Water cooling the Asus Maximus SE X38

[Aldy402]

quick question for you guys

I see niksub kept the stock mosfet coolers and jus removed the fusion block along with the sb sink. Is it one big cooling piece or is it detachable?

[Scooby]

Yes it detachable, from the SB and NB heatsinks, it is only attached with some tape, just take it nice and easy when pulling them apart.

@neo, looking good bro, feels like christmas again ah!!!

[Exahertz]

quick question for you guys

I see niksub kept the stock mosfet coolers and jus removed the fusion block along with the sb sink. Is it one big cooling piece or is it detachable?

The North Bridge and South Bridge are connected as one peice, and the two Mosfet rows are connected together.

Bridges and Mosfets are separate.

[Aldy402]

thanks to everybody for the answers, I've aquired an old sb sink from an old p5b deluxe and using that on my formula along with a mcw30

pics to come on sunday

[Talonman]

Today i was very excited as i received the package with the freezers.
Nicely packaged sent by airmail. From the day of purchase door to door 4 days! Excelent.
Each freezer is nicely packed in a air bubble bag.
Before I start I notice that the bottom place is not mirror like. This is the same for all freezers.
For the Mosfets you will need the pads from the original fusion block
For the Northbridge you will need the backplate and the screws from the original fusion block.
For the Southbridge screws, washers are provided

Nice copper with 2 distance rings and plastic washers.

It has been said that: the fittings should be ¼” and the threads should have max. 5mm, if your fittings are longer than 5mm, then must use the distance rings which are included to every freezer.
Thus the of the HI-Flow Hose Barb - 3/8" (G-1/4" Thread) with the following specifications Thread Length: 4.5mm (.18") should fit and the distance rings are not needed.

The one with out the distance ring is not airtight. meaning that i must use the distance ring, who by the way was a O-ring. So one side fits the freezers and the other from the barb (O-ring) the distance ring.

Glad you received your parts, and thanks for the picts.

[Pete]

I'm going to flog my EK's and get the MIP LTD edtion ones. I fancy something differnt. Though i hear the mips is tight as a duck ass for flow!!

Had a random leak on the bottom of my ek mosfet as well, Fesser does work as i noticed it when i pulled the rig from the pc as mosfets etc have been well covered in fuild whiest @ 5ghz!!

[neo_rtr]

[QUOTE=Pete;2771410]Though i hear the mips is tight as a duck ass for flow!!
[QUOTE]


I asked the question my self (before ordering them) regarding the flow and here is the answer.

"our freezers are channel freezers and have no flow restrictions."

When i look side the NB freezer it has a spiral share

( ( ( ) ) )
(sort off) and to my self appears more in depth than the normal stock block
Will let you know after i have installed them

[WFO]

Hey Talonman, I'm so jealous of your basement temps. Please tell us the basement warms up to at least 75F in the summer so we don't feel so bad.

[Talonman]

I'm not sure I can promise that WFO...

Just in case any of you water heads never make it into the 'Intel' section of the board much, I just picked up on a Maximus tip I must post in here too just once.

If when your desktop comes up, and your red X stayes lit up in the bottom right hand side of your screen, indicating your internet connection isn't made for 90 seconds, you need a sound card driver update. When I was OC'ing, at every boot-up, after the desktop would appear, no programs would launch, nor internet connection would be made for 90 long seconds.

Trunes out the soundcard driver that is on the CD, that comes with the Maximus needs updated.

Guys.... this is not a board issue, it's network drivers issue!!!

Asus doesn't have the last Realtek drivers on their support page...

Install version 6.202 and your desktop delay is gone!

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/...Downloads=true

I'm testing a P5E3 Dlx and had the same problem from the first time, installed Realtek 6.202 driver and everthing is fine!

I had to install the updated driver, and using Device Manager remove the sound card too. The next boot Vista found the sound card, and installed the new updated driver. The third re-boot delay is gone.

