On 11/30/06, Simon Labrecque agarwal@videotron.ca wrote:
The problem with the MSI K9N is that the Northbridge's passive cooler is said to get very, VERY hot, which might be problematic in our application as noise (and therefore airflow) needs to be minimized.
I haven't tested it personally though, but every review I read on the K9N seems to mention the heat issue. That's why I liked the Abit board in the first place; passively cooled, but with heat pipes and an easy way out for the heat.
I have my ms7260 v1.0 (AKA MSI K9N Neo-f) in-hand, and I can verify that the northbridge is literally painfully hot. The good news is the heatsink itself is quite large, and there's a 3-prong header marked "NBFAN" directly adjacent.
Either a small fan attached to the stock heatsink or a large replacement passive heatsink ought to do the trick nicely. Close-up pictures are available upon request «grin».
Regards, -dhbarr.