Wotcher
01-04-2009, 04:57 PM
Preamble.
It gets pretty warm in Queensland Australia during the summer and a few 35°C+ days brought elevated temperatures which became a concern for me.
Originally my purpose in doing this was to try and lower my NB temperatures as they were reaching mid 50°C readings with stock vNB at 1.25v utilising the supplied air cooling fan option.
But as often happens other things become apparent when we delve deeper.
I found that the mating surfaces were not "ideal" in certain areas and the contact area of some mating surfaces less than desirable in others so I resolved to lap/reseat these affected areas to hopefully improve temperature levels.
Originally I didn't take pics of the components after disassembly which I now regret (for reasons I'll explain later) as I never considered making a thread about it but an expression of interest in the heatpipe assembly configuration from a couple of other members resulted in what you are now reading.
Specs:
Black Ops
E8600
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme with supplied Foxconn 120mm fan
4* 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1375Mhz
8800GTS 640MB (9800GTX is rma)
2* SATA (no RAID)
1* Optical
2* 120mm intake fans
2* 120mm exhaust fans
Thermaltake Sonata case
On with the show.
The board in the case showing the NB cooling option below the 120mm CPU fan. The cpu fan exhausts down onto the video card at present which appears to work funnily enough, I originally had the TRUE120 rotated 90° so the heatpipes were north/south but decided to try east/west on reassembly, next is to try the fan as a push as opposed to the current pull. Not a ton of room in this case but not cramped either.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5990/firstpickp0.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=firstpickp0.png)
The removal is fairly straight forward, eight screws to remove
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2168/rearviewia0.th.png (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rearviewia0.png)
Naked board as a result, bear in mind this is not the original TIM as I replaced it with MX-2 during the first disassembly/reassembly, I use the spread method. What is not immediately obvious is the poor contact area between the SB cooler and the chip evidenced by the thicker TIM in the top right corner of the chip in the below pic. This was more pronounced with the original TIM as the stock (approx) 10mm square had not spread very much at all. This will be plainer in a later pic.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1626/sanscoolerto9.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sanscoolerto9.png)
Having unscrewed it from the board I was presented with the assembly. I have two areas of concern here, the SB as mentioned before and the NB both appear to be making a less than desirable contact on the mating surfaces.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/9685/3in1coolerremovedmp7.th.png (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3in1coolerremovedmp7.png)
This surface also has quite noticeable milling marks (as opposed to the SB which is mirrorlike) which are not immediately apparent in this pic (I'll try to get a better one when the TIM is removed) so I will be lapping it.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/8392/northbridgelk4.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=northbridgelk4.png)
The NB pot is attached to the heatpipe plate with four screws as seen above and when disassembled reveals the heatpipes themselves. Although at first glance these surfaces appear OK they too show milling marks and are slated for lapping. A burr at the bottom of the screw hole presented a minor problem in removing one screw but was soon fixed with a light reaming.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6104/heatpipetonbmatingsurfacf5.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heatpipetonbmatingsurfacf5.png)
The mosfets appear to be making reasonable contact with the thermal tape on the cooler so I will "leave well enough alone" there.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8486/mosfetzp5.th.png (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mosfetzp5.png)
Finally a side view of the NB pot suspended above the heatpipe plate.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3264/nbaboveheatpipeplatexn8.th.png (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nbaboveheatpipeplatexn8.png)
I'm off to get some supplies then I'll commence lapping
Cheers.
It gets pretty warm in Queensland Australia during the summer and a few 35°C+ days brought elevated temperatures which became a concern for me.
Originally my purpose in doing this was to try and lower my NB temperatures as they were reaching mid 50°C readings with stock vNB at 1.25v utilising the supplied air cooling fan option.
But as often happens other things become apparent when we delve deeper.
I found that the mating surfaces were not "ideal" in certain areas and the contact area of some mating surfaces less than desirable in others so I resolved to lap/reseat these affected areas to hopefully improve temperature levels.
Originally I didn't take pics of the components after disassembly which I now regret (for reasons I'll explain later) as I never considered making a thread about it but an expression of interest in the heatpipe assembly configuration from a couple of other members resulted in what you are now reading.
Specs:
Black Ops
E8600
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme with supplied Foxconn 120mm fan
4* 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1375Mhz
8800GTS 640MB (9800GTX is rma)
2* SATA (no RAID)
1* Optical
2* 120mm intake fans
2* 120mm exhaust fans
Thermaltake Sonata case
On with the show.
The board in the case showing the NB cooling option below the 120mm CPU fan. The cpu fan exhausts down onto the video card at present which appears to work funnily enough, I originally had the TRUE120 rotated 90° so the heatpipes were north/south but decided to try east/west on reassembly, next is to try the fan as a push as opposed to the current pull. Not a ton of room in this case but not cramped either.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5990/firstpickp0.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=firstpickp0.png)
The removal is fairly straight forward, eight screws to remove
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/2168/rearviewia0.th.png (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=rearviewia0.png)
Naked board as a result, bear in mind this is not the original TIM as I replaced it with MX-2 during the first disassembly/reassembly, I use the spread method. What is not immediately obvious is the poor contact area between the SB cooler and the chip evidenced by the thicker TIM in the top right corner of the chip in the below pic. This was more pronounced with the original TIM as the stock (approx) 10mm square had not spread very much at all. This will be plainer in a later pic.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/1626/sanscoolerto9.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sanscoolerto9.png)
Having unscrewed it from the board I was presented with the assembly. I have two areas of concern here, the SB as mentioned before and the NB both appear to be making a less than desirable contact on the mating surfaces.
http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/9685/3in1coolerremovedmp7.th.png (http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3in1coolerremovedmp7.png)
This surface also has quite noticeable milling marks (as opposed to the SB which is mirrorlike) which are not immediately apparent in this pic (I'll try to get a better one when the TIM is removed) so I will be lapping it.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/8392/northbridgelk4.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=northbridgelk4.png)
The NB pot is attached to the heatpipe plate with four screws as seen above and when disassembled reveals the heatpipes themselves. Although at first glance these surfaces appear OK they too show milling marks and are slated for lapping. A burr at the bottom of the screw hole presented a minor problem in removing one screw but was soon fixed with a light reaming.
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/6104/heatpipetonbmatingsurfacf5.th.png (http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=heatpipetonbmatingsurfacf5.png)
The mosfets appear to be making reasonable contact with the thermal tape on the cooler so I will "leave well enough alone" there.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8486/mosfetzp5.th.png (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mosfetzp5.png)
Finally a side view of the NB pot suspended above the heatpipe plate.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3264/nbaboveheatpipeplatexn8.th.png (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nbaboveheatpipeplatexn8.png)
I'm off to get some supplies then I'll commence lapping
Cheers.