Advice for removing Maximus Formula heatsinks

I just got my HR-05 IFX SLI from Ashura and was going to put it on, but I've read a couple of horror stories of the epoxy ASUS puts on ripping NB or SB out of the motherboard and I wanted to avoid that so I don't have a $200+ paperweight. Anyone who's done this and would like to outline their method would be much appreciated.

Just wanted to update, the heatsinks came off very easily on their own and I put the HR-05 on the NB and an Enzotech SLF-1 on the SB. Now my idle temps are 36C on the SB and 40C on the NB (down from 46-47C SB and 55-62C NB) with fans on minimum. I'd definitely recommend this upgrade, it was cheap and super effective!

I have a fridge thread in here somewhere.

Hahaha, I wanted to avoid frosty-ing up my motherboard if at all possible. Maybe mine was weird, but getting the NB/SB heatsink assembly off was super easy. I've been running the system for about a month too, so I'm not really sure how other people were ripping chips out of the motherboard. Oh well, I'm happy with the temps!

I used a hair dryer/blower to remove those stubborn sinks form the mobo. Heating up the sinks so the thermal pads get soft, then just twist and off they go. Works evry time

Glad you got them off without any problems. Temps looks really good too. Congrats!

I'll be swapping out the stock sink on my board too.

Pics please.

Sonny said:

Pics please.

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Let me go grab the camera. Pics will be up shortly.

Edit: PICS





At full blast that fan is crazy loud and moves a pretty good amount of air (47CFM according to Evercool) for its size, but with my fan controller its literally whisper quiet. Only 1 120mm on the Ultra 120 since one of mine started making nice clicking sounds. Next week or the week after I'll be putting on 2 120x38mm Ultra Kazes, so that should take care of that little fan being noisy. Plus you can't argue with these results:

Excellent temps. The HR-05 really does the job, I have 2 on the NB/SB.

This is mine with the stock heatsinks & no fans.

Note the difference in NB voltages

Yup. Did you really need that much at 450 with 2 X 2048?

I haven't had much luck lowering it unfortunately. I may have a voltage-hungry X38, I'm not sure. It's stable and running really cool now so I haven't messed with it.

Is that the SLI version of the HR-05 (with the offset base), or the standard version (w/o any offset)? I was worried I would have clearance issues with an Ultra-120 Extreme in there...

And what is the SB Sink you have on there? And do both of these sinks attach fairly easy using stock methoods, or did you need to mod the mounts?

I added a 60mm fan to my Maximus Formula NB and the temps are better (45*C - 55*C) but I'd like them lower. I was contemplating ripping off the stock sinks and applying AS5, but after reading about the "Freezer Mods" needed to pry the sinks off (and the resultant RMA requests that followed ), I wussed out . After reading about your experience, I might go back and try adding AS5 afterall

Dont wuss out, it's much easier than you think!

Yeah yeah... I know - be a man BTW - It was YOUR Freezer posts that scared me off!

Is it worthwhile to remove them JUST for the sake of applying AS5? Or should I go for the gusto and snap up the HR05? And - Which HR05 (SLI w/offset or Regular version)? I also have the Ultra-120 Extreme and I want to make sure I get the right version of the HR05 (if I go that route)...

edit - I just pulled my head out of my behind and re-read the first post. I see dealmaster is using the HR-05 IFX SLI on the NB and the Enzotech SLF-1 on the SB. I guess that answers that!

I have the exact same heatsink and I love the thing I had a bad seating the first time though so that kinda ticked me off lol.

I never ran my board with the stock thermal paste, I changed it to AS5 before ever booting it, and compared to a friends maximus I think it ran..about 5C cooler...but dont quote me on that. But I figured anything was better then the stock stuff. also made removing it much easier when it came time to put the thermalright sink on it. I did the same to my southbridge but I got the SLI version of the heatsink, which I latter realized was a bad idea cause it still blocks the second PCI slot more so then the non sli version would. if I ever get another graphics card i'll have to sell this one and get the non sli version.... or I can just swap them.

anyways I highly recomend this over the stock sinks.

why not go all the way like I did, get the SB, and the mosfet heatsinks too!

So, what was your experience getting the stock epoxy off?

And I have a PCI card in the bottom PCI slot along with a PCIe 8x RAID Card in my system - do you thgink the HR05 "Regular" version would fit on my SB? Actually, I'm thinking the HR05 is a bit overkill for the SB - I'm leaning towards the Enzotech SLF-1 for the SB since Dealmaster is idling at 35*C with his

I just don't see how the stock Asus Heat Pipe design should work correctly considering the SB heatpipe feeds into the HOTTER NB Sink! If the NB is 55*C and the SB is 45*C, then how is the SB supposed to shed its heat? Who knows, but Gigabyte has simular designs, so there must be some logic to it...

Who ever would have thought we would have heatsinks larger than a P-III heatsink on our NORTHBRIDGES!!!

Randyman... said:

Is that the SLI version of the HR-05 (with the offset base), or the standard version (w/o any offset)? I was worried I would have clearance issues with an Ultra-120 Extreme in there...

And what is the SB Sink you have on there? And do both of these sinks attach fairly easy using stock methoods, or did you need to mod the mounts?

I added a 60mm fan to my Maximus Formula NB and the temps are better (45*C - 55*C) but I'd like them lower. I was contemplating ripping off the stock sinks and applying AS5, but after reading about the "Freezer Mods" needed to pry the sinks off (and the resultant RMA requests that followed ), I wussed out . After reading about your experience, I might go back and try adding AS5 afterall

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's the SLI version of the heatsink. There's plenty of room between the fan and the TRUE120. The SB sink is this heatsink. The HR-05 mounted up without any issues at all using the mounting equipment it came with. The SLF-1 was a bit tougher, but if you look at the picture on jab-tech, you can see that there are two mounting holes on the base that slightly overlap. If you push the pushpins into the inner hole and angle them slightly, they go right into the stock pushpin holes. Took maybe 1 or 2 minutes to get it mounted up right. The SB is running much cooler with it, too.

Randyman... said:

So, what was your experience getting the stock epoxy off?

And I have a PCI card in the bottom PCI slot along with a PCIe 8x RAID Card in my system - do you thgink the HR05 "Regular" version would fit on my SB? Actually, I'm thinking the HR05 is a bit overkill for the SB - I'm leaning towards the Enzotech SLF-1 for the SB since Dealmaster is idling at 35*C with his

Who ever would have thought we would have heatsinks larger than a P-III heatsink on our NORTHBRIDGES!!!

Click to expand...

Don't worry about taking the stock heatsinks off. I was worried after hearing stories of people ripping their northbridges out of their motherboards, but I just undid the 4 screws around the NB, popped out the 2 SB pushpins, and rotated the heatsink assembly clockwise slightly until it popped off. