Ram + NB cooling on Asus P5N-E SLI... cheap and effective. pic.

[Andrew LB]

So after installing my Enzotech Ultra-X CPU cooler and overclocking my E6600 to 3.4ghz and a slight overclock of my ram to 425mhz (haven't really gotten to pushing the memory yet), I reached into my case to feel how hot the heatsinks on Asus's fanless heatpipe cooling setup for the northbridge, southbridge, and mosfets actually worked and I wasn't surprised when upon touching the three heatpipe based cooling system that it was so hot that I almost burned myself.

I've been considering replacing the entire Asus cooling setup with some real nice mosfet coolers from Thermalright as well as Thermalrights northbridge and southbridge SLI heatsinks....which i still may do in the near future. Since my current budget is lacking and the very hot passive cooling setup worries me, I added a couple fans which thus far have achieved excellent results.

The first fan I added was to cool my memory. I used a thin bead of "household goop" rubberized adhesive to stick an 80mm panaflo M1A fan to the side of the 120mm fan that came with my Enzotech Ultra-X cooler. It's being controlled by a rheobus fan controller and while I don't have an actual temp diode to show the difference, the memory chips are much cooler to the touch with the 32.1 CFM @ 2450 RPM, 28.0 dBA fan. Considering this fan setup doesn't have any fancy shrouds with obstructive holes like many of the expensive name brand ram coolers, i'll wager it cools the memory better and is not nearly as loud.

My second fan addition is a 70mm slim line fan attached to the lower portion of the Ultra-X CPU cooler using the same rubberized "household goop" adhesive due to its vibration dampening, strength, and easy removal if needed in the future. It's a generic moderate speed fan that came off a 1U CPU cooler I had lying around my parts bin. I mounted it at an angle to cool the heatsink on the northbridge and it's made a large difference in how hot the heatsink built into the NB is as well as the heatsink it's attached to which also cools half of the mosfets.

I know that since i don't have proper thermal readings and am basing this post on "feel", it will be discounted by many of you, but i'll see what i can do in the next day or so to get proper readings with and without the fans.

-Andrew

[cozwin]

nice job im getting this motherboard sometime this week and i think im going to probably drop a fan ontop of the northbridge and stick a cheap little heatsink on the southbridge, still dont know what to do about mosfets etc so i dont think im going to overclock to much as this board has a big voltage diffrence when those mosfets get to hot.

[Andrew LB]

I think i'm eventually going to upgrade my mosfet cooling to these thermalright sinks...



And if they'll fit properly, i'm going to put these coolers on my NB and SB.

[Lev]

is that the p5n32-e or whatever its called or the p5n-e sli, i have p5n-e sli and it looks different. the nb cooler is a big giant alluminum cooler that sux. im getting ultra-x and the circular enzotech heatsink for NB.

[RealTelstar]

Hi Andrew, I'm going to do a similar setup to cool my ram (I have 4 sticks and they will sure need active cooling). I'm thinking of a slow 14cm fan.

Which side did you point the heatpipes of the ultra-x?

[Andrew LB]

is that the p5n32-e or whatever its called or the p5n-e sli, i have p5n-e sli and it looks different. the nb cooler is a big giant alluminum cooler that sux. im getting ultra-x and the circular enzotech heatsink for NB.

The board is an Asus P5N32-E SLI. My mistake on leaving out the '32' in the title.

If a mod wants to adjust that... they're more than welcome to!

Hi Andrew, I'm going to do a similar setup to cool my ram (I have 4 sticks and they will sure need active cooling). I'm thinking of a slow 14cm fan.

Which side did you point the heatpipes of the ultra-x?

I was going to use a second 120mm fan for my ram but I didn't currently have one laying around. The ram runs much cooler than before and now I can actually hold my finger on the northbridge heatsink for an extended period of time because before it got so hot.


If you look closely, you can see the heat pipes on the side of the CPU socket that faces the RAM. Due to the mosfet heatsinks around the socket, it was the only way the cooler would fit.

I'm amazed how big these heat pipes are. Simply massive!

[kaiden]

i have the same board as you, do u think the HR-05 and the HR-05 SLI would work on it ??, ive got an 8800 GTX and planning on doing SLI with it aswell

[Andrew LB]

I think the SLI cooler will fit properly. lemme pop open my case and find out for sure.

Edit: I think dual HR-05 SLI coolers should fit properly with my 8800gts setup. I say "should" because i am not 100% positive. But it looks like there is adequate room to get them at proper angles to avoid hitting video cards, etc.

[filmbot]

I just sold my P5 but before I bought the HR-05 SLi and Thermalrights mosfet coolers, along with Enzotechs low profile SB cooper cooler.
Just to let you guys know, the HR-05 SLi fit my NB, the mosfet coolers only fit on the small side, I think, I know they dont fit on the longer sides. If you do get them youll need to get the slanted ones to avoid clearance of your heatsink. The enzotech also doesnt fit on the SB.

[kaiden]

they sell a slanted version of the HR model ??? or do u have to slant them ur self?? " confused "

[filmbot]

Yes, they sell the slanted version.

http://www.petrastechshop.com/thhrsmocos.html

[RealTelstar]

If you look closely, you can see the heat pipes on the side of the CPU socket that faces the RAM. Due to the mosfet heatsinks around the socket, it was the only way the cooler would fit.

I'm amazed how big these heat pipes are. Simply massive!

Yes they are huge! Many manifaturers have this kind of cooler but the quality of the Enzo is the best.

On my DFI I had more options to choose the direction of the ultra-x and i decided to put it facing the ram, the opposite way you have it mounted. Added a silent but huge 14cm fan and a swiftec NB cooler with 10mm fan. I'm thinking to cool the sb with the 20mm fan of the swiftec but I dont think it'll fit with my GTX.