Watercooling s939 nforce4 boards

[BubbySoup]

Hi all,

I will soon be putting together my 1st watercooling setup.

Have been looking at the new nforce 4 motherboards coming our way and noticed that, with the possible exception of one of the MSI boards, the MB chipset has been placed right behind the PCIe slots on most models. Now I have zero practical knowledge of watercooling atm, but it seems to me that you will not be able to watercool these boards due to placement of the chipset. The block and pipes are going to be directly in the way of the graphics card unless I am looking at it wrong.

As I said, with the MSI non-SLI board you may just get away with it as the chipset has been mounted further away from the slot, but as for all the other models and certainly the SLI boards, it doesn't seem possible.

Which brings me on to my next question - how important is it to watercool the chipset on the motherboard? Is it done more for silence or will there be significant heat build up once you start to overclock?

Thanks guys :D

[Fibbles]

Hi all,

I will soon be putting together my 1st watercooling setup.

Have been looking at the new nforce 4 motherboards coming our way and noticed that, with the possible exception of one of the MSI boards, the MB chipset has been placed right behind the PCIe slots on most models. Now I have zero practical knowledge of watercooling atm, but it seems to me that you will not be able to watercool these boards due to placement of the chipset. The block and pipes are going to be directly in the way of the graphics card unless I am looking at it wrong.

As I said, with the MSI non-SLI board you may just get away with it as the chipset has been mounted further away from the slot, but as for all the other models and certainly the SLI boards, it doesn't seem possible.

Which brings me on to my next question - how important is it to watercool the chipset on the motherboard? Is it done more for silence or will there be significant heat build up once you start to overclock?

Thanks guys :D
Well, there's always a way to route hose. With the right kind, there'll be a way, there has to be a way because I'm a fan of water cooling everything, even my hard drives get water cooled. How about using soft Innovatek hose (if you're using an 8/10mm or 6/8mm system) to go from "Pump > GPU2 > GPU1 > CPU > Chipset > Rad > Res" there shouldn't be an issue. The block may look close, but it's not a problem is enough hose is routed well enough and the block order keeps this in mind.

Chipsets are water cooled more for silence than for an overclock. I suppose if there's extreme cooling up the CPU going on, there might be a need to water cool the chipset, but it's not a huge factor at all usually. When detailing my water cooling plans I'm often urged to ditch my chipset and hard drive blocks. I do it because I like to and because the hard drive blocks are usually designed with total silence and noise control in mind. Often for looks as well. I love the bling factor in German setups.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

Is there a HS+Fan on the chipset of these mobos? If they can fit a fan on then you can fit a waterblock on there its just a case of finding the right one. :)

[cools]

I physically cannot watercool my northbridge and have a decent graphics card installed :) The Tiger K8W has its northbridge situated approximately 10mm away from the END of the AGP slot, and as such sits directly under the overhanging card!

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

did you have to remove an existing HS to install the card?

[cools]

Nope, the existing heatsink is one of those 8mm high ones. It's been AS5ed, and seems quite happy - it does run around 60c though :D

[BubbySoup]

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-K8NXP-SLI.htm#

Here is Gigabyte's offering, if you zoom in you can see that the bottom edge of the graphics card will pass right over the top of that tiny heatsink. This board seems passively cooled but other offerings have a very thin heatsink and fan mounted in roughly the same place.

I think you will probably get a waterblock on there, but really not too sure about the pipes and connectors.

[Pug]

http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Products/Products_GA-K8NXP-SLI.htm#

Here is Gigabyte's offering, if you zoom in you can see that the bottom edge of the graphics card will pass right over the top of that tiny heatsink. This board seems passively cooled but other offerings have a very thin heatsink and fan mounted in roughly the same place.

