OnBoard
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2006
- Messages
- 3,033 (0.45/day)
- Location
- Finland
Processor | Core i5-750 @ 3.6GHz 1.136V 24/7 |
---|---|
Motherboard | Gigabyte P55A-UD3, SATA 6Gbit/s & USB3.0 baby! |
Cooling | Alpenföhn Brocken HeatpipeDirectTouch |
Memory | Geil Ultra Series 4GB 2133MHz DDR3 @ 1440MHz 7-7-7-24 |
Video Card(s) | Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB OC (mostly stock speeds) |
Storage | OS: Samsung F3 500GB Games: Samsung F1 640GB |
Display(s) | new! Samsung P2350 23" FullHD 2ms / Mirai DTL-632E500 32" LCD |
Case | new! Xigmatek Midgard/Utgard side window with red cathodes, 1x140mm & 3x120mm fans |
Audio Device(s) | new! ASUS Xonar DG & JVC HA-RX700 headphones |
Power Supply | Cougar CM 700W Modular |
Software | Windows 7 Home Premium x64 |
Benchmark Scores | Logitech UltraX Premium & G5 laser v2 + Ulti-mat Breathe X2 for fragging |
VRM mod part 3 - the VRMs strike back
For the start, yes the previous mod name (hacksaw mod) was from part III or sixth Star Wars and now it's from part V or second one. They don't make sence, don't let it bother you
600th reply and I bring you something special, the final attack on VRM temps. Here is a post of the heatpipe RAM cooler used in this mod.
This is where we started, well it took couple hours already to get to this point. Part of Accelero cut with dremel and rest with hacksaw. Too thick to cut with rotary tool through and with just hacksaw it was taking ages.. The cut off piece weighs in at 38g and the heatpipe brought 44g, so just 6g more of overall weight.
Why I cut part of the Accelero off you might guess from this picture, but I'll explain it later. Same night, bending the pipe to approximate shape. Still looks nice and shiny as that was done just by hand.
My original idea was to use Zalman thermal adhesive that I had for years useless so far. But as you can see from the picture the green tube injection tube black rubber has melted to a goop In the end I could only get a little squirt out of it, no where near enough for this project,so plan B.
Those black ties (don't know what they are called) came handy, would have been impossible to adhere the pipe without it staying in place. This is another day and after a lot of more bending and pressing and molding the pipe it finally got a shape that fitted well enough.
Here is plan B, made my own thermal adhesive. 2 component epoxy glue (really strong stuff, can be seen on 3rd picture holding a car). Mixed a patch of that and put in about 50% of AS5 in. Came out of easy to work with stuff that kinda looks like old gum and also feels like it too
Here's how the pipe runs through the VRM plate on top and bottom. Close enough for the VRM points, still needed to fit under Accelero.
Then we go to back of the card. Original thermal pads finally came apart after so many opened times. Reason was however the last time I added some dried up silicon paste and it stuck to the pads too well.
Replaced with new thermal pads, 1mm in height and three pieces of 3mm thick thermal pads for the VRM area. 0.5mm would be closest to stock pads and RAM is about 1mm high, so 2mm pads for VRM are would have been better. Went with higher ones for memory to compensate for the thick pads on VRM, so they don't have to compress too much.
Doesn't show that well, but smudged the backplate on the VRM are with the original greasy pads, so they don't stick there. Same reason why I left the memory uncleaned from the grease. Don't want backplate to be too hard to remove if needed.
New VRM heatpipe plate in place. Had a problem with the heatpipe hitting the fan power wire and had to reshape it a bit. Luckily I only used the 100% epoxy on top and bottom of the lest side. The back end came off quite easy with just the thermal-mix holding it. This is by the way day 3 of the project.
Accelero back together and in place. Tight, but It fits! The plastic part that has the Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 come down quite a lot. Didn't need to cut it off
Here's a closeup on how it fits under Accelero. Bended the pipes a bit to have a little extra room. Close fit here too, but it's in there.
Closeup on other end, cut out a bit of the fins, that I had bended before. Looks more professional now and I had time while waiting the glue to dry (also changed 12cm input fan from the case to 14cm and moved the 12cm to drive bays).
