Slk 800a

I set up a Thermalright SLK-800A. I'm not very proud of my workmanship, but the thing is in place.

First, the heat sink came with some white stuff which I assumed was 'thermal grease'. I had ordered some Artic Silver with the heatsink, but decided to use the 'thermal grease'. I"m not sure what it is, the syringe only said 'discard after use'.

I put way to much on the heat sink base. Ok, I didn't know what I was doing. The instructions said to put the 'thermal grease' on the heatsink base, not the CPU die. I didn't know where the base would hit the die, so I spread it over a wide area.

After putting the thing on, I took it off and looked at heat sink base. I had covered about 5 times more area than needed. Without thinking much, I just put the thing back together.

Should I go back in and remove the excess 'thermal grease'? I'm afraid it will drip on the CPU.



Thanks,

mmills

you should jsut clean it all up as it looks like its too thick of an application...

and use AS3 instead =d

What are your temps like?

If any of that drips out its not gonna hurt anything. If it was Actic Silver it might cause a problem. I don't know what directions you read, but you have way too much on and those directions are not all that good.
Take off the heatsink. Get some good isopropyl alcohol 90% or better if you can find it. Wipe all that white compound off the heatsink and cpu really well with a lint free coth and the alcohol. Give the alcohol a few seconds to dry. Put a very small drop of compound in the center of the heatsink base. Put your hand in a sandwich bag and rub the compound really well into the heatsink base. Wipe off any excess with the bag. You want a very slight haze left on the heatsink. Now put a small drop on the cpu core and spread it very thin using a piece of credit card, your finger in a sandwich bag, a razor blade...etc. You want a thin layer, the thickness of a piece of newspaper...or so you can just about still make out the small print on the cpu core. Now just attach the heatsink...try not to twist it when your attaching it. You want the heatsink to come down in one movement with pressure and not twist as its being attached. Thats what the small pads are for with your SLK 800. You put on on each corner of the slk base. The pads will keep the heatsink from touching the core so you can adjust it. Then when you attach it the pads will compress so the heatsink touches the cpu core.

You should probably lap the base while you're at it. I have that heatsink and lapping dropped my temps a couple degrees.

Crull,

>If any of that drips out its not gonna hurt anything....
>... Put your hand in a sandwich bag and rub the
>compound really well into the heatsink base.
>Wipe off any excess with the bag.

Thanks, particularly for the plastic-bag-spreading idea. I'll clean the thing up use Artic Silver.

How long does the Artic Silver syringe work after it has been opened?

mmills

Arctic silver doesn't dry out (or at least it is not supposed to). The silver particles can settle out however and it is advised that you store it open end down in a fridge.

Yes you should definitely clean that up. Rub some compound into the base and put a rice-grain sized blob on the core. I never spread it as the heatsink does that for me. That was with crappy oily thermal paste though - AS3 is more difficult to spread and so should be done manually.

Got DSL?
How to install a Heatsink

After you open it just store it with the tip down. Any separation of the fluids in the arctic silver will rise to the back of the syringe. Keeping it in the fridge is probably a good idea, couldn't hurt.
They say you should use a lint free cloth to rub off the base after rubbing the arctic silver in really well with the plastic bag, but I think it takes off too much on a well lapped heatsink. So I use the plastic bag to wipe it off so your left with a very slight haze. This haze is suppose to help fill in the microscopic hills and valleys on the heatsink...and to mesh with the layer you put on the cpu core.
If you put too much Arctic Silver on the core and squeezes off the sides when you spread. Use Q-tips and or a piece of toilet paper with a little bit of the alcohol to clean up the excess around the core. When your done your cpu core should have a nice thin layer, nothing around the core and a heatsink with a slight haze.

L337 M33P,

Thanks for the link on installing a heat sink. The little movie showed a heatsink clip requiring about 1/10th the strength required by my heatsink clip. I was bearing down on that clip with most of my weight just to get it to latch down properly. I'm surprised the CPU still works!

I hadn't seen anything on 'thermal pads' before. The movie says thermal grease and compounds are unstable and should only be used in 'experimental' situations. I guess that someone who is unwilling to remove and clean a heatsink might be better off with a pad.

I do have a question based on the movie clip, though. The movie showed the heatsink clip to be asymetrical. Thus there was a 'right' and 'wrong' orientation. The goal was to get the 'V' of the clip over the CPU die. Is this correct? I hadn't even checked this issue.

mmills

CamH,

>What are your temps like?

I've only had the machine on for about 30 seconds. As soon as I it to POST and give me a chance to enter BIOS, I turned it off. Given my schedule, it will probably be a week or more before I have any temperatures. You need windows running for that, don't you?

mmills

You should be able to check your temperatures in your BIOS, as most motherboards have temperature diodes built into the motherboard.