I think you will probably get a waterblock on there, but really not too sure about the pipes and connectors.
Direct pic link here - http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/FileList/ProductImage/photo_k8nxp-sli_big.jpg

A lot of the chipset blocks I've been seeing are similar enough to GPU blocks in the same range, that the tops are interchangeable.
It's possible that if you were determined enough to go that route, you'd be able to get a GPU block with a chipset retention plate or a chipset block with a GPU top and then maybe use 45° connectors with 8/6mm tubing to clear those orange (SATA?) connectors.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

How aboout the Xice GPU block? It was regarded as one of the only choices for shuttles so it might have a low enough profile to fit in.

[Pug]

I've got measurements for a few different low-profile blocks kicking about, so if anyone gets a board, let us know how much clearance we have to play with. :)

[Fibbles]

I've got measurements for a few different low-profile blocks kicking about, so if anyone gets a board, let us know how much clearance we have to play with. :)I don't think it's gonna work after all. I was re-reading the thread zer0 posted about the Gigabyte 3D1 dual 6600GT on 1 board solution when I noticed the chipset right underneath the "butt" of the video card.

Here: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050111/images/3d1-bundle.jpg & Here: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050111/images/mobo1.jpg

The chipset block would probably have to be specially designed to work in there, maybe with an elongated design or some other screwy style to fit under the card. :wacko: Maybe a block with a shape desing from the AquagrATI with the cooling part at one end of the curve and the fittings at the other, that way it will cover the chipset and neatly route itself around the SATA ports and end with the fittings being off the board under the PATA slots.

[BubbySoup]

That's a great picture to show exactly what I was on about.

For now, the MSI board looks like the only one you could possibly have a go at, so long as it's not the SLI version. For SLI boards, I just don't think it's going to be possible until a new style of waterblock arrives.

[Starbuck3733T]

I don't think it's gonna work after all. I was re-reading the thread zer0 posted about the Gigabyte 3D1 dual 6600GT on 1 board solution when I noticed the chipset right underneath the "butt" of the video card.

Here: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050111/images/3d1-bundle.jpg & Here: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050111/images/mobo1.jpg

The chipset block would probably have to be specially designed to work in there, maybe with an elongated design or some other screwy style to fit under the card. :wacko: Maybe a block with a shape desing from the AquagrATI with the cooling part at one end of the curve and the fittings at the other, that way it will cover the chipset and neatly route itself around the SATA ports and end with the fittings being off the board under the PATA slots.

Copy and paste those links. they're blocking you b/c of the referrer.

[Pug]

Hmm, it does look tight doesn't it.
Maybe a block with a recessed channel in the top?

That's if it does benefit from watercooling as much as some do...

[Fibbles]

Hmm, it does look tight doesn't it.
Maybe a block with a recessed channel in the top?

That's if it does benefit from watercooling as much as some do...
Oh well, to make up for the loss of the chipset block, add a(nother) hard drive block or 2.

I thought I did copy and paste.... :confused: Pugs direct link a few posts up will give a pretty good idea of how close the top of the chipset fan would be to the bottom edge of the GPU PCB.

[Starbuck3733T]

Oh well, to make up for the loss of the chipset block, add a(nother) hard drive block or 2.

I thought I did copy and paste.... :confused: Pugs direct link a few posts up will give a pretty good idea of how close the top of the chipset fan would be to the bottom edge of the GPU PCB.

If you've already gotten them cached in by visiting tom's to get them, you wont see the replacement image.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

If its aplexi top block then saw a channel into it....carefully! :p

[Fibbles]

I saw a comp mag spread (PC Enthusiast) with an Asus A8N SLI and a pair of Chaintech 6600GT's and the Asus board has the same problem as the Gigabyte. With a second card in the rig, it will block the chipset, and there's almost no clearance in between.

Star, I right clicked the pics and selected properties, then I copied and pasted the url. I thought that would work, but it didn't. I suppose it's better than what some sites will do when they don't want linking to the pics directly, things like showing very disgusting images of STD covered male anatomy.

[Starbuck3733T]

yighhhhhhhhh....

In the web development world, there are all sorts of tricks. Since you were viewing the pix from an allowed referrer (HTTP_REFERRER) (the calling page or link) you got the right ones and they were cached. As the rest of us hit them from a not-allowed referrer (www.wizdforums.co.uk/???) we didn't get them. However, if you cut and paste them, your referrer is blank and they come through.

