X570 Crosshair VIII Hero: Need Replacement VRM Fan

[ationfictons]

That silly little fan on the VRM/chipset heatsink of my Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero (non-wifi) X570 motherboard has decided to start making grinding/scratching noises. I've removed the grill, blown out any dust (none) and jiggled it a bit to no avail. I need a replacement. Any ideas what to replace it with or where to get it? It would be nice if Noctua made a quality replacement, but I don't think they do.

[ationfictons]

Since I can't find anything on the web about a replacement fan, I chatted with Asus "Support." Here's the transcript:

ASUS: I understand that you need a replacement for your ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO chipset fan, however it is a component level part and not a spare part so we cannot provide it to you.

ASUS: Personally, I would recommend you to send in your ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO for repair. Our records indicate that your unit is still covered by warranty up until 2022/07/30 and our repair facility should be able to address your concern.

ME: So, Asus produced a top of the line motherboard with precisely one moving part on it (and everyone screamed about how dumb that was) and when it fails I'm just supposed to throw the whole motherboard in the trash?

ME: Sorry for the cross post. Anyway, no I'm not sending it in for repair. You guys need to sell replacement parts or at least reference 3rd parties.

ME: Do you have any recommendations for a 3rd party replacement?

ASUS: I understand that it is easier to get a spare part and install it yourself, we do have that in our other components but it is not be applicable with chipset fans. I know that sending in the unit for repair may be inconvenient for you, but I assure you that this is the best way to address your concern. Please let me know if you are amenable for a repair.

ME: No. And Asus is dead to me.

[xeromist]

Sounds like you've already made a decision but just to be clear, sending a board for RMA does not get it thrown in the trash. If the only issue is a dead fan they would most likely just replace that fan and send your own board back to you. Even if they swap your board out for the purpose of expediting your RMA they will end up servicing the old board and putting it into RMA stock for someone else in the future.

Obviously the most energy efficient solution would be to send only the damaged component and get a replacement but ASUS (and most other manufacturers I'm aware of) isn't set up that way. RMA systems usually only deal with products as-sold rather than their individual components. It's the same thing for a laptop with a failed drive where the whole machine must go through RMA rather than just the drive. Hopefully that will change in the future as the Right To Repair movement gains momentum.

[berserk47]

OK I have a potential solution to your problem. Go and buy Noctua NF-A6x25-PWM 60mm fan (or similar) and even a 40mm if you can find one. Now if you are even a little bit good with your hands, and a bit clever, you could cut off the corners where the screw-holes are. Then using some silastic as a glue, make sure your fan is facing the correct direction and apply a thin layer of silastic around the bottom rim of the fan. Then carefully place the fan over the hole the current fan is located, remove the original fan-hub and blades ifyou can but its not critical. Press the new fan into position and leave it for a couple of hrs, plug the 4-pin PWM to your mobo. The fan won't ever move or slip unless you want it to, but you'll probably need to set it to a lower default speed or it will sould like its gonna take off, those small fans can really crank up the revs. As long as you have it facing to blow air INTO the hole then you will never look back. This is your very best option at this point, You can be up and running in half a day. Hope this helps ya out,,, good luck.

[ationfictons]

I'm not sure, but it sounds like you're suggesting mounting this so it will sit above where the old fan is. If so, I don't think that will work. There's almost no space between the surface of the motherboard and the bottom of the graphics card at that point. If Asus, in their infinite wisdom, had thought about this (well, if they had, they wouldn't have put a fan on a motherboard), they would have put that fan in an accessible location. Of course, if they thought about things, they wouldn't have buried the primary M.2 drive under the graphics card either. Or, used teeny, tiny screws to hold things down.

EDIT: It's not a good picture, but here's one of that fan. Note that it's directly in line with the graphics card slot (I don't know why this forum rotates the picture - in my version, that slot is at the top, here, it's at the right edge):

[berserk47]

Oh yeah i see what you mean that is horrible place for a horrible fan, and it is horrible. Totally the worst centrifugal fan ive ever seen, they create a centrifigal fan but not proper blades just straight plastic arms. It would be only 50% efficient, if that. Well i had to try help ya and i know it would work really good, the graphics-slot sinks the whole idea, sorry about that. I am using the exact same board and love it but that fan has always been a turn-off for me. In feb 2021 i went and bought a dark-hero because i just know that fan is gonna give me pain at some point.
But sadly, before i could installed it i had an accident and cannot see well enough any more so the new board is still sittin in the box under me bed. Total waste of money. Sometimes life sucks.
Good luck to ya i hope you get it all sorted somehow.

