IC7 Max3 Otes Mod done (pics inside)

woutertal · Oct 3, 2004

Hi all. I have been irritated by the bad design of the Abit Otes thingy. First of all it's to noisy. And if you smartly reduce the fan revs, it's not very effective anymore. I now run a P4 3.2E Prescott OC'd at 3.9 MHz. These chips need a LOT of power.

I just wonder how the Abit engineers thought that sucking hot CPU exhaust air past some bad-design-mosfet-heatsinks that are not even fitted with any thermal paste would do a lot of good for the PWM temps. At least they could have turned the fan around so that it sucks cool air and blows cool air onto the mosfet sinks.

Anyway, I decided to 'make it better' and cut the plastic Otes casing so that I only had the fan housing left. I took a 4x4cm Papst CPU fan with tacho, and replaced the Abit fan with it, blowing cool air onto the mosfet sinks. I also fitted OCZ copper ram-sinks on the mosfets.

The result is very convicing, see temps below. These temps are taken with a temperature sensor, directly on the fet casings:

before: idle 42 load 67
after: idle 37 load 48

Vflux · Oct 3, 2004

That looks great bro!!!!That sure is one hell of improvement out of the stock otes.....Congrats!!!!

Vflux

batboy · Oct 3, 2004

I like those copper sinks and the temp difference is impressive. But, I can't help but wonder if that fan isn't sucking in a little warm air that is being exhausted from the power supply? Do you have a chimney or deflector mounted to divert PS exhaust up and away from your PWM intake?

woutertal · Oct 3, 2004

Vflux said:
That looks great bro!!!!That sure is one hell of improvement out of the stock otes.....Congrats!!!!

Vflux

Thanks!

woutertal · Oct 3, 2004

batboy said:
I like those copper sinks and the temp difference is impressive. But, I can't help but wonder if that fan isn't sucking in a little warm air that is being exhausted from the power supply? Do you have a chimney or deflector mounted to divert PS exhaust up and away from your PWM intake?

Yeah those OCZ sinks are the bizz I think. They are slightly larger than the fets but fit. Only on one I had to cut a bit off (a tough job :eh?:

). I also used them on the S bridge and pll as you can see.

Of course it's sucking in air thats slightly warmer than room temp. But it's still a lot colder than case temp. Measured with temp probe: intake temp = 28C. Room temp = 27. Case temp is 33C!! A deflector is a good idea, but for now I'm happy, especioally with the huge difference in load temps :clap:

woutertal · Oct 3, 2004

Oh I forgot to mention that I also have a 120 fan on the side cover blowing straight at the cpu and mosfets. I did that mod whilst still on air trying to come to terms with the heat of a pressie being OC'd. :sn:

batboy · Oct 3, 2004

I need to add this thread to my IC7/IC7-G/IC7 Max3 sticky post of links.

woutertal · Oct 3, 2004

batboy said:
I need to add this thread to my IC7/IC7-G/IC7 Max3 sticky post of links.

Thank you. That's an honour. :bday:

Pntgrd · Oct 4, 2004

Interesting idea. But could the results be skewered abit because of the fact that you are on h20, hence no air from the hsf. I am inclined to think that if there was the blow-by of a 100+cfm 120mm fan pushing air through a hs in the same general area that the air from that little 40mm Pabst might get overwhelmed. Not to say it would not work, I am just posing the question.

woutertal · Oct 5, 2004

It will inflkuence the temps negatively certainly when you have air cpu cooling. But the important part is the load temps. And there it's really a matter of more air passing heatsinks =better. I slo have a 120 fan blowing from the side cover onto the board.

veryhumid · Oct 5, 2004

very nice mod, and excellent gains!

Lancelot · Oct 5, 2004

That's what I already did about two months ago, it got me around 7C lower PWM temps. I ditched the OTES fan altogether, see pic

I saved the shroud and fan cuz once I get my watercooling setup (at least a waterblock on CPU and Northbridge) it may actually improve temps cuz there's no air moving over the PWM section anymore except for the PSU exhaust...

Pntgrd · Oct 5, 2004

I may have to give the "ditch the whole OTES thing" approach a shot to see what happens with an air cooling setup I have some sinks I picked up for an AI7 laying around. I have my HS fan ducted from the side but there is a 120 in the back of the case blowing in so it just might work. I will see BEFORE I take the dremel to the OTES.

xTrEmEoVrClOcKr · Oct 6, 2004

woutertal said:
Hi all. I have been irritated by the bad design of the Abit Otes thingy. First of all it's to noisy. And if you smartly reduce the fan revs, it's not very effective anymore. I now run a P4 3.2E Prescott OC'd at 3.9 MHz. These chips need a LOT of power.

I just wonder how the Abit engineers thought that sucking hot CPU exhaust air past some bad-design-mosfet-heatsinks that are not even fitted with any thermal paste would do a lot of good for the PWM temps. At least they could have turned the fan around so that it sucks cool air and blows cool air onto the mosfet sinks.

Anyway, I decided to 'make it better' and cut the plastic Otes casing so that I only had the fan housing left. I took a 4x4cm Papst CPU fan with tacho, and replaced the Abit fan with it, blowing cool air onto the mosfet sinks. I also fitted OCZ copper ram-sinks on the mosfets.

The result is very convicing, see temps below. These temps are taken with a temperature sensor, directly on the fet casings:

before: idle 42 load 67
after: idle 37 load 48

'

DUDE!!!! Insane clocks, 3.9Mhz, OUTSTANDING

. But, nice mod though, just remember to change your sig

.

woutertal · Oct 6, 2004

xTrEmEoVrClOcKr said:
'

DUDE!!!! Insane clocks, 3.9Mhz, OUTSTANDING . But, nice mod though, just remember to change your sig .

Cheers!! Got it, added Otes mod to sig.

Sirius · Oct 10, 2004

That is very nice making me think about it now.. Nice post

Fredrik · Oct 11, 2004

An old Vantec P3 Slot1 cooler:

Used Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive

They sure get hot when running prime (Prescott @ 3811MHz)

woutertal · Oct 11, 2004

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I had some time yesterday and decided to go a small step further, after reading more horror stories about smoking mobos. Someone had it all sinked up... but not the small FETs.. those burned and melted away.

Don K · Oct 11, 2004

Hi Woutertal!

Maybe you remember me from the "D0 war thread"? I just noticed how similar our systems are! Right down to the Madcat1968 mod even!

Anways, I've also sinked my Max3 up, and I noticed that I've got a few more sinks on than you. Specifically, the small ones beside the "3" in Max3 and its lookalike cousin next to the upper left (in the picture) "leg" of the TDX.

What are they? Should they be sinked up, or is it a waste?

woutertal · Oct 11, 2004

Don K said:
Hi Woutertal!

Maybe you remember me from the "D0 war thread"? I just noticed how similar our systems are! Right down to the Madcat1968 mod even!

Anways, I've also sinked my Max3 up, and I noticed that I've got a few more sinks on than you. Specifically, the small ones beside the "3" in Max3 and its lookalike cousin next to the upper left (in the picture) "leg" of the TDX.

What are they? Should they be sinked up, or is it a waste?

They are small fets that regulate the gates of the big fets. That's my best take on it without having a circuit diagram. What I did is measure all these points with a temp probe (you get one with a medium range DMM) whilst under full load. And all of these components are stressed and get hot up to 50 - 60 C without sinks on. The sinks take away more than 15C of that with good ventilation.

IC7 Max3 Otes Mod done (pics inside)

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