Shame on ASUS, this heatsink contact is terrible!

So I got my P5B Deluxe in yesterday but no conroe yet... Anyway it looks nice right? :D

http://afireinside.evilspork.net/AFI...o/IMG_0862.jpg

So today I'm staring at it and I notice the NB cooler looks kind of uneven. I was going to pop it off and remount anyway, lets see what's going on...

http://afireinside.evilspork.net/AFI...o/IMG_0870.jpg

Wtf I can't even tell the mosfets were being cooled...

http://afireinside.evilspork.net/AFI...o/IMG_0871.jpg

ALMOST 3/4TH THE CHIPSET WAS NOT MAKING CONTACT WITH THE HEATSINK. I thought my Foxconn AM2 board had some bad contact but this takes the cake by far. The heatsink hardly touched the chipset. Look at the contact:

http://afireinside.evilspork.net/AFI...o/IMG_0879.jpg

Then there's the wonderful mosfet TIM:

http://afireinside.evilspork.net/AFI...o/IMG_0878.jpg

I'm pretty disappointed. Time for a swiftech chipset cooler and some mosfet sinks.

Hhmm that's weird.

I have built about 4 systems with this mobo already at my work (both deluxe and non deluxe) and none have seem to have any problems, allthough I of course did not check NB/SB HSF contact

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...tsandCoils.png

Watch those pink dots, those are high temperature and too bad Asus didn't put any heatsink on those right side array of mosfets.

Those unsink mosfets at right side will be too hot to touch when cpu on high load. Fyi, by cooling those mosfets will improve vcore droop.

So in otherwords the board will droop a lot less on dry ice :D Only problem is I have no idea how I'll cool those AND insulate now.

Time to pick up some Microcool heatsinks :D

So what are you going to do about it? I have the same board and mine looks crooked too the heatpipe looks like its tweaking the nb up a little.

The reason you have no contact is because you haven't fired the board up yet. The stock TIM needs to be heated to work.

DI cooling the mosfets, I hope you're not serious. :p: Just do the pencil droop mod and forget about it. I personally did no mods AND covered the mosfets with insulation. They're rated to run at at least 80C so no big deal.

Yeah I played with the heatpipe and when the mosfet part is even, the NB is crooked. I'm going to use my own heatsinks for mosfets and NB.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gautam

The reason you have no contact is because you haven't fired the board up yet. The stock TIM needs to be heated to work.

DI cooling the mosfets, I hope you're not serious. :p: Just do the pencil droop mod and forget about it. I personally did no mods AND covered the mosfets with insulation. They're rated to run at at least 80C so no big deal.

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And where might you find this "pencil" droop mod? :) I haven't seen it yet...

Could it be that asus miscalculated the thickness of the mosfet TIM?

google p5b pencil mods. i googled p5w pencil mods and found vmch and vmem pencil mods at vr-zone. possibly they have p5b also.


very truly yours,
politenessman

basically the problem is the heatpipe...

the heatpipe needs to be bent a little inorder to get the chipset to sit on the NB properly... (i had this problem with my A8N SLI Premium, and it was a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:)

now the fun part is... half your fets aren't being cooled and half of them are...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0Crap/fets.jpg
the ones up by the sink... half of its not being cooled... my A8N wasn't any where near that bad though...

id bend that heatipe away from the board... and put down some little microcool heatsinks...

definetly going with your own sinks up there is the best option...

AFAIK they're the same mod, but I'm not 100% sure.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by politenessman

google p5b pencil mods. i googled p5w pencil mods and found vmch and vmem pencil mods at vr-zone. possibly they have p5b also.


very truly yours,
politenessman

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I understand but a vdroop pencil mod doesn't exist... Since Gautam was offering that as advice I thought maybe he'd share it with us... :)

Actually I confused myself with the Gigabyte for some dumb reason. :-/

But...you can always just pencil across the resistor shown below instead of putting the VR across it.

http://img.oc.com.tw/8k0285/2006821172341783472953.jpeg

Fixing the heat pipe issue is a slam anyway.... I just removed it, put a Swifty 159 on the NB, cut the pipe where in goes into the mosfet cooler and put a small black cap over it... :D

The mosfets on the north side of the board near the cpu barely get warm under full load, so I can't see any reason to do anything with 'em...

