Hi John,
I've been considering the same kind of modification to my Giga-Byte GA-K8NXP-SLI MB. I've got enough fans in my system (including 2 high speed fans on my dual GPU GV-3D1 graphics card which make a hell of a row..) already and the active chipset cooler is an additional annoyance I'd like to get rid of.
The GA-K8NXP-SLI MB has the further problem that the nForce 4 chipset is mounted directly behind the PCI-e slot that's in use and the graphics card actually touches the top of the active cooler as a result! So not really much space to work with!
I looked at the Cool Innovations 4-1515XXU heatsink that you describe here and it looks like a good match but as you state, mounting it could be something of an issue. They suggest on their website that there are SMDL Clips available, do you think they would match with the diagonally set mounting holes in the MB?
There are three other options that I've come across:
Radian Heatsinks have a product called the
INE45001-10 Series which can be mounted using their EZ Snap system. This seems to offer good contact with the chip and the ability to remove the heatsink if necessary but depends on you knowing the height of the chip package (either 0.9mm or 1.7mm available) and I can't find the specs on the nForce4 anywhere! I'm also not sure to what degree the EZ Snap cip would affect air flow around the heatsink and there is a minimum order quantity of 5 but the cost is not too great..
I've also been looking at products from
Alphanovatech, but am unsure as to whether a low Low Pressure Drop design (LPD) or a Low Thermal Resistance (Z series) design would be more appropriate. They also offer customisation of their heatsinks and make fully custom spec designs to order, although I suspect the latter might prove costly! I was thinking that maybe a LPD 60X60X10, drilled to match the MB mounting holes might do the trick.
This would obviously involve a bit of work! An easier option might be to just buy a 45X45X10 Z Series from
FrozenCPU and then use thermal tape to mount and test it and then, if successful,
Arctic Silver Epoxy to permenently mount it.
Which ever option, it seems that completely passive cooling of the nForce4 chipset, with a low profile heatsink might be a bit ambitious and that some kind of increased air flow around the heatsink will probably be required. Fortunately my case a
Coolermaster CM Stacker has space for a 80mm fan in just about the pright place to provide this but you might want to consider something similar yourself?
Also looking around at some of the stories concerning replacement of these chipset coolers, some people have suggested that some kind of shim to protect the chip might be in order. It seems some cooling solutions have a habit of chipping the chip packaging but like you, I've found no details of pads or shims for the nForce4 anywhere...
Any road up, if you were willing, I'd be happy to purchase the minimum of one kind of heatsink and if you did the same with another, we could swap them around and experiment a little.
What do you think?
SW