Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

[Compgeke]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

It is for the CPU, namely higher power like the quad-cores that draw 100+W, sometimes as high as 130W. With a Core 2 Duo or whatever dual-core it has, the draw won't need the extra power.

[stj]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

check if all the 12v pins are linked on the motherboard - if not then solder a bit of thick copper wire across all 4.
that should remove your need for an adapter.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

the extra 4 on the 20-pin connector are used mainly for the PCI-Express bus, usually more powerful video cards that dont' require a separate power connector, that what might of been what that idiot was thinking about

yeah the extra 4 pins are for CPU power. Though i've seen some motherboards that have only a 4-pin and support high wattage CPU's

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

The motherboard has the words "PCI Express" on it. I finally located a pic and identified the board. Zotac N73PV-Supreme
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2684/3
One criticism is that the motherboard lacks dual channel architecture.

[c_hegge]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

^
Don't be surprised if the chipset fails on that board soon. There are known manufacturing flaws and defects with ALL nvidia GPUs and chipsets from that era (you can google 'bumpgate' to find out more), although if you can keep the chipset (not just the CPU) under 60*C, then it might have a fairly long life.

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

I can see why users say this mainboard freezes up, the heatsink on the graphics chip is really hot to the touch. If I installed a graphics card would that take some of the heat load off the mobo graphics chip and avoid the thermal stress failure?

EDIT: Okay, I installed a graphics card, and restarted, opened up Hard Info, then to Sensors, where two temperatures are listed.

temp1 (acpitz) 40.00*C
temp1 (nouveau) 101.00*C

So, then, assume I have all kinds of material and devices to work with, what is the solution to keeping the chipset temp down to 60*C. A big ole knocker heatsink, or some kind of fan arrangement? Maybe a bath of liquid nitrogen?

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

I can see why users say this mainboard freezes up, the heatsink on the graphics chip is really hot to the touch. If I installed a graphics card would that take some of the heat load off the mobo graphics chip and avoid the thermal stress failure?

Yes. The use of a dedicated GPU will significantly reduce the temperatures of the chipset/IGP.

Your sensor readings look way off though. If the chipset really is running at 101C it means you have a poor connection between it and the heatsink. First step would be to take the heatsink off the motherboard, thoroughly clean whatever dried up crap you find on there, and apply new thermal paste. Then check the sensors again and report back.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

Yes. The use of a dedicated GPU will significantly reduce the temperatures of the chipset/IGP.

This is why I love APU's so much.

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

Any recommendations for some other, trouble-free motherboard? A base HTPC, not a gaming board, just a decent, reliable board for Intel Dual Core that will make full use of then-current capabilities, such as dual channel architecture and H.264 hardware acceleration, with VGA, DVI, HDMI, 4x SATA. Preferably with a 4-pin mobo 12V connector.

[hikaruichijo]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

Hi, nvidia chips are always hot and prone to failures because hardware vendors does not cool then properlly so if you want to use the board cool down that chip.....
From my exprerience is important to make sure the heatsink makes proper contact and increase the presure untill the board start to bend, use a good termal compoud, polish the heatsink and if posible put a fan on it, and of course a bigger heatsink will help but it is usually dificult on a lot of cases to increase the size of the heatsink
I have an HTPC based on an NM10ITX WIFI board also from zotac. It's an atom d5525 with 2gb of ram and an geforce gt220 graphics card but the magic is in the broadcom cristal hd card that reduces cpu usage to 10% or so.
I stream full hd 1080p video from my server over the network and it plays fluently. It has some isues with the wifi but no problem with the wired card.
So if this old setup can still do the job today, I think almoust any decent current hardware will work.

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

What about gluing a P3 cooler (heatsink + fan) to it? I just dredged up a celeron cooler, perfect square with a perfectly flat bottom. I assume this graphics chip is square? The heatsink could probably use a little more metal, but it's lighter than most.