@afireinside, I know your feelings, it's very sad...
Here is my P5WDH, hehheh, changed original s.H.i.T to AS Cèramique and wondered a while why my stability is worse after this "mod"

Here is the answer:

http://koti.mbnet.fi/dani69/ASUS%20P...NB_contact.JPG

http://koti.mbnet.fi/dani69/ASUS%20P...er_contact.JPG

:slapass: :slapass: :slapass:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gautam

But...you can always just pencil across the resistor shown below instead of putting the VR across it.

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Nahhh, I don't think so... It's there for a reason: Modifying its value is one thing, but eliminating its value is something else… Thanks anyway. :)

This worries me....has anyone check out the heatpipe system on thier Gigabyte motherboards ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CrazyXP1700

now the fun part is... half your fets aren't being cooled and half of them are...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0Crap/fets.jpg
the ones up by the sink... half of its not being cooled... my A8N wasn't any where near that bad though...

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AFAIK the cooler on the MOSFETs is just for cooling the heat of the NB via the heatpipe, but not for cooling the MOSFETs. While we see 8 phases on modern boards, the MOSFETs don't get as hot as on 4 phase boards, because each phase hasn't to handle as much load as the ones on 4 phase boards. If you look at the bad axe (or other boards) you won't see any coolers on the MOSFETs at all.


Dat Ei

Dat EI is right, look to FCG's post about the heatpipe (think in the preperation thread of P5W). The heatpipe/sink over the mosfets is actually just used to wick away heat from the NB, and get it cooled by the CPU cooler...the mosfets don't get hot enough to require an actual heatsink.

Edit: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...3&postcount=47

whoa, that's like 30 ounces of thermal paste in one application

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pcdoc1

Nahhh, I don't think so... It's there for a reason: Modifying its value is one thing, but eliminating its value is something else… Thanks anyway. :)

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A pencilw ouldn't eliminate it, conductive ink would. Graphite has plenty of resistance of its own.

Those FETS getting hot aren't going to hurt anything. Obviously the heatsink assembly wasn't designed to cool them. It's more of a side effect.

Not even warm ?

For this mobo, just crank up the VCore above stock and run Orthos on small FFT for hours and stick yer finger on those unsink mosfets. Afraid, the skin might get :explode2: .

Man.. I must have an ultra sensitive finger then ... :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bing

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h2...tsandCoils.png

Watch those pink dots, those are high temperature and too bad Asus didn't put any heatsink on those right side array of mosfets.

Those unsink mosfets at right side will be too hot to touch when cpu on high load. Fyi, by cooling those mosfets will improve vcore droop.

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is it worth putting some video ram HS over them so ?

:confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sanborn

This worries me....has anyone check out the heatpipe system on thier Gigabyte motherboards ?

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Gigabyte DS4 has practically identical TIMs on NB/SB and the fets as Afi's Asus.

After I took the MCH heatsink off the NB die looked just like this. Perfectly clean. No TIM residue at all.

Yes, it is worth it. Unless you got tons of highend mobo on disposal like world record breakers coolaler. :D

Do you notice lot of fried mosfets recently like FoxConn mobo ? :)

Got a friend which an electronic engineer which specialized in switching power circuit told me those Mosfet will be poorly perform if they get hotter compared to say when they're cold.

Easy, just equipped with stupid DMM while the mobo on the bench (not in case) and measure the Vcore while using hair dryer with hot air blowing on those mosfets plus running Othos for at least 1 or 2 hours !

Been there & done that, could even reach 0.2 Volt droop on very hot condition.

thx for vdroop mod...modding it tonight :D

Yea, i popped my NB heatsink out too yesterday and i saw about same amount of thermal grease top of my NB chipset what had contact to Heatsink.

Vdroop mod is one thing, cooling those mosfets is also important if you will using the rig for daily use.

Those mod is only modify the voltage sense resistor divider to "fool" or adjust the output to the desired voltage level.

Once adjusted on cold period, it will be shifted downward again a.k.a. Vdroop if those mosfets begin to heat up.

can you do the vdroop mod with pencil, really? if it wasnt to your liking, you could always ERASE it hahahah

but yeah
i wanted to do teh vdroop mod
but i dont want to obviously destroy any warranty/resale value like that

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bing

Not even warm ?