[Pug]

Same thing happened to me with the links... I fired up IE and pasted them in that.
I thought that the other way to display them would be to Ctrl-F5 after you've got 'em in another window, which should bypass the cache... but that didn't work. <_<

[Fibbles]

Here's a pic of how close the top of the chipset HSF is to the bottom of the card: http://www.tbreak.com/reviews/fullimage.php?image=9059

[fivecheebs]

Which board is that fibbs?

[Fibbles]

It's the Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI.

[fivecheebs]

TY, i thought it probably was....

Its very tight isnt it .... Im getting very interested to see what the watercooling manufacturers will do about this. I'm saving my pennies right now for a 939 setup and a new GFX card, not sure ill be watercooling the GFX card straight away though, I'll probably have to wait another month or 2 before i can afford a nice block.

The DFI NF4 boards seem to be performing well if early indications are anything to go by...

[whitebloodcell]

Danger Den make a Chipset block specifically for the Asus A8N SLI board.
http://www.dangerdenstore.com/product.php?productid=160&cat=0&page=1

Do you think this would fit for other SLI boards?

[sireddie]

Found this review on watercooling chipsets for some nForce4 SLI boards.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Mips/DFIFreezer/

For myself, I'm looking for an nForce4 Ultra board that will allow me to use my Asetek chipset-cooler. Anyone have any experience with some Ultra boards and watercooling-cipsets?

I'm thinking of buying this GF 6600GT gfx-card
http://jnc.no-ip.com/temp/Gainward.jpg
and some Ultra board.

Any advice is welcome :unsure:

[Fibbles]

Found this review on watercooling chipsets for some nForce4 SLI boards.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Mips/DFIFreezer/

For myself, I'm looking for an nForce4 Ultra board that will allow me to use my Asetek chipset-cooler. Anyone have any experience with some Ultra boards and watercooling-cipsets?

I'm thinking of buying this GF 6600GT gfx-card
http://jnc.no-ip.com/temp/Gainward.jpg
and some Ultra board.

Any advice is welcome :unsure:I suppose the best thing to do is to look at differing boards and see if any have non standard layouts :unsure:

I really don't know enough about it, I'm using (will be soon) a Soltek 754 board with an AMD64 3400. I'm going to keep the passive heatsink over the chipset, until I can buy a Twinplex bracket for it. The slight issue is the end of the graphics card being right next to the chipset heatsink. I had wanted the Chaintech NF3 250, but the chipset was dropped to almost right under the video cards backside <_<

[cooljamin]

I just purchased the gigabyte 3d1, it isn't too bad. I scored over 13000 on 3dmark 2003 which is really and honest effort compared to the 503 i got on my last machine.What interest me though is the possibility of 4 gpus on one board . i know this had been discused here before. upon my investigtions of the 3d1, I came across one review that stated that one tyan board had a dual core cpu chipset and could well support dual gpu on an sli setup, now that seems to be what you need to take advantage of the bandwidth available to the PCIe bus(s) and a new standard as well like Pcie SLIx32, as an owner of the 3d1 i realise now how my options are limited to only living with this card or buying 2 6800gt cards but on the other hand after buying the motherboard, case, ram and cpu i could only afford either a 2 cheapish 6600gt or one 6800gt and i thought i really didnt want to fork out more money anyway on an sli setup when obvously dual core gpu sli will probably win out over standard sli anyway. besides what ive got should really be good enough for playing any game that comes out in the near future. The asus dual gpu card is a real eye opener and im dam sure my mobo will support that card so then again my future options to an upgrade doesnt seem to dimB)

[Fibbles]

Wait until software, especially games (if you play them), is written to support a dual cored CPU enviorment first. Isn't that the reason AMD decided to skip the dual cored FX's? To make sure the single core FX will be the fastest gaming processor out.

I read a review that stated the 3D1 works fine in the Asus SLI board, probably because Asus does have a plan for a dual chipseted card. That dual Ultra card is huge and I doubt it will fit in the average case, but it's only a prototype.

