Hi guys! i didn't have time to read the full thread, so i hope this hasn't already been posted.
Recently got my new system with a Rampage Formula up and running.
One of the first things i noticed was how hot the NB got, so i removed the heatsinks and applied some Arctic Ceramique. That didn't help much at all. But the heatsink also didn't feel warm at all. With the NB at over 60c (at stock voltage under load) the heatsink should atleast feel hot if the heat is transferred the way it should. But when i felt the base of the heatsink (that lighter copper color base plate) i burned my finger.
So apparently the heat wasn't transferred from that base plate to the heatsink and heatpipes.
So i removed the heatsink to have a closer look and this is pretty much what you'll see then: (This pic is from the Maximus Formula thread. Apparently it's much harder for them to remove the heatsink, but with the Rampage ASUS just used some of that silicon stuff they also use for the heatsinks at the power area)
You can see the heatpipe and when you look from the side you can also see the heatpipe going to the SB. But i couldn't really see where it made contact with the baseplate and when you looked under the baseplate via the 'hole' from the middle heatpipe i didn't see where it made contact either. So i took a small screwdriver and popped that base plate right off. (it pretty much came off when i pushed the screwdriver between the base plate and the heatsink, i didn't even have to rotate or force it)
And here is what i saw (only have picture of the base plate, i got soo excited i put the heatsink back on the board without making a picture of it.)
Click for full screen
The red areas are the parts where the glue actually made contact with either the heatsink or the heatpipe. The part on the left made contact with the heatpipe going to the SB. The 'long' part in the middle is what made contact with the middle heatpipe (the part that made contact is just +/-1.5mm in width.) and the parts to the right made contact with the heatsink.
I think the total 'contact surface' was less then 1 square CM (for the metric people among us) AND that 'contact' was through some simple glue!!!
Those edges surrounding the baseplate aren't a problem since the baseplate is larger then the NB heatspreader, so the NB will fit perfectly between those edges.
Now i used quite a bit of arctic ceramique to fill the space around the heatpipe and the heatsink and also put some arctic ceramique on the heatsink and NB to make sure there was enough on there to fill the gaps and i put the heatsink back on the mainboard.
Right away i could feel the heatsink getting MUCH warmer then before, but since i put quite a bit of thermal paste between the NB and heatsink i wanted the heatsink to get really toasty fso the paste could settle. So i put a piece of paper between the NB heatsink and the CPU cooler to prevent airflow from the CPU cooler to NB heatsink.
I increased the NB voltage and stressed it for a while. The NB temp didn't even go over 55c with the piece of paper preventing airflow and now the heatsink acctually felt really hot to the touch like it should.
The end result, i went from 62C to 40C! while running Prime95 on 4 cores
That sounds too good to be true, but considering the lack of contact which means the NB was hardly cooled, it makes sence
The only downside to this mod is that my SB gets hotter now.
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