Athlon 245 Under DICE And How Not To Make A Pot (56k Warning)

[apt403]

So we (DrakeZ and I) managed to ghetto up a Cu pot for some benching... It wasn't as successful as we had hoped, but the preliminary results were decent enough. After we get the pot patched up, we're going for another run, only with neoprene insulation on the board and mounting plate instead of paper towels, and with the thing properly brazed together.

The main components of our ghetto pot:



Test assembly:



DrakeZ cutting out the mounting plate:



Almost there:



Clamping together the top half:



Epoxy to get everything to stick:



Interior shot:



Testing the pot for leaking and to see whether or not the epoxy would just shatter completely:



Air benching with the Mugen:



Insulated and mounted:



All DICE'd up and ready to play:



DrakeZ on DICE pouring duty:



Lowest the temp sensor went, then the isopropyl froze in the tube and the temps skyrocketed.



Here's what happened after the epoxy got eaten by paint thinner (A 2in section of copper really doesn't have a lot of load capacity...):



Max speed I got to before all the insulation started melting the VRMs and everything died:



And the two of us afterwards, I'm on the right:



Highest I could get validated:

http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=639460

We learned 4 things from this:

1.) If you try to use epoxy for a DICE pot, the epoxy cracks and everything falls apart.

2.) You should really braze copper together...

3.) When your VRMs get covered in insulation, they get really hot... And then Windows crashes.

4.) 70% isopropyl alcohol really doesn't work. Paint thinner is better, but then your epoxy starts to dissolve.

So tomorrow if I've got time between class, we're going to braze together the pot, then at some point get more DICE. This chip has at least another few hundred Mhz in it, just waiting to be eeked out.

Oh yeah, and here's how you REALLY don't make a pot:

[Particle]

Sounds like you had quite an adventure there. Yes, epoxy probably isn't the best solution. A solid pot is best but silver solder works great. If you're starting over on your hardware, I really suggest you use some bigger tubing for your pot if you're just doing DICE. My DI pot for instance is 3.25" in diameter. If you're getting good enough contact, your VRMs are going to stay pretty cool, but even so don't insulate them. While a lot of the heat will be absorbed through the board and copper by the extremely cold area you're creating, some airflow is still a good idea. What are you using for paste? If you're using a silver compound, you should consider changing over to arctic ceramique--it does a lot better at cryo temps.

As for your transfer medium, I think you'll find ethyl alcohol works wonderfully. It doesn't freeze until like -114C or something like that and it isn't as harsh on plastics as oil distillates. Everclear is an easy way to get 95% ethyl alcohol. I don't know how old you folks are to know if that's a realistic suggestion.

[Sparky]

You guys are braver than I am! Coldest I've gone is just water... I just don't think I'd have the guts to try and freeze my stuff.

[apt403]

Yeah, the base is wide enough that's there's room to slide a wider piece over everything, there's really not enough room for a lot of dry ice at the moment.

Ethyl alcohol is a possibility, we were just using whatever we had around the house for this bench.

[Lightman]

Really good to read through your post apt

I like your CPU FAN
BTW nice HTT clock. Can you get it higher?

[apt403]

Really good to read through your post apt

I like your CPU FAN
BTW nice HTT clock. Can you get it higher?

Thanks

From testing, I can get it up to at least 300/3Ghz, but my chip doesn't really like doing it with the max multi (14.5x), and that's just a matter of getting the pot rebuilt and throwing some DICE on the NB as well. That thing gets pretty damn hot at 1.4v... Guess I'm too used to P965 boards, 1.4v wasn't anything for that chipset.

[Tom128]

Yeah 70% is going to turn into a slush or gel. You should be able to find 90%+ at Wal-mart though and that will work.

[perkam]

You guys look like high schoolers 0_o

Amazing project nonetheless. The words Ghetto and DICE have never been spoken in the same sentence until now

Perkam

[DrakeZ]

You guys look like high schoolers 0_o

Amazing project nonetheless. The words Ghetto and DICE have never been spoken in the same sentence until now

Perkam

Thank you!

It was a lot of fun really. Look forward to fixing it and going higher.

My room still smells like mineral spirits.

P.S. High Schoolers?

[Assassin48]

This is Crazy stuff

Cant wait for the next show

[Glow9]

Oh this is gonna be a fun ride