That 90sec wait on every re-boot was driving me nutts especially when BIOS tweaking. Just watching the X, and riding the timer out get's old fast!! Man!!

We are all Maximus guys in here, so the idea that the Driver on the supplied CD is the direct cause of this delay, can't be kept a secret.

Even the Aftermarket water-cooling thread should know...

I asked the question my self (before ordering them) regarding the flow and here is the answer.

"our freezers are channel freezers and have no flow restrictions."

When i look side the NB freezer it has a spiral share

( ( ( ) ) )
(sort off) and to my self appears more in depth than the normal stock block
Will let you know after i have installed them

BTW, I have to say they do look like quality blocks, and I do think they gave you a good responce too.
Time will tell. May cool temps blow your way!
neo_rtr, what is the current temp today in the room your plan on running your rig? (Just thinking ahead already about your situaction.)

[Durkadurka]

Pads

TIM is just not suited for this application

>The MOSFET blocks don't have much support except for one off-center mounting point on each end allowing it to wobble a lot. If you use TIM it could be continusily squished in many different ways that it could be moved right out from under the block.

>While using pads they will stay in place much better.

>you also cant acheive the pressure required to make good TIM contact.

>Furthermore, if you dont use a back plate there will be a little bowing and the MOSFET chips in the middle may not make any contact at all!

>pads are a lot thicker than TIM, so they will form to the bow a little better.

> the amount of cooling required to cool the MOSFET chips is minimal. so theres no need for high proformance TIM

Tip: use the pads that are removed from the original MOSFET cooler as their the perfect cut size.

Right, so there should be no problem just mounting the MOSFET blocks on top of these:

[Talonman]

None what so ever. They still look new....

I think that's good advice on the pads. Our chips are so tiny, it would be rough using a TIM i'm sure.

[Exahertz]

Right, so there should be no problem just mounting the MOSFET blocks on top of these:

Right On

I made the mistake of taking the time to cut each pad and place it over every MOSFET chip (see it on page 8)

Im afraid that someday something might make one slip out of position or something...

[neo_rtr]

Northbidge

By neo_rtr, shot with DiMAGE X1 at 2008-02-15

- Here you can take a look on the inside.

Mosfet

By neo_rtr, shot with DiMAGE X1 at 2008-02-15

- Here you can take a look on the inside.

and again with barb (but with out the distance ring) Also notice that the screw will be going from underneath the motherbord

By neo_rtr, shot with DiMAGE X1 at 2008-02-15

- CloseUp

By neo_rtr, shot with DiMAGE X1 at 2008-02-15

Also the link to my worklog is:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...=1#post2772860

Just in case you want to have a loooook here as well!!

[neo_rtr]

neo_rtr, what is the current temp today in the room your plan on running your rig? (Just thinking ahead already about your situaction.)

Yes i am thinking of this as well. I start takign readings
Just now iam at 24C. But i am going to get a better digital thermometer to get some more accurate reading at the time of the testing.

[Talonman]

75.2°F ... Wow. It's warm there!

Today my room temp is 59.7°F or 15.3°C.

I think the wife must have kicked the heater up a notch...

[neo_rtr]

75.2°F ... Wow. It's warm there! :

Dont make me open the window

PS what do you think about the SB backplate, do you know any better ways of doing it?

[Pete]

I asked the question my self (before ordering them) regarding the flow and here is the answer.

"our freezers are channel freezers and have no flow restrictions."

When i look side the NB freezer it has a spiral share

( ( ( ) ) )
(sort off) and to my self appears more in depth than the normal stock block
Will let you know after i have installed them

Hey cheers dude for taking time to show us the blocks and everything. Now i need to order them which is fun as i don't do German and Google wont translate the page!

My bord is dead, gurt crack in the middle of it and stick stuff on the back..odd! So i will hot swap it at the shop tomorrow. Then i can strip the new working bord, get it ready for blocks being fitted.

