My Thermalright HR-05 adventure *56k behold**

[G.Foyle]

I recently bought myself a HR-05 to accompany Thermalright's Ultra-120.
It was bought with future mobos on mind, so I didn't check if it would fit my DS3 - I would have use for it anyway.

But when i got it i thought better to mount it than to let it lay in the box, and so began my adventure:

This is 965P northbridge, cleaned of stock thermal pad and with foam ring that came with HR-05 (as a security measure to provide support to the heatsink, so it won't rest on core alone):


Thermalright provides 3 mounting brackets, each of different lenght, and two plastic clips with springs. It turned out that none of the brackets fits: one is too long, one too short, and the third is about 1 mm too long:
(stock thermal paste can be seen; it's about 0.5 mm thick layer of gray goo)

Of course you can fix that by drilling a hole that 1 mm closer, but at that time I had no tools to do that and I was eager to test the heatsink, so i devised another mounting method, for which I needed (from top, clockwise):

1) a mounting bracket (the one that was a bit too long)
2) two metal washers and two nuts
3) two springs taken off TR's plastic clips
4) two screws with metal washers and insulating washers
5) a elastic plastic pipe, that was used to protect the tip of my brothers' finest detail brush.

I put the screws throught the board, with insulating washers protecting circuits from any shortage.


Next i turned the mobo back, applied AS5 to the NB core, and laid down the pieces of plastic pipe - the purpose of which will soon be clear.


It happens so that NB is very close to CPU socket on this board, and it's a real pain to tighten the screws while not moving the heatsink (there's thermal paste already on the core!). SO i thought that i would tighten the screws while the heatsink rests on plastic pipes; it doesn't touch the core and paste yet and you can even turn it around to have better grip on the nuts.
So i tighten the screws:

Notice the detail in red circle: the plastic pipe is still there, preventing the heatsink to contact the core.
Then I slighly lifted the heatsink, removed the plastic pipes and carefully seated the heatsink on the core. After tightening the screws again it's ready, seated parallel to Ultra-120 (so that the fan would fit on the Ultra; there is really very little space between Ultra and HR-05):

Notice the screws are not perpendicular to board, because the bracket is longer than distance between holes in board. If I could shorten the bracket by drilling another hole in it, I would have used washers and nuts on both sides of the board, so that the screws would be firm and won't move.

EDIT: Added distance pic. As you can see 80mm fan would fit on HR-05, but with CPU fan blowing right there ther's no need for.


This was not meant as a review so there won't be any results and temps, but I can say I have gained a little FSB (~ 15 MHz) after changing that ugly, copper-painted alluminium piece and I feel much safer now when running NB on increased voltage.
I just felt like sharing with that, and I hope my observations on mounting will be useful to someone.
And please forgive my English

[LuckyNV]

good job, how about 1 more shot from a distance

[Origin_Unknown]

excellent

come to think of it i think mines 1mm too long aswell for my ab9 pro... im still using the stock push-pins ... and looking at it, the one is bent.

meh, oh well.


good job dude

[Dualist]

Nice
I've got one on my Tyan mobo and the sli version on my 680i, both with fans, everything is.. coooool

[G.Foyle]

Origin_Unknown: mounting pressure of these pushpins is far from acceptable.
LuckyNV: I know, will post that pic tomorrow :P

[LuckyNV]

is your fan blowing downwards or upwards?

I have my Ultra120X mounted like yours and it sucks through the heatsink and blows air directly on to my rear mounted HR-03 so I don't need a fan on my HR-03

[Origin_Unknown]

Origin_Unknown: mounting pressure of these pushpins is far from acceptable.

ive noticed that people keep saying that but mines firm in place! although if you move the cooler it does pivot on the core

[G.Foyle]

LuckyNV: It blows up, onto the PSU vent.

Origin_Unknown: I know it is firm, but if it pivots on the core, you lose contact between heatsink and the core. If you move the heatsink base on the core, you allow air bubbles and dust into TIM layer. You should really consider mounting it with screws; if you drill and additional hole in the mounting bracket you can even mount without springs.

[Origin_Unknown]

ill do that, thanks