OK to cut heatpipe?

[whodie]

Well my P5B D arrived today, E6600 should be here tomorrow.

So I was prepping the P5B and I was wondering, is there any issue with cutting the heatpipe between the northbridge? My plan was to water cool the northbridge but I want to keep the rest of the heat sink. Any problems or am I just paranoid?

[Silver Bullet]

if you can .. just slide it out .. otherwise i guess you will have to cut it. Keep in mind that viod your warrenty for sure (or at least make it alot harder to claim). There might be a watery substance in the tube so do it over the sink or something i would suggest ...

[gundamit]

I plan to pop the northbridge and mosfet cooler off, then bend the NB cooler up so its out of the way of the NB water block, then pop it back on. As long as I don't pinch the tube I think it'll work fine.

[whodie]

I never even thought about bending, it would be pretty tough without kinking it, although it's worth a shot before I cut the thing off. Thanks guys, if nothing else I'll be a guinea pig :stick:

[pcdoc1]

Don't sweat it, there's alot of people that have cut the heatpipe... I cut it at the mosfet cooler and put a 159 on the northbridge.

Oh yeah, there was no liquid in it.....

[wwwww]

Well my P5B D arrived today, E6600 should be here tomorrow.

So I was prepping the P5B and I was wondering, is there any issue with cutting the heatpipe between the northbridge? My plan was to water cool the northbridge but I want to keep the rest of the heat sink. Any problems or am I just paranoid?

Ever thought of bending it? I once bent pipes on some Tt vga cooler I had - broke it though (and nothing came out).
I suppose it's no different from cutting it - it's the approach I'd take to cut it.

Kiss your warranty good bye though.

[syne_24]

I was just thinking of doing the same thing. I was actually looking for a heatsink to substitute for the mosfet but no luck. I plan to strap 2 40mm fan on top of the mosfet but I dont want to cut the stock. Anyone know of any long heatsink like the stock one on the mosfet?

[whodie]

Well I tried bending it and the pipe kinked instantly so I just cut the thing off and folded the edge back over. We'll see how it works out in the next couple days.

[highoctane]

The heatpipes should of had a vacuum on them which would allow any moisture in them to boil at room tempreture, the gas then recondense on the cooler end of the pipe transfering the heat pretty much immediately.

Once you break one open you just have a copper tube, without an absolute vacuum there will no longer be any benefits of evaporative cooling to move the heat.

What kind of impact that would have I don't know but an engineering buddy of mine explained the vacuum is the key.

[mds47]

is there really no liquid in the tubes? boggle

lol i think we need a mod to add some phase liquid to the tubes if asus forgot :D

--mds

[whodie]

There was a tiny bit of liquid in mine.

My thoughts though, water cooling is better than the heatpipe design but I'd like ASUS's use of a heatsink for the mosfets with a fan. I'm also going to add a 40mm fan to the southbridge. Plus with the AS5 on the mosfets, NB, and SB it should stay pretty cool.

You really can never be too cool :toast:

[gundamit]

I pinched mine a bit but its still open on the bottom. It looks sort of ugly. Matches the rest of my bench rig now.

http://img421.imageshack.us/img421/2051/nbchange1vt6.th.jpg (http://img421.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nbchange1vt6.jpg)

[clip]

If you use side cutters or pliars you can cut it & seel it at the same time, should have been full of liquid mine was.

[nooh]

I pinched mine a bit but its still open on the bottom. It looks sort of ugly. Matches the rest of my bench rig now.

http://img421.imageshack.us/img421/2051/nbchange1vt6.th.jpg (http://img421.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nbchange1vt6.jpg)
Wow, i bet your mosfet are even cooler with the load taken off , also now it has the whole hs to its own self

[gundamit]

Wow, i bet your mosfet are even cooler with the load taken off , also now it has the whole hs to its own self I don't think they get very hot. The fins and tube never get warm and I have good contact. If temps were an isuue I guess I could pop on the fan they included in the mobo box.

[Grendel66]

I just removed the whole thing, put a block on the NB and stuck some Swiftech heatsinks on the MosFETs.. Works well and gives me the option to RMA the board if need be :)

[afireinside]

The mosfets don't even get hot. The stock cooler has TERRIBLE contact with them any. The black boxes (inductors I think) get HOT AS HELL though.

[Mr. Chuckles]

Just finished cutting my heatpipe on the P5B. Replaced northbridge cooler with a Thermalright HR-05. MOSFETs now cooled with the standard heatsink + Asus provided fan for it (i'm watercooling the proc).

Also went ahead and pulled off the southbridge to see a ton of thermal compound gunk all over. Cleaned it up as well and reapplyed AS5. Mountain Mods case should be here tommorrow.... can't wait to hook it all up.

[Dumo]

Mosfets will be ok w/out heatsink and you can direct a fan on it.

[dr_sharp]

Just finished cutting my heatpipe on the P5B. Replaced northbridge cooler with a Thermalright HR-05. MOSFETs now cooled with the standard heatsink + Asus provided fan for it (i'm watercooling the proc).

Also went ahead and pulled off the southbridge to see a ton of thermal compound gunk all over. Cleaned it up as well and reapplyed AS5. Mountain Mods case should be here tommorrow.... can't wait to hook it all up.
I'm lapping the NB and I decided to do the southbridge as well. I have taken out the plastic connectors that attach it to the mobo but the heatsink is still firmly attached. It feels like they used some thermal epoxy... :confused:

[zon]

finally i found a thread of someone having the same problem as me.

"I have taken out the plastic connectors that attach it to the mobo but the heatsink is still firmly attached"

how do you remove the SB h/s? i can't get mine off, nb came off after 2 separate attempts

[star882]

Technically, it might be actually illegal to cut the heatpipe since that will vent the refrigerant inside. But since there's much less refrigerant in a heat pipe than the amount vented from disconnecting service gauges and there's no practical way to recover refrigerant from a heat pipe...

[Tulatin]

Or you could just spend $4 in the ASUS store and buy a sink from the A8N-SLI - fits perfectly, and doesn't fubar the warantee.

[Thrilla]

I'll put up a guide to heatpiping soon =P

[star882]

I'll put up a guide to heatpiping soon =P
As in brazing and charging heatpipes from scratch or how to make a heatpipe cooler from store bought heatpipes?