[Malik]

New sb block by EK for Maximus ?

LINK

[Talonman]

Not sure what to think about that block?

It is in the NB directory, but looks like it is made to handle both NB and SB. Mabey it's a new replacement?

Wow.. I might have a Limited Edition model NB block already!! Goes good with the SE!

PS what do you think about the SB backplate, do you know any better ways of doing it?

You mean are lack of SB backplate.. Not sure. The SB dosen't get that hot, so your probably fine withought one?

I did the old 'stick a sink to the chip' thing, and never had to make that decission.

[Pete]

I think SB only and better barb/hose alinment than the current if running dual cards, someone PM Eddy and ask

[neo_rtr]

Custom made backplate for the Southbridge.
IT is in fact the AMD one from the D-Tek fusion , just cut it on my kitchen table and drilled it with a 3mm drill.


By neo_rtr, shot with DiMAGE X1 at 2008-02-15

I believe that before i start the build to "fix it (better looks)" but if not it fits as it is..

If the general opinion is that is not needed will not bother putting it on.
better be prepared though!!

[WFO]

I'm not sure I can promise that WFO...

Just in case any of you water heads never make it into the 'Intel' section of the board much, I just picked up on a Maximus tip I must post in here too just once.

If when your desktop comes up, and your red X stayes lit up in the bottom right hand side of your screen, indicating your internet connection isn't made for 90 seconds, you need a sound card driver update. When I was OC'ing, at every boot-up, after the desktop would appear, no programs would launch, nor internet connection would be made for 90 long seconds.

Turns out the soundcard driver that is on the CD, that comes with the Maximus needs updated.


I had to install the updated driver, and using Device Manager remove the sound card too. The next boot Vista found the sound card, and installed the new updated driver. The third re-boot delay is gone.

That 90sec wait on every re-boot was driving me nutts especially when BIOS tweaking. Just watching the X, and riding the timer out get's old fast!! Man!!

We are all Maximus guys in here, so the idea that the Driver on the supplied CD is the direct cause of this delay, can't be kept a secret.

Obviously you did something that worked for you Talonman. I'm not trying to start any arguments. In the same thread, someone mentioned, it isn't a Realtek sound card. The drivers supplied by Asus are "Soundmax." At least on my board. The High definition audio device in Device Manager has a Microsoft driver. The SoundMax is listed as an analog device. Does device manager show a realtek device or driver on your rig? I suspect you uninstalled the SoundMax driver and Vista replaced it with MS.

I too had the 90 second plus delay. I followed this suggestion...

^this is why im still on xp. imma wait it out till windows 7

stupid to ask but you guys did do the msconfig tweak to utilize all cores while loading right? i know that vista and xp both are set by default to load off 1 core.

msconfig
boot.ini
advanced options
check /numproc and set it to highest available number. 4 for quads 2 for duals *duh*

if you already know, then just ignore... just gotta throw that one out there.

It worked for me. Now... 10 seconds after hitting enter from the password screen, I have a fully functional desktop. If it's true Vista boots from 1 core by default, 1 core could not handle the read from my 4 drive raid 0 array. The tweak didn't speed booting from my 2 drive raid 0 Vista rig or single hd XP rigs. ( All Quads) It may be a real driver issue in which case standard Vista drivers should be considered. Let us know if you see Realtek mentioned anywhere in device manager for your audio device. I'm curious to know if they actually installed.

[Talonman]

Under my High def audio device it has Microsoft v6.0.6000.16386 for the driver..

Heck, I don't know any more. I am just glad the delay is gone, and my sound card is working.

Are you saying the driver update is totally unrelated?

[Fitseries3]

anyone know if the EK Asus 1 block would work on the maximus' SB?
it looks like it was made for it.

[Pete]

No, it's been said why manny manny times and even Eddy has said it with the blocks that fit it. #3 only due to the single cap that next to the SB that feeds it