For this mobo, just crank up the VCore above stock and run Orthos on small FFT for hours and stick yer finger on those unsink mosfets. Afraid, the skin might get :explode2: .

Man.. I must have an ultra sensitive finger then ... :D

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Those MOSFETs might get hot, but do they reach a critical temp for those MOSFET types? Look, what Asus did:

- they fixed the cooler (one end of the heatpipe) by using thick, adhesive pads on the MOSFETs
- they didn't put any cooler on the MOSFETs, which are at the other side of the socket

If Asus would think, that those MOSFETs need a cooling, why should they risk, that one half of the MOSFETs will fail and and that those boards will return on warranty?


Dat Ei

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sanborn

This worries me....has anyone check out the heatpipe system on thier Gigabyte motherboards ?

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The contact between the heatsink and the northbridge on my DQ6 is fine. Some of the MOSFETS make contact, some don't -I don't think it's important though, since it's 12 phase. Southbridge was terrible, but it doesn't get warm anyway.

The mosfet layout on that board is wrong
Yours look like this
http://afireinside.evilspork.net/AFI...o/IMG_0870.jpg

Mine look like this:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...xe/Mosfets.jpg

See the difference? Mine are lines up in such a way that the Mosfet HS will cover overtop all of them leaving nothing exposed.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../mosfet_hs.jpg
As you can see they are all covered.


It appears this is a manufacture issue, not sure if they forgot or were forced to face them that way do to tracing but it's an issue none the less and you need to take to Asus. I am sure a MB revision is in order here.

It's not a defect. You have the P5W DH, and he (as well as I) have the P5B-Deluxe. Sucks about the layout differences, but talking to Asus won't help :(

Its bound to happen with a high selling mobo. Thats probly why some boardscan do high FSB out of the box and some don't.

For phase, this what I did to P5W-DH with liquid tape and rubber band and it still alive:D

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1...89nk2uurg1.jpg

So has anyone actually gone ahead and put ramsinks on their mosfets? :confused:


My board should be here by next Thursday so I am trying to decide if I should order up some BGA ramsinks as well?

I pulled out my mobo today because I wanted to do a few things. When it was running I noticed that the area around the NB was rather hot. Everything on my board is stock...nothing has been OC'd or modded. The boards been on for 2 days now. My NB heatsink has the EXACT same contact patch as the original poster. I mean EXACTLY the same. I don't think it was a 1 mistake thing. I think there manucaturing process on these is off. Thats the only way I can see mine and the OP's looking IDENTICAL!

Anyway I'm not sure what to do now. I'm probably going to bend this pipe slightly to get better contact but I'm curious as to what the final conclusion is on this issue. Do the mosfets need cooling or not? Can I just get a different NB heatsink and do away with the whole assembly?

I would just ditch the stock cooling on the northbridge and go wth an aftermarket solution. You can also get aftermarket chipsinks made by microcool which are specifically designed to cool the smaller mosfets. But, alternatively, you could just cut the heatpipe from the northbridge heatsink to the mosfet heatsink and that would probably let the northbridge sink flatten out naturally.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dumo

Its bound to happen with a high selling mobo. Thats probly why some boardscan do high FSB out of the box and some don't.

For phase, this what I did to P5W-DH with liquid tape and rubber band and it still alive:D

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1...89nk2uurg1.jpg

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this is enough for dry ice with good pot insulation ;)

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...8&d=1156665946

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...1&d=1156666279

i just removed my p5b dlx heatpipe and yes the contact was terrible. then i messed up with the heatsink and have to put artic ceramique on the nb to replace the original TIM.. rite now my OC stability become worse but system temp is same like before.. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andL64

this is enough for dry ice with good pot insulation ;)

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I didn't know the temp sensors could go that low. That's freakin insane.

That´s bad, dumb ASUS

Quote:

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Originally Posted by andL64

this is enough for dry ice with good pot insulation ;)

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Nice set up:toast:
I just try to be xtra careful (after a few 975X boards). With sub zero, its a bad idea to let the evap/pot go below -40C before boot with bare board...condensation can formed around those caps and bye bye board:)

i notice my NB HS was sitting on a bit of an angle.........i guess mine will be like yours AFI :( but it may require a bit of bending on the heatpipe to get it straight donno if that's a good idea

wonder why board is less stable with a change of TIM?!?

i think i know what to do....................put a couple of rings to tighten the pressure at the bottom of the mobo

looks like that's what you've done there as well hey

Quote:

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Originally Posted by afireinside

Wtf I can't even tell the mosfets were being cooled...