Here's the explanation that I promised on the first picture. Accelero part cut out so that the middle fan has direct airflow channel to the VRM heatpipe fins. Airflow in the case helps to cool the other side of the fins.
And finally back in case. Looks better with the heatpipe than originally, if I say so my self Won't have any clearance issues with anything, even 12cm side panel fans should fit if I'd use it.
Hope you enjoyed, was a very time consuming mod, though quite fun, but glad it's over Results will follow they are not however anywhere as exciting as this post
edit: the gray foam block in the bottom is to block the empty fan intake and in the empty drive bays they are there to absorb some of the vibration/noise of the HDDs.
For the start, yes the previous mod name (hacksaw mod) was from part III or sixth Star Wars and now it's from part V or second one. They don't make sence, don't let it bother you
600th reply and I bring you something special, the final attack on VRM temps. Here is a post of the heatpipe RAM cooler used in this mod.
This is where we started, well it took couple hours already to get to this point. Part of Accelero cut with dremel and rest with hacksaw. Too thick to cut with rotary tool through and with just hacksaw it was taking ages.. The cut off piece weighs in at 38g and the heatpipe brought 44g, so just 6g more of overall weight.
Why I cut part of the Accelero off you might guess from this picture, but I'll explain it later. Same night, bending the pipe to approximate shape. Still looks nice and shiny as that was done just by hand.
My original idea was to use Zalman thermal adhesive that I had for years useless so far. But as you can see from the picture the green tube injection tube black rubber has melted to a goop In the end I could only get a little squirt out of it, no where near enough for this project,so plan B.
Those black ties (don't know what they are called) came handy, would have been impossible to adhere the pipe without it staying in place. This is another day and after a lot of more bending and pressing and molding the pipe it finally got a shape that fitted well enough.
Here is plan B, made my own thermal adhesive. 2 component epoxy glue (really strong stuff, can be seen on 3rd picture holding a car). Mixed a patch of that and put in about 50% of AS5 in. Came out of easy to work with stuff that kinda looks like old gum and also feels like it too
Here's how the pipe runs through the VRM plate on top and bottom. Close enough for the VRM points, still needed to fit under Accelero.
Then we go to back of the card. Original thermal pads finally came apart after so many opened times. Reason was however the last time I added some dried up silicon paste and it stuck to the pads too well.
Replaced with new thermal pads, 1mm in height and three pieces of 3mm thick thermal pads for the VRM area. 0.5mm would be closest to stock pads and RAM is about 1mm high, so 2mm pads for VRM are would have been better. Went with higher ones for memory to compensate for the thick pads on VRM, so they don't have to compress too much.
Doesn't show that well, but smudged the backplate on the VRM are with the original greasy pads, so they don't stick there. Same reason why I left the memory uncleaned from the grease. Don't want backplate to be too hard to remove if needed.
New VRM heatpipe plate in place. Had a problem with the heatpipe hitting the fan power wire and had to reshape it a bit. Luckily I only used the 100% epoxy on top and bottom of the lest side. The back end came off quite easy with just the thermal-mix holding it. This is by the way day 3 of the project.
Accelero back together and in place. Tight, but It fits! The plastic part that has the Accelero Xtreme GTX 280 come down quite a lot. Didn't need to cut it off
Here's a closeup on how it fits under Accelero. Bended the pipes a bit to have a little extra room. Close fit here too, but it's in there.
Closeup on other end, cut out a bit of the fins, that I had bended before. Looks more professional now and I had time while waiting the glue to dry (also changed 12cm input fan from the case to 14cm and moved the 12cm to drive bays).
Here's the explanation that I promised on the first picture. Accelero part cut out so that the middle fan has direct airflow channel to the VRM heatpipe fins. Airflow in the case helps to cool the other side of the fins.
And finally back in case. Looks better with the heatpipe than originally, if I say so my self Won't have any clearance issues with anything, even 12cm side panel fans should fit if I'd use it.
Hope you enjoyed, was a very time consuming mod, though quite fun, but glad it's over Results will follow they are not however anywhere as exciting as this post
edit: the gray foam block in the bottom is to block the empty fan intake and in the empty drive bays they are there to absorb some of the vibration/noise of the HDDs.
Last edited: