pitonyak : photos : Fixing Things : The fan faces my video card (not installed) because it provides more clearance between the heat-sink and the video card. I purchased this Extreme Spirit II Universal Northbridge Chipset Copper Heatpipe Cooler for about $25 from Microcenter. Mfr Part #: CL-C0034- powered by SmugMug

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pitonyak > The Northbridge fan failed on my Asus A8N5X Motherboard.

pitonyak > There are two black pins holding the fan in place. You can cut them off (I don't recommend it) or you can pinch the clips from the back side of the motherboard and push them through.

pitonyak > This is how the pins look from the back. Squeeze them together using needle-nose pliers and push them through. It helps to hold the fan against the motherboard when you do this.

pitonyak > After pushing the black clips out, the fan is still stuck to the motherboard with the heat sink compound. Although the fan has four internal screws, do not bother to remove them. This releases the fan inside the cage, which is not helpful; oops!

pitonyak > Immediately after removing the fan. There is heat sink compound everywhere and a black spongy material covering the underlying board (and plastic over the green board). Although I cleaned the chip, I probably should have left this black spongy material in place.

pitonyak > (1) I removed the thin plastic cover sheet from the heatsink. (2) I added arctic silver heat sink compound to fill in the cracks, exactly as if I was dealing with a high-end CPU [you will probably NOT do this]. (3) I added the white spongy ring to protect the chip board (as per the instructions).
I purchased this Extreme Spirit II Universal Northbridge Chipset Copper Heatpipe Cooler for about $25 from Microcenter.
Mfr Part #: CL-C0034

pitonyak > I used arctic silver after cleaning the chip with acetone and 100% alcohol (I did not get any on the non-chip portions). You will probably just use the compound included with your heat-sink.
Notice that screws now protrude through the motherboard where the black plastic tabs used to be. Also note that I used the orange/red insulators on front and back (as per the instructions).
BONUS: Now I can replace the fan without removing the motherboard from the case.

pitonyak > The fan faces my video card (not installed) because it provides more clearance between the heat-sink and the video card.
I purchased this Extreme Spirit II Universal Northbridge Chipset Copper Heatpipe Cooler for about $25 from Microcenter.
Mfr Part #: CL-C0034

pitonyak > You can see my 4GB of RAM in the background.
I purchased this Extreme Spirit II Universal Northbridge Chipset Copper Heatpipe Cooler for about $25 from Microcenter.
Mfr Part #: CL-C0034

The fan faces my video card (not installed) because it provides more clearance between the heat-sink and the video card.
I purchased this Extreme Spirit II Universal Northbridge Chipset Copper Heatpipe Cooler for about $25 from Microcenter.
Mfr Part #: CL-C0034