Might be under "PC Health" or the like in your BIOS.

mmills said:

L337 M33P,

I do have a question based on the movie clip, though. The movie showed the heatsink clip to be asymetrical. Thus there was a 'right' and 'wrong' orientation. The goal was to get the 'V' of the clip over the CPU die. Is this correct? I hadn't even checked this issue.

mmills

Click to expand...

If your using an SLK800 then it has to go on right or you'll ruin your cpu. If you look at the base of SLK800 heatsink, one side has around a 1/4 to 1/2 cutout on the base. This missing section of the heatsink goes over the high part of the socket on your mother board. If you put it on wrong the heatsink won't sit flat and you'll possibly kill your cpu from heat.

Here are some images I created after attempting to apply Arctic Silver ceramique to my heatsink.



I still screwed up, putting it back together with the bottom image being more representative of the application. I didn't figure out that the middle image was 'right' until working up this post.

I've got my first temps, though. After spending 2 hours attempting to load WinNT server (unsuccessfully), the CPU temp reported by the BIOS was 34 C. Everything was left in default settings. The CPU was at 1466.

I'm going to see how fast I can get the CPU without going over 45 C, then lap of the heatsink. I'd like to know how much difference a skill in heatsink installation can offer.

mmills

SLK clips are evil and non-bendy at best. A fair bit of welly is required but you shouldn't crack the core if you don't move the heatsink with pressure on the copper bit while installing - it's like Windows - you Plug & Pray

The clips on AMD systems are indeed asymmetrical, and I think the screwdriver latch bit goes over the ZIF-arm end, I.E. the stepped end. As you installed it and your PC booted you did it the right way round, so no worries.

How did you take the images? Microscope? - Lapping would improve the contact considerably judging by those pics.

Thermal Pads are crappy wax+graphite things that AMD flogs for cheap with it's CPUs. Thermal grease is always better than those ikky things.

L337 M33p,

>How did you take the images? Microscope?

I've got an Intel QX3 'play' microscope. $50 on Ebay.

Mark

Anyone know what these mystery parts are for?



They both came with the SLK 800A, but there was no mention of them on the Thermalright 'installation' instructions.

Based on other comments, the little white square has 4 'spacer' pads which should be placed on the heatsink base.

The long black pad is a mystery, though. I have no idea where it goes.

mmills

mmills said:

Anyone know what these mystery parts are for?

They both came with the SLK 800A, but there was no mention of them on the Thermalright 'installation' instructions.

Based on other comments, the little white square has 4 'spacer' pads which should be placed on the heatsink base.

The long black pad is a mystery, though. I have no idea where it goes.

mmills

Click to expand...

The black rubber strips are for under the fan edges to lessen the vibration. I originally thought they were only for the TMD fans. I put the small pads on the cpu instead, in case you ever want to lap the heatsink in the future. Taking the pads off tends to ruin them.

crull said:

.. in case you ever want to lap the heatsink in the future. Taking the pads off tends to ruin them.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I wondering if the little white pads could be removed and reapplied. I'll wait until I'm done lapping before installing them.

mmills

I will most likely never use the cpu I have in another system, so I used a razor blade and very carefully sliced off the black pads in the corners of my Athlon XP. I used those instead of the white pads for two reasons. I ruined the white pads trying to take them off to re-lap my heatsink thats how I know about that, and I didn't want a total of 8 pads to interfer with airflow around the core. Not sure how much this might be, but 4 pads is all you need so why have 8. So I moved the black corner ones to where they should be under the SLK, and glued them back on the cpu with a small drop of super glue. Now your not restricting the airflow around the core and you have an extra 4 pads for future use if you need them.
The only thing the pads are for is to support the SLK until you attach the clip, and to apply even pressure when the clip is attached so it doesnt crack the core. After you put your thermal compound on the core. Slowly lower the slk until it is resting on the pads. It's not touching the core yet. So very carefully adjust it without pushing down on it to where it should be. Once its where it should be, attach the clip in one nice movement. The SLK comes down and compresses the pads to make contact with the thermal compound and the core.

mmills said:

I set up a Thermalright SLK-800A. I'm not very proud of my workmanship, but the thing is in place.

First, the heat sink came with some white stuff which I assumed was 'thermal grease'. I had ordered some Artic Silver with the heatsink, but decided to use the 'thermal grease'. I"m not sure what it is, the syringe only said 'discard after use'.

I put way to much on the heat sink base. Ok, I didn't know what I was doing. The instructions said to put the 'thermal grease' on the heatsink base, not the CPU die. I didn't know where the base would hit the die, so I spread it over a wide area.

After putting the thing on, I took it off and looked at heat sink base. I had covered about 5 times more area than needed. Without thinking much, I just put the thing back together.

Should I go back in and remove the excess 'thermal grease'? I'm afraid it will drip on the CPU.

Thanks,

mmills

Click to expand...

that is wayyy tooo much!

you need to whipe that all off (not with a solvent, just a lint free rag-- then you will have all the microscopic peaks/valleys of the heat sink filled in)

then put a paper thin layer over the die, then strap the heat sink on