Need a new Motherboard

[AmishSlayer]

Well I don't know if you guys remember, but a while back I posted about my NorthBridge fan being crazy loud. Now the fan is making even weirder noises. I'm pretty sure it's about to go and I figured this is a good time to get a new motherboard.

For the record, I have a K8N Neo 4. I've got an AMD64 3200+ cpu, 2x512mb PC3200 ram and a pci-e Leadtek 6800GT. The gfx card is pretty big and it cuts off any opportunity to replace the NB fan with a different one because it's RIGHT over top of the fan (stupid design).

I'm looking for something that will run my stuff but still be upgradable in the cpu and ram areas (DDR2,3 ram er whatever and eventually a good dual core processor).

EDIT: Err..didn't make it clear but I was looking for recommendations. Any suggestions?

 

[Barney Fife]

Well I don't know if you guys remember, but a while back I posted about my NorthBridge fan being crazy loud. Now the fan is making even weirder noises. I'm pretty sure it's about to go and I figured this is a good time to get a new motherboard.

For the record, I have a K8N Neo 4. I've got an AMD64 3200+ cpu, 2x512mb PC3200 ram and a pci-e Leadtek 6800GT. The gfx card is pretty big and it cuts off any opportunity to replace the NB fan with a different one because it's RIGHT over top of the fan (stupid design).

I'm looking for something that will run my stuff but still be upgradable in the cpu and ram areas (DDR2,3 ram er whatever and eventually a good dual core processor).

EDIT: Err..didn't make it clear but I was looking for recommendations. Any suggestions?

Unfortunately most MBs have their chipsets dangerously sitting right next to or just below Vcard. Everyone agrees that this is a dumb idea. And sometimes can dictate whether to upgrade chipset HSF or not.
As far as upgrading MB is concern; You have plenty of MBs to choose from in socket 939 and plenty of 939 CPU to go with. 939 X2 CPU for dual. The RAMs DDR2 is the thing. Nowadays Intel’s Conroe Core 2 Duo CPU is the must have CPUs. They came out couple of months ago and are very impressive in overclocking.
The down side is that There aren’t lots of MBs to go with these Conroe CPUs, if you intend to Ocing.
My final thought is that; Your system doesn't really look desperate, and you can (Hopefully) fabricate chipset fan to make lesser noise, like blowing it with an air-can, re-seat or replace HSF, Etc if you can.
I like DFI and Asus boards, if you would wait I heard both manufacturers are busy coming up with more rigid, stable and better-designed boards for these Conroe CPU.
DX10 cards are also coming out, sometime early next year, DDR2 is the thing people must have, even Though DDR400 are still kicking.

Good Luck.

 

[giant384]

chipset fans are not really a problem when next to the video card so i dont see what your complaining about.

 

[Barney Fife]

chipset fans are not really a problem when next to the video card so i dont see what your complaining about.

His chipset fan is acting up and making weird noises is what he's complaining about.

 

[Asus]

You don't think something like this would work?
You'd have to make sure the mounts are the same.

Is this a Socket 939 board? Asus, DFI are probably the top 2 brands. DFI obviously gives you lots of options for tweaking/OCing. Either the Nforce4, ATI Xpress 200 or 3200 chipsets (with ULI southbridge) are good. I have an Abit Xpress 3200 board and it has been awesome so far. No fan on the cooler either.

 

[AmishSlayer]

Right now with the stock NB fan I have about 2-3mm of space between the fan and the gfx card so any fan/heatsink I can find to replace it is too tall (pretty sure the one you linked is barely too tall Asus ).

This is a socket 939 board. I tried resetting the fan, cleaning it and everything and it's still making this horrendous noise. I can hear it across my apartment while my door is closed when it's spinning fast...

I don't plan on OCing any time soon or really doing many tweaks so I don't need crazy options I don't think.

As you said Barney my system is fine performance-wise, I just figured if I'm gonna need to replace my motherboard I might as well get one that's DX10/Vista friendly with the upgrades I'll eventually get next year.

 

[Barney Fife]

Right now with the stock NB fan I have about 2-3mm of space between the fan and the gfx card so any fan/heatsink I can find to replace it is too tall (pretty sure the one you linked is barely too tall Asus ).

This is a socket 939 board. I tried resetting the fan, cleaning it and everything and it's still making this horrendous noise. I can hear it across my apartment while my door is closed when it's spinning fast...

I don't plan on OCing any time soon or really doing many tweaks so I don't need crazy options I don't think.

As you said Barney my system is fine performance-wise, I just figured if I'm gonna need to replace my motherboard I might as well get one that's DX10/Vista friendly with the upgrades I'll eventually get next year.

Yeah man. If you don't, absolutely, positively, necessarily have to change MB (Like I can see your system is average in performance-wise) Wait till these hardware catchup with each other, and they start knocking off each other prices, and it becomes a buyers market instead of sellers market. Then upgrade and buy up to date equipments.
In the mean time see what you can do as far as chipset fan is concerned. Fabricate, and see if you can take off the fan and leave only a cleaned HS, and watch temperature.
If Temp is at acceptable area, leave it with fan off the HS, and instead add more fans to your case, maybe bigger like 120mm if you got 90mm Etc.
You can go ahead and buy a bigger case with better airflow and more fans to start with your upgrade now (If you really want to buy something and you can't keep you hands off your wallet) and then move everything into your new case.
Most cases you don't need chipset fan if case fans are delivering enough air.

Good Luck.