I have seen one report on the web that this is OK

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/users/60716

but I'd like some more confirmation. As this is one of the recommended reference boards I guess there are a lot of these around. What have you done to keep yours quite and cool?

-S

Hi,
If you want to get a passive cooler for your mobo, I'd recommend a zalman passive northbridge heatsink. I changed the noisy (high pitched wheeze) on my Abit board and haven't looked back.
Regards

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Version:R8
Intel C2D 7400, Nvidia 5600 via HDMI to Samsung B37B650TW (PAL), Asus P5QL-E mobo, 4Gb PC6400 DDR2 ram, Samsung Spinpoint 500 Gb & 1Tb drive, Nova-HD-S2 (x2)

I too have used the zalman passive northbridge coolers and found them to be good.

One thing I would recommend is that there's enough airflow through the case, even a big heatsink like the zalman can overheat if there's no airflow.

_________________
Mephi
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R5.5
Opteron 2.Ghz
1Gb Ram, 200Gb Maxtor PATA
Avermedia 771 DVB-T
Hauppauge Nova-S2 (waiting to be installed)
MS MCE2 Remote

I should've added some more detail. The Zalman heatsink is not recommended for chipsets that have built-in graphics. The Chaintec 7NIF2 does have G-Force2 built in graphics so, strictly speaking this board isn't suitable. A few people say G-Force2 boards are ok. As, I said I'd seen one person that says it's OK on my particular mobo but I wanted to ask if there are more reports of success. I have one of the larger (blue) Zalman coolers ready to go if I can be sure it'll be ok.