CPU fan too big

My friend bought a Intel D946GZIS motherboard on line and also a 3.4GHz P4 with a Ultra Wind Cooling fan. The fins on the fan are large and when we try to put it on the CPU, it hits the PSU and heatsink for the northbridge. Would it hurt the cooling process if we bent the fins to the side so that they clear the PSU and heatsink? They'll be bunched together a little but I don't think it should affect the cooling process. Yes, No??
Or should we go get a normal P4 heatsink. Do they come with the base bracket to clip to?

 

I would say the blades are (finely) balanced. If you bent them, being unbalanced, it would probably destroy the fan's bearing eventually, and you might find it becomes quite noisy.

Are there any similar P4's around that you could swap the heatsink and fan? You will need to investigate their shape and the way they attach. Intel changed the heatsink design many times on the P4s.

If you don't have the motherboard manual (there should be PDF file on the drivers CD), look it up at Intel. It should(?) tell you about the heatsink and it's design. Put the CPU model into a search at Intel www.intel.com/support

If you swap the heatsink for somebody else's, be sure to investigate the temperatures and get application of the thermal compound correct (don't leave them with an overheating CPU, remove the heatsink and re-apply the compound several times if you need to, it's good experience anyway). If you have not used thermal compound before, read the instructions for Arcticsilver 5, www.arcticsilver.com

Matt

 

Thanks for the reply. I just downloaded the PDF file and will read it. Never seen a socket like this one. Its a 775 socket and has the pins on the motherboard, the CPU has small round metal pads. The CPU holder on the motherboard has a lid that comes down over the CPU chip to hold it in place. The motherboard has 4 holes that the base for the heatsink slip into. Never seen that before. I'm use to the bracket that clamps down on to the motherboard.
Will check it out tho. By the way, this is what the fan looks like.

http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_detai...p;productID=516

 

Well, I did the right thing. I went and bought a correct size fan for the socket 775. Put it all together and everything works fine. My daughters boyfriend picked it up and he's happy.

Thanks everyone for the help.

 

Good one. I wasn't prepared to respond about the 775 socket, I have only read about them. The pins located on the motherboard side are to avoid(?) bending of the pins. The 4 holes for installing the heatsink...again I won't comment. It seems everything worked well.

You may have found that you could not get an original manufacturer's heatsink/fan combo, they are only sold with the CPU as a kit.

Matt

 

I've heard that the pin setup on a 775 board is a nightmare and is very susceptible to bending the pins!!! Oh well - I'm sure there was some logic in doing it that way.

All I know is that it takes a good amount of force to bend pins on any AMD cpu I've ever encountered.

Geez, Swede, you lost your one big opportunity to get out the ol' blow torch. Oh well, probably would have looked a bit ghetto anyway!

 

Not that's it very relevant...anyway...

I have been working on some 478 pin models. Quite hard to find motherboards for them now, but found a new one made by Asrock. Installed a 3.0 Ghz processor and to my amazement found it is dual core, not bad for an old model (also has dual channel RAM and SATA). Since it was given to me broken, I now have a nice system for the cost of a (relatively cheap) motherboard.

Matt

 

The pins to the motherboard for the socket 775 is a nightmare. I'll never buy one for myself. I'll go AMD before I install a 775.
While I was trying to install it, I thought I'd break the motherboard by how much pressure I had to apply just to get the pins to spread. Now I worry that they'll come out after time.
I also like the 478 socket. Too bad they're being phased out.