In 1998, when 3dfx released the Voodoo 2 chipset, one board maker made an SLI setup using a single card. In most tests, it performed worse than 2 seperate cards in SLI, and even was outpaced by a single card. Not to mention Voodoo 5 was pretty underpowered compared to the GeForce 2 from nVidia. Not all dual solutions work as well as they should.

[cooljamin]

Well from what i remember the dual core tyan mobo was an amd skt 940 for opteron. As far as 3dfx is concerned, it had the advantage of having the pci bus and the gpu's could comunicate to each other via the cpu. The pci bus can read and write simutaniously. The limiting factor was the pci bus was almost set at 33mhz and there was no extra setting or hardware support to channel 2 pci channels to the the gpu's through a single slot, so a dual core setup was obsolete at the time of its invention. The attempt to do dual core gpu's on an agp bus was a waist of time as agp doesnt read and write a the same time. That leaves us with PCIe there is no reason that a 1 ghz gpu wouldnt beat the living day-lights out of a dual core 500mhz gpu on the new PCIe bus. But thats unrealistic, if you can get a one 1ghz gpu why not have 2 1ghz gpu's. see its really not practcical to compare gigabyte and asus dual boards to 3dfx, as dual core gfx boards "will" take advantage of available PCIe bandwith. Sli single core and dual core gfx boards are here to stay and the present standard for PCIe is set at 16x max so it will be a few years till the bandwith max's out at 4 or 8 ghz im not sure exactly and when you can get that bandwith from a single gpu then you will see the single gpu win again.
http://www.tyan.com/products/html/opteron.html
some real expensive motherboards here, note the ThundeK8WE (S2895) (http://www.tyan.com/products/html/thunderk8we.html) states 2x16 sli slots this may well woth supporting 4 gpu's
:rant:

[Fibbles]

"see its really not practcical to compare gigabyte and asus dual boards to 3dfx,"

I didn't...

Sometimes things don't work out as planned, that's all. The 3D1 works better than the dual Voodoo 2 on 1 card solution, but that's all I was talking about. If the technplogy was deemed obsolete at that time, it sure didn't stop Quantum from trying. I do think it got better following better driver support, but by that time, newer solutions were around and the dual was still way to exspensive (it was more than 2 seperate Voodoo 2's).

Of course the technology is different, but that's not what I was hinting at anyway.

[cooljamin]

Yes so true you cant help to think that nvida had a marketing advantage at the time as well. Advertising its 32 bit card as a business essential, although 3dfx had plenty of warning signs they gave the pc industry some good graphcis technolgy. If they followed suit they would still be here today. As for the water block subject and force 4 chip, my card touches the chipset cooler and somewhat made it difficult to install the 3d1 card. It sits in there ok now after a lil fiddleing.i havnt seen anything yet with nforce 4 Sli slots that doesnt have this problem. Im thinking of designing my own cooling solution for the chipset cause im not satisfied. In my view you only need to put a water block on your nforce 4 if you plan on overclocking your PCIe ht bus as the memory controler on amd boards like mine is now inside the cpu and the temperature of my cpu is lucky to go over 28 deg c (82 deg fahrenheit) i can get a good overclock with out any specialised cooling setup. The PCIe bus has plenty of bandwidth compared to the available technology but i for one am going to keep water out of my new computer. Its up to you if you want to deny yourself the latest technology because your of your waterblock setup or go in boots and all and inovate the cooling setup, Im running c&c generals with aax8 ax16 1600x1200 and other games with maybe not so robust quality settings really good in win64.

what Id like to mention is that windows 64 even without sli mode works better at games than winxp 32. I dont know why it maybe the better memory setup 64 bit drivers that better acesses the 128 bit dual memory but win64 is truely way better to the point i dont use win xp anymore. Maybe win 64 is the upgrade in speed your lookin for here.

ps: you dont know unless you try. Go for it dude the Gigabyte K8NXP-SLI. Is cheap as and is a rock stable SLI game platform