Stock AMD Athlon 64 Heatsink on an AMD Athlon 64 without IHS = safe?

[Mastakilla]

Hi all,

I'm currently in the process of upgrading from my good old Athlon 64 to a Core i7.

Part of my watercooling I will be re-using, which is why I just disassembled my watercooling from my A64.
Because this upgrade process will take a loong time, I would like to put the stock AMD heatsink back on my A64.

The possible problem is that I removed the IHS from my A64, so it is about 1,5mm less high than normal.

Is it safe to put the default A64 heatsink on it? Or will it be too loose?

If it is too loose, does anyone know a trick to make it fit again?

I have a DFI Lanparty nf4 Ultra-D mobo

Thanks in advance!

[zanzabar]

i dont think that u will have enough pressure or contact with the stock heatsink unless u mod the bracket so it mounts lower.

and why not go x6 its a little cheaper and will prove faster as things change to 64bit

[BeepBeep2]

Most likely too loose.

*shakes head at 920 purchase*

Besides, the stock cooler is meant for the IHS. You could try it anyway, use AC MX2 or MX3 if you do.

[Tom128]

Well I can give you my experience I had with this situation and a Socket 754 CPU that didn't have it's IHS. You defiantly can NOT use the stock heatsink without the IHS unless you mod the bracket. You may have some slight contact between the two but not enough to be safe. I did my tests with thermal grease and putting a tiny bead on the core, the cooler barely spread the grease at all - a bad sign.

I actually just got a piece of sandpaper like 220 grid I believe, and wore the bracket down and re-tested until I saw the contact looked pretty good and then used that. Worked great with that mod.

[Mastakilla]

thanks for the advice guys!

My apologies for going over to the Dark Side (Intel)... But there is still some light left in me (ATI 5870)

I will not buy an X6, since I just bought that Intel...
Also AC MX2 or MX3 doesn't seem very important to me for this PC, since I will run it at the default speeds for the lasts months of it's life...
I still have AS3 laying around, so that should be fine (is there actually an expire date on these thermal pastes? cause it is already 5 years old I think)

Last night I have been thinking about some possible solutions for it being too loose as well...

I also came up with sanding down the yellow DFI bracket to which the heatsink attaches to the mobo, so I'm glad to hear that idea actually worked nice for you!

Another idea I came up with was putting the IHS back on - not fixed, but I hope the thermal paste en heatsink pressure can keep it in place
That way I hope to protect the precious core better from breaking and I think it should also still be "coolable" enough for stock speeds?
What do you guys think of this idea? Cause I fear a bit of breaking the core when applying too much force to attach the stock heatsink on the core without IHS...

[wez]

thanks for the advice guys!

My apologies for going over to the Dark Side (Intel)... But there is still some light left in me (ATI 5870)

I will not buy an X6, since I just bought that Intel...
Also AC MX2 or MX3 doesn't seem very important to me for this PC, since I will run it at the default speeds for the lasts months of it's life...
I still have AS3 laying around, so that should be fine (is there actually an expire date on these thermal pastes? cause it is already 5 years old I think)

Last night I have been thinking about some possible solutions for it being too loose as well...

I also came up with sanding down the yellow DFI bracket to which the heatsink attaches to the mobo, so I'm glad to hear that idea actually worked nice for you!

Another idea I came up with was putting the IHS back on - not fixed, but I hope the thermal paste en heatsink pressure can keep it in place
That way I hope to protect the precious core better from breaking and I think it should also still be "coolable" enough for stock speeds?
What do you guys think of this idea? Cause I fear a bit of breaking the core when applying too much force to attach the stock heatsink on the core without IHS...

Should work, just make sure the contact is good on both sides

[Smellydeli]

I removed the IHS from my X2 4200 Winsdor, bad idea in retrospect. I got the stock cooler back on:
1. Mod the plastic bracket by cutting these out.
2. Then lap the stock heatsink. It is extremely concave.
3. Layer electrical tape on the the processor PCB until it is/almost level with the CPU die.
4. Put one toothpick under each "arm thingy" of the metal bracket lever thing so that it between the lever and the heatsink.
5. Apply thermal paste, etc...then mount the heatsink making sure the toothpicks are still in place.

That should apply sufficient pressure until you get your WC system back up.

[Mastakilla]

you really mean cutting the complete "marked in red" piece out?

cause that wouldn't really work on my DFI mobo since it uses only 2 screws instead of 4:


the layering of electrical tape does sound like a good idea though!
don't think I understand what you mean with the toothpicks though

I'll be going home in a few hours and I guess I'll try with the loose IHS first (seems the safest), if that doesn't work i'll be back here to check on updates (or sanding down the bracket perhaps)

[aythrea]

I only have the bracket from an old MSI board to look at for this. The only thing I might consider is sanding about 2mm off the bottom, but only in a way where you can ensure an even sanding.

If you pull the mounting brackets apart, you'll notice that the 4 bolt holes have a raised lip to stand the support beams of the bracket away from the board. Given that plastic doesn't conduct electricity, I'd say it might be safe to sand down those down so that they're flush with the rest of the frame.

You might take the mounting system apart to better understand what I'm saying.

[Smellydeli]

The problem I encountered was the possible interference with the SMD components directly underneath the mounting bracket.

[Mastakilla]

with the loose IHS on top of the core, I was just able to boot in the BIOS

idle temp stayed around 39°C with the fan at 1000rpm
so I guess that is quite ok

I'm really glad I was able to switch both CPU and GPU back to the stock fan
Now I can start cleaning out the dirtiest watercooling ever :p

thanks guys!

[BeepBeep2]

Again, I said to use MX-2 or MX-3 because they are not conductive, not because they offer better performance. I have a tube of MX-2 or TX-2 around for my GPU's and MX-3 for my CPU's...

If not any of those, use Ceramique or something.

[Mastakilla]

aaaah ok...

oopsie

well... it's working, so I guess I was lucky then

just installed all 6 HDs (incl RAID 0 and RAID 1) and everything seems to work as before!
running prime now, which seems to stabilize around 47°C, which seems more then ok for passing another few weeks / months