mosfet cooling

[SpaceRangerJoe]

i want to stick some heatsinks on my mosfets, and i was wondering if anyone has some ideas on what would be a good, cheap (i emphasize cheap) heatsink that i could up and stick on. ive looked online some, but i havent seen anything good. i was hoping to do this for a absolute max of $10, since i dont really "need" them. they just get pretty hot, and i want to do something about it. thanks.

[wannaoc]

Maybe try cutting up an AMD stock HS like people do for the RAM chips but in a smaller scale. Maybe?

Whatever you do I would like to see it when your finished.

[sandman001]

I used a eice of stockd AMd heatsink I had left over from when I cut the heatsink to fit on my video card. I used the section that is raised and fits over the socket. It coverd about 95% of the chips.

[Diggrr]

I used a stock heatsink on mine. I just cut off a couple of fins from the outside edge of each side, and left the trough down the middle where the clip goes centered between the two rows of mosfets. I used Arctic Alumina Adhesive.

Mine gets pretty hot, so I use the origional northy fan on it (my northbridge is watercooled).

Maybe you could find someone who has one of those "paperweights" they're willing to get rid of for little, if not free except for shipping.

You could also try using a piece of 1/2" copper tubing pounded flat on one side. Lots of surface area in a 2" piece compared to the tiny mosfet, and copper is much better than the black plastic they're made of.
To pound just one side flat, fill the tube with sand, and slowly pound the one side down while it's sitting on something soft like a piece of carpet or foam.

[NiTrO bOiE]

I would cut up a heatsink also, since space is limited around the MOSFETS (capaciters in the way) it would be a waste if you bought some sinks that wouldn't fit.

[TerroH8er]

either cut up stuff or buy the little aluminum ramsinks at radioshack for cheap. The only problem with the ones I've seen at radioshack is there are screw holes in the middle.. maybe there are some without them though. Still, it's a lot better than nothing.

[Hughhefner]

try www.bestbyte.net I just got an order last week with some cute ramsinks to cool my "Babafet-Mosfets" $2 for a pack of 4..
they have $5 flat shipping for an entire order so you might find a friend who needs some stuff and order together--

[Dissolved]

Just buy those ThermalTake Memory heat spreders that come with ramsinks. Cut those up, lap them a lil bit, and use those.. id just measure the area of the mostfits, and try to make 1-3 Big sinks to cover them. id the the more serface area on the sinks, the better. Those TT sinks are like 5 dollars at any mod shop, so if you need a mod, or something just get a set or 2 with your next buy. Till then a 60mm fan or so blowing on them will help.

This wont gain you much if anything. only really gain you if your pulling out some major voltage, and running the system hard. But it Gives you something to do if your bored of watching 3dmark loop :)

[Lithan]

All kinds of electronics retailors will have cheap heatsinks... Allelectronics has some real nice ones. Then buy a cheap hacksaw and a spare blade for 5$ or so and some Arctic alumina or frag tape and you are set.

[Since87]

If you are willing to use a soldering iron on your MOBO, the most effective way to heatsink the MOSFET's is to solder a piece of sheet copper to the little metal tab that is about the width of the plastic body.

If you remove one of these MOSFET's, you will see that there is a large piece of metal covering the back of the MOSFET body which is soldered to the mobo. This metal tab is the primary means for heat to leave the MOSFET. (By conducting through the mobo.) By soldering a piece of sheet copper to the tip of this metal tab, so that the sheet copper sticks up into some airflow, you can really drop the MOSFET temp.

A heatsink glued to the plastic case, won't do nearly as much good.

[the hammer]

Originally posted by SpaceRangerJoe
i want to stick some heatsinks on my mosfets, and i was wondering if anyone has some ideas on what would be a good, cheap (i emphasize cheap) heatsink that i could up and stick on. ive looked online some, but i havent seen anything good. i was hoping to do this for a absolute max of $10, since i dont really "need" them. they just get pretty hot, and i want to do something about it. thanks.

This is what i put on my Mosfets: http://www.coolermaster.com.hk/product_detail.asp?lang=eng&at=boutique&category_id=6&product_id=45

Check out the "where to buy" to find merchants who have them.

Hammer

[ryuen]

check this out actually:

TALL PENTIUM HEATSINK - should be last one on page

http://www.mpja.com/viewallpict.asp?dept=109&main=

only .99 each :D

[Dissolved]

Originally posted by ryuen
check this out actually:

TALL PENTIUM HEATSINK - should be last one on page

http://www.mpja.com/viewallpict.asp?dept=109&main=

only .99 each :D


Those would work too. not a bad price either. might wanna buy a few of those, and save them for future projects.

[Blooz1]

Those $.99 sinks really are tall! The fins are about 2" tall....

I made MOSFET sinks out of one of those, but I cut the fins down somewhat. It's aluminum, and a Dremel works fine!

[q149]

www.1coolpc.com
www.sidewindercomputers.com

Both of these places have some great heatsinks for mosfets, espeacially 1coolpc. They are both top 10 on resellerratings too. What i used on my mosfets and vreg are the ramsinks that come with the Iceberq 4 cut in half, they fit perfectly.

[SpaceRangerJoe]

wow, this thread got a whole lot more replies than i expected. thanks for the ideas. i think i like that 99 cent pentium cooler. and hey, if i buy 5, they are only .89 each! what a deal! i think i might pick up a few of those soon.

and dissolved, this is really just for fun. my voltage isnt that high right now or anything. i just want to do something new to my computer :D.

i have to take everything apart soon to put on this blue cable wrap, and try to organize the wires a bit. i figured that would be a good time to do this heatsink thing. thanks for all the help!

[ryuen]

i believe mpja has a minimum buy though. i think, im not sure. but its probably only like 10-15. but hey, buy the panaflo fans they have, they are great

[SpaceRangerJoe]

yeah, it was 15. but its all good, im just gonna buy a bunch of little stuff i want :D.

[chasingapple]

Originally posted by Dissolved
Just buy those ThermalTake Memory heat spreders that come with ramsinks. Cut those up, lap them a lil bit, and use those.. id just measure the area of the mostfits, and try to make 1-3 Big sinks to cover them. id the the more serface area on the sinks, the better. Those TT sinks are like 5 dollars at any mod shop, so if you need a mod, or something just get a set or 2 with your next buy. Till then a 60mm fan or so blowing on them will help.

This wont gain you much if anything. only really gain you if your pulling out some major voltage, and running the system hard. But it Gives you something to do if your bored of watching 3dmark loop :)

Funny thing, I JUST got done doing that exact thing to my Abit BE7 motherboard....Abit found it funny to put the system diode right next to my mosfets, so I cut up the thermaltake ramsinks with my trusty dremel, lapped the 3 pieces I was going to use to a perfectly flat mirror, and attached them.

BIG improvment for me actually, system temp dropped by 6c and CPU temp went down for some reason by 3c.

Also rails have become a little more stable, nice bonus :)

[sanford1]

http://www.digikey.com/ and
http://www.mouser.com/ both have little DIP heatsinks that can be tacked on to the mosfets with some thermal adhesive.
Real cheap, too.