Hmmm...just used up one out of four of my Indigo Xtreme mounts...it was a
to mount in my water loop since all of my hoses are cut right down to size so there is not much movement possible anywhere and stripping the whole thing down was not a possibility. I had to mount it without removing the CPU so I cleaned as good as I could with everything still in there...there was no residue on the cloth or the wipe by the end anywhere, nor on the IHS or the waterblock.
Anyway, mixed opinions so far since my idle temperatures at 4.55GHz seem 3C - 4C higher than with the TIM I was using before. However, since I do not have an air conditioned room and the ambient temps vary all the time I am not sure if this is just related to ambient being higher since it is mid-day now. I will have to check it early in the morning when I know what the actual temps are around the comp area. How do you tell anyway if the mount is successful?
I mean my temps are not in the 80s or anything at idle, around ~50C now at 4.55GHz with HT on and 4.33GHz Uncore, 1.505V idle, 1.446V load. Wouldn't it be all or nothing with this ETI...as in like if the mount is bad then transfer is plain going to suck no matter what...
Few other observations/comments...
1. Doing the re-flow with a beefy chipset block like the EK full cover on my Classified in series with the CPU block is perfectly safe. I monitored the MOSFET temps using Everest while loading all of the cores/logical cores at stock speeds using Prime95 blend and even after 3-4 minutes the temperatures of the MOSFETs did not exceed 48C even though the pumps were both off. I do not assume that the NB is any different but the Classified cannot report NB temps in an OS, at least for now so...
2. I am of a strong belief that the computer needs to be ideally horizontal on all horizontal planes if you really want to get a good mount. Use of some kind of tool to determine if the board is ideally horizontal is probably recommended.
3. I'm not sure whether the metal mass of the ETI will damage or warp the bottom of the HK block. Copper is very soft and the metal portion before re-flow is a bulge that presses into the copper quite hard once the block is tightened properly. I would not be surprised if it does deform the copper or that this would also apply for pretty much any other block or heatsink made of softer metals. I guess we will find out once the block is removed...if it does deform the copper then I guess once you go Indigo you stay Indigo
4. If the pumps stop running while the computer is vertical the ETI is done for though hopefully the actual metal cannot leak onto other components of the board. This is just a speculation so if somebody wants to verify it feel free
5. Really meant for one-time builds. People who take their systems apart often would likely not find this very practical. Cost and installation complexity (particularly with internalized water cooled systems) are kind of prohibitive.
Overall, seems a decent product but I definitely need to do more testing. Hard when each of these costs $9 per mount lol
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