[xeromist]

If it were me I'd rather do the RMA but another option would be to remove that shroud and fan entirely and just throw some adhesive sinks on the hottest parts. As long as you have airflow in the area it's going to be way better than suffocating under a shroud with a dead fan.

FWIW, likely the reasoning for this decision was the layout meant things were sitting right next to the slot and difficult to keep cool. So they used this low profile shroud and fan to ensure cooling when the area is obstructed with a large card or receives no airflow due to a primarily liquid cooled system. But as you discovered, the Achilles heel is the fan. As long as you know what is going in the slot you can see if ditching the shroud and sticking some sinks will fit.

[ationfictons]

xeromist wrote:
If it were me I'd rather do the RMA but another option would be to remove that shroud and fan entirely and just throw some adhesive sinks on the hottest parts. As long as you have airflow in the area it's going to be way better than suffocating under a shroud with a dead fan.

FWIW, likely the reasoning for this decision was the layout meant things were sitting right next to the slot and difficult to keep cool. So they used this low profile shroud and fan to ensure cooling when the area is obstructed with a large card or receives no airflow due to a primarily liquid cooled system. But as you discovered, the Achilles heel is the fan. As long as you know what is going in the slot you can see if ditching the shroud and sticking some sinks will fit.

I'll look into removing the fan and adding some heatsinks. But, 1) at this point, I'm not sure what's under that fan (I was assuming the actual chips were off to the side, but looking more closely, there's something right under the fan, and 2) I don't even know if there's enough space in that cavity (up to the bottom of the graphics card) for a heatsink. Maybe Youtube will be my friend.

Back in the day, I remember the big old heatsinks and fans on the chipset and how we could easily remove and replace them. Progress is just wonderful.

[criznittle]

I've been dreading when that little PCH fan dies on my board, and the replies you got from Asus were not encouraging at all.
I figured i'd be able to get a replacement from Asus, as you assumed, but nope, looks like a time consuming and computer-disabling RMA process is the only option. We may as well buy another motherboard considering how long it typically takes to send a package, have it processed, hopefully get some positive reply, and even more hopefully get a replacement. This can take months, which is a long time without your PC. I'd much rather stick a beefy cooler on the chip and never have to worry about the piece of **** fan again.
Asus needs a more efficient cost-effective solution to this problem that doesn't require the RMA process or buying a new board. This motherboard was supposed to be pretty damn close to top of the line, capable of handling AMD's most power hungry CPUs without breaking a sweat. How is it crippled so easily?

[ationfictons]

The chipset fan noise kept building up, so I decided to try to figure out what kind of fan it was and see if I could replace it. The process was worse than I could have imagined. I'll start with the actual information: According to the back label on the chipset fan in my Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (non-wifi), it's a:

DC Model Brushless KSB0405HB DC05V 0.44A 7JD 9524X5R Delta Electronics, Inc. Made in China (WF):



There's also some stuff on the front label:

2995702100 REV B-2 DME74757. Sorry most some of that can't be seen:



As to the "worse than I could have imagined," to get to that fan, I had to not only disassemble the computer. I also had to disassemble the motherboard.

Here's a photo of the chipset fan in it's normal situation with it's shroud attached on the motherboard:



Here it is with the shroud removed:



I could find no way to remove the plastic casing to get at the fan, so, since my motherboard tray covered the whole back of the motherboard, I had to disassemble the computer to check the back. Yep. There are 4 screws with gray outlines on the back where the chipset fan is:



I removed those and was able to pop off the casing around the chipset fan:



And here's a closer look at the fan and its 3 (black) retaining screws.:



Three screws removed and fan blades are off (displaying the rotor). You can also see the 4 (gold) screw holding things that'll have to come off soon:



I unplugged the fan cable (upper right):



And back around to the back again to remove those four screws (they're in a square):



That let me remove the final casing with the fan rotor. Here's the back:



And, just for grins, here's the chipset, itself: