more than just the stock heatsync for cooling?

Thanks for the help :)
 
Check out my recommendation in this thread. Works great and not too expensive.

The following cooler fits perfectly and performs well. . . I've been using it for a couple months now (my IC7-MAX3 is now my fiance's computer)..

ThermalRight NB-1

Good Luck!

Edit: Make sure you visit the manufacturer's site to download the installation instructions. It doesn't actually come with any!
Click to expand...

H

Edit: Ugh, fixed the "too."
 
I looked at the Thermalright NB-1 a while back. The problem with it is that it's too tall and won't fit between the NB and the Zalman CPU cooler.

Is it worth getting the Zalman Northbridge Cooler ZM-NB47J which is just passive and epoxying it onto the NB, or should I just leave the stock HSF on there to work as just a passive cooler. I don't really see much of a benefit of the Zalman vs. the stock HS for passive cooling. The stock one appears to be fairly efficient at doing it. It's been a while since the fan's been running.
 
My chipset fan started buzzing within about 5 months of purchase, I just unplugged the damn thing. There's plenty of spillover air from my CPU fan and a good amount of airflow from my 120mm side fan to cool their little heatsink. I did replace their weird pink thermal compound with AS5 though. I never had an issue with it overheating. Just leave the HSF attached, unplug the fan, and carry on normally.

Funny thing happened with mine recently though, it went completely batshit crazy. Lost my IDE controller completely, sometimes fails to post, BIOS checksum errors, random shutdowns while idle or in use regardless of whether I am overclocked. So I'm gutting my system and building a new one. Great board while it lasted though.
 
I had the same issue with my IC7, had the chipset fan go out and also that one that cools the electronics up top under the plastic cover. I left the heatsink fanless and removed the one under the plastic cover and I didn't notice any difference in my overclock at the time. Was running a 2.8 @ 3.3 for months.
 
I had the same problem but my fan survived a year. I just put some cooking oil:p on it and it seems fine know. But if you want a new fan/hs then i recommend the thermaltake nb-1 and a good fan.
 
same deal with my abit KT-7 non-raid.the chipset fan crapped out,so i head to radio shack and my dad modded the small fan i bought to work with the board.
 
i checked out the abit forums when my chip fan start to become a problem and it looks like almost all abit chip fans have a short life span
 
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