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Bolt-On heatsink for A7N8X.

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cmcquistion

IT Director Senior
Joined
Oct 15, 2001
Location
Tennessee
I'm building some computers for a customer across the country.

Because I have to ship them so far, I really want to get heatsinks that are bolt-on, to minimize the possibility of the heatsink rocking and cracking the CPU core.

The motherboard I will be using is the A7N8X Deluxe. The socket is right at the top of the board and there isn't much clearance between it and the bottom of the power supply.

The bolt-on heatsinks that I have seen from Thermalright (my favorite heatsink manufacturer), all orient the heatsink in such a way that the fins would be pointing up, not sideways like the clip-on versions. This would interefere with the bottom of the PSU.

Has anyone had this issue and discovered a bolt-on heatsink, usable on this board, that will not clear the top of the motherboard, when mounted?

The heatsink must be relatively cheap ($30 or less) and quiet. I like Thermalright's heatsinks because I can run a single Panaflo L1A on them and they cool great, with very little noise.

Here's a pic on Asus' website:
a7n8x-d_l.jpg
 
AMD does not "certify" (for lack of a better word) motherboards with mounting holes.
I would suggest going with the stock AMD heatsink since you have to ship it. Basically any heatsink < 300 grams should be OK.
There is plenty of information on AMDs website related to this
 
The Swiftech 462-A bolts directly to the M/B. I do have an extra one. E-mail me via PM if you are interested.

Pat;)
 
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I stuck on an SLK800a on an a7n8x deluxe which was then installed into a VERY crampy case... clearance was definitely not a problem relative to PSU. I believe you can find /u versions of the 800, not sure if there is one for SK-7, 900u probably work as well (is SVC still having their 19.99 sale?).

I am currently building another rig (4th one on same mobo and case) and i'll try sticking on the 900a and see if there are any clearance issues (which i'll doubt since the expansion is horizontal, not vertical between the 800 and 900).
 
mfjonny said:
I stuck on an SLK800a on an a7n8x deluxe which was then installed into a VERY crampy case... clearance was definitely not a problem relative to PSU.

How much space was there between the motherboard edge and the bottom of the PSU? In my case, there is about 1/4 of an inch, between the two.

*EDIT* Here's some pics of the same case, with different motherboards. They aren't perfect pictures to illustrate my point, especially since their CPU sockets are in different places than the A7N8X Deluxe, but you should be able to see the very small distance between the top of the motherboard (edge) and the bottom of the PSU.

FortronClose.jpg


HeatsinkInsideCase.jpg


If you look at the picture of the Asus A7N8X Deluxe, here,
a7n8x-d_l.jpg

(imagine it rotated it 90 degrees, counter-clockwise)

you should see the dilemna.
 
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WOW... I had about an inch or so gap between PSU and mobo...

One thing to note is that on the asus board, the long length of the heatsink goes horizontal (parallel) along the top of the mobo... Looking at the rig in front of me, an 80mm fan sitting on top of the slk900a does not cross the edge plane of the motherboard and actually leaves about 1/3 inch to 1/2 an inch clearance...

I will try to get my hands on a digi cam and post some pixes... I'm not too sure i explained that too clearly...
 
The long length of the heatsink goes horizontal on the SLK-900A, clip-on version, but on the bolt-on version, it goes vertical, not horizontal. The SLK-800 (bolt-on) is the same. It, too, is oriented 90 degrees different than the clip-on version.

My worst fears about the SLK-900A came true, tonight. My customer in California, that I already shipped three computers to, called me tonight. He just recieved the computers and the SLK-900A (clip-on) had fallen off of one of the CPU's. It cracked a corner off one of the CPU's. I had him thoroughly clean the CPU and heatsink, inpect for damage, then reapply the heatsink compound, and remount the CPU and heatsink, before turning on the system. Fortunately, the system appears to be working ok, but this was a really close call. I'm not sure we're out of the woods, yet, either. There is no way to know, yet, if the CPU could somehow be damaged and not be manifesting its problem, yet. I heard from a member, here, that he had a corner cracked off and his CPU worked fine, except for when he ran 3D apps. I really, really hope this CPU will be fine. My other worry is about the video card and motherboard. Both have small surface-mount components that could be easily damaged by a 400 gram heatsink flopping around in the case, during shipping.

This is the last time I will make this mistake. Next time, I will either ship the heatsinks separately, with instructions for their installation, or I will use bolt-on heatsinks. So far, I haven't found a suitable bolt-on, but I'll keep looking.
 
I dont know of a HS like you are thinking but looked at your pick and saw the grill to the PSU just above where the socket is. What about putting a clip on HS and securing it to the PSU with a zip tie or whatever. That way it wont fly around while shipping. Also use a shim to protect the core.
 
9mmCensor said:
I dont know of a HS like you are thinking but looked at your pick and saw the grill to the PSU just above where the socket is. What about putting a clip on HS and securing it to the PSU with a zip tie or whatever. That way it wont fly around while shipping. Also use a shim to protect the core.

I thought about that, but the heatsink could still come loose, it would only be limited by what it could run into, repeatedly. In this case, it would probably run into the CPU core, repeatedly, breaking into little bite-size pieces;)

I will never use a shim again. I'm religiously opposed to them. I've personally killed two CPU, using different brands of shims, and mounted 100% correctly. I will not make the mistake again, nor do I recommend them to ANYONE. My feeling is that if you mount a heatsink properly, you don't need a shim.
 
Ok cool thanks for the tip on the shims, was gonna get a tweakmonster one for christmas...

Is there something you could strap the HS down on the opposite side? That would keep it on the cpu... I guess shipping it without the HS would not be an option nor would filling the case with foam 'peanuts'
 
Actually, I am considering just shipping future computers (to this customer, anyway,) with the heatsink removed and just have him install them, himself. That is, if I can't find a suitable bolt-on heatsink, which right now seems pretty difficult.
 
I am running an Alpha Pal 8045 w/ Panaflo L1A to cool a Athlon XP 1600 at 1.75V.

Temps are in the low 40's at peak, less than 40's off peak


I think it's a great hsf. I personally hate it because it's a bolt and it's a huge pain to take off. But it's great nonetheless. Maybe you can find some of these lying around. =)
 
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