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

The GPU has a strong resemblance to an Athlon XP processor without socket, permanently attached. There are 4 symmetrical holes around the chip. The stock Zotac heatsink has a curvature on top surface, where the letters ZOTAC are seen. This makes it difficult to attach a fan to this heatsink. The proximity of the GPU to the CPU limits the size of the heatsink. The location of a cap has the same effect, as well causing the heatsink to be off-center in one direction (lengthwise). There's more metal on this heatsink than I first thought; it's pretty hefty. The GPU must generate a LOT of heat. I believe I will need a cooler befitting an Athlon processor, a fan being absolutely necessary. With such a small contact surface, gluing seems be out as possibility.

As for crud under the heatsink, there isn't much crud because there isn't much contact surface, like the shiny contact surface of Athlon XP/Pentium 3. The thermal paste is a bit dried out, that's all.

When you recommend a good thermal paste, I assume you mean Arctic Silver. Please confirm.

I have the backup plate for a heatsink mount, that I could modify to back up to those 4 symmetrical holes in the motherboard. It's hard black plastic. The metal screw sockets would have to be cut off, so I'd be working with pure plastic in this backup plate.

This ZOTAC heatsink is very specialized, asymmetically affixed to the GPU to occupy available space on the motherboard, with 4 rubber mounts glued to the bottom side to keep it off the motherboard. I'm not sure I could do anything better than the stock heatsink, except to somehow attach a fan to it. I don't see a way to attach a fan to it without affixing some frame on the heatsink to accommodate the fan. Maybe one of those old Celeron fans with a hood that attached to the special heatsink. In my opinion, that hood housing the Celeron fan would be counterproductive. There are 4 plastic spring-loaded nails that attach the heatsink to the motherboard. The heads of these special nails stick out above the metal of the heatsink by about 1/8 inch, so that nothing can ride on top of the heatsink. Maybe the fan will have to blow across it, probably in the lengthwise direction. Nope, not enough space on the ends: that limiting cap on one end, system RAM on the other end.

[stj]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

foto's

[hikaruichijo]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

If you trie to glue the heatsink to an exposed die is very likely that you damage it and it will not have good contact neither presure and the glues used for this have bad thermal cunductiviti compared to a good thermal grease.
I sugest trie to increase the presure puting a copper pad betwing the heatsink and the die puting a bit of thermal compound on bouth sides of the pad.

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

Here are the photos of the ZOTAC mainboard and GPU heatsink. In the first photo, the heatsink is not exactly in position, it's displaced about 3/8 inch in the direction of the RAM slots.

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

Maybe I could substitute screws for the plastic nails, using the backup plate to bring more pressure to bear on the contact surfaces. That's not going to reduce the heat to be dissipated by the heatsink. But, with those plastic nails out of the way, maybe I could mount a fan right on top of the heatsink. However, given the amount of heat involved here, a metal backup plate would probably be better than plastic, which might deflect.

[hikaruichijo]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

Well this is one idea you could trie. First remove the rubber pads and the push pins from the original heatsink then get four screws, four nuts and four cardboard washers, put the washes on the screws insert then from behind the board so that the washers are in touch with the board and tighten the nuts untill the board starts to bend, always tighten then in cross order, and ofcourse clean that old TIM.
And for the fan, it should not be a problem to mount it on the top of the cooler.
Thats my idea.

[stj]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

easy - do you own a dremel type cutter?
if yes, i'll post a pic or 2.

[binsonk]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

Nope, don't have any dremel cutters, but are you talking about enlarging a hole? Gonna have to look around for some "cardboard" washers. I used them all on motherboard mounting. Need to drop by a hardware for screws and nuts, so that will be Tuesday at the earliest. Holiday time here in US.

Oops, found the washers, a bit dried out and stiff. I'll have to hunt a while to find nuts and screws. What length, 3/8" maybe 1/2"? I have some screws, but I don't think the thread is fine enough for this purpose.

[stj]

Re: Zotac mainboard needs PSU with 8-pin mobo connector

dont fuck the holes up.

i'm talking about cutting away some of that center fin with the writing on it.

2 foto's

first cut away the red.
then mount a fan like in the green outline wih 2 screws.