ALMOST 3/4TH THE CHIPSET WAS NOT MAKING CONTACT WITH THE HEATSINK. I thought my Foxconn AM2 board had some bad contact but this takes the cake by far. The heatsink hardly touched the chipset. Look at the contact:

http://afireinside.evilspork.net/AFI...o/IMG_0879.jpg


I'm pretty disappointed. Time for a swiftech chipset cooler and some mosfet sinks.

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That's the problem when manufacturers knowingly try to blind the buyers with what can only be referred to as "bling".

How many times has a video card manufacturer put an aluminium heatsink on a gpu and then painted it copper colour :rolleyes: How many times have they then failed to attach this lightweight heatsink to the gpu properly :rolleyes:

Now the motherboard manufacturers are doing the same thing, glitzy copper coloured heatpiped rubbish. I bet it's a piece of aluminium coloured tat that was placed on the board with all the care that 1.5 seconds allows ;)

Regards

Andy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dumo

Nice set up:toast:
I just try to be xtra careful (after a few 975X boards). With sub zero, its a bad idea to let the evap/pot go below -40C before boot with bare board...condensation can formed around those caps and bye bye board:)

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yeah, you're right, i always checked the area, thats important.

here is what u mean :D

if i would boot up like this, water will be all over the board soon !

i ordered jing ting force take chipset cooler but i just realized this board has wifi card beside the nb! do u guys think this wifi card can be removed?

I just checked the NB heatsink on my P5B Deluxe and while it wasn't quite as bad as the original poster's, it was only contacting maybe 50% of the die.

I removed the stock thermal pad and bent the heat-pipe slightly before applying some paste and re-assembling.

It will probably suffice for now, but I think I'll replace it with an after market NB cooler in the near future. Anyone got any suggestions as to which NB cooler to look for?

i am thinking to get either jingting forcetake or coolermaster blue ice pro. thermalright hr05 seems good but i believe these 2 hsf i mentioned above are better..

jingting should be 1c cooler than cm blue ice pro but cm blue ice pro has smaller size and should fit perfectly on this board ..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by irenic

i ordered jing ting force take chipset cooler but i just realized this board has wifi card beside the nb! do u guys think this wifi card can be removed?

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yes this card can be removed its just in a slot and secured with a screw backsides, shouldnt be a problem

Not to get too technical, but MOSFET's on resistance rises with teperature, this is the opposite of bipolar transistors that are just the opposite. If the FETs are kept at lower temperatures, they will theoretically perform better.

thx andL64. yes i noticed the screw just that i'm afraid if this card is needed for the board to work properly :D

anyone here tried the coolermaster blue ice pro?

get this review from madshrimps..

http://www.madshrimps.be/?action=get...71&articID=473

I have a P5BD on the way, and I am thinking of replacing the stock heatpipe. It seems to me that cooling the mosfet's can't be that critical, since half of them are bare. The Blue Ice Pro looks like it should work great. A series of GPU memory sinks should work on the fet's if they get too hot.

Mark

Quote:

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Originally Posted by irenic

i noticed the screw just that i'm afraid if this card is needed for the board to work properly :D

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It's not, I removed the wireless card from mine tonight, while I was reseating the NB, the board still functions fine.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CrazyXP1700

basically the problem is the heatpipe...

the heatpipe needs to be bent a little inorder to get the chipset to sit on the NB properly... (i had this problem with my A8N SLI Premium, and it was a :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:)

now the fun part is... half your fets aren't being cooled and half of them are...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0Crap/fets.jpg
the ones up by the sink... half of its not being cooled... my A8N wasn't any where near that bad though...

id bend that heatipe away from the board... and put down some little microcool heatsinks...

definetly going with your own sinks up there is the best option...

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ok... those huge black thinks are capacitors, and they dont get hot at all as they dont do much
there are 8 mosfets, not 16... lol

thx Raz2133! i guess i'll just buy the coolermaster blue ice pro and put it in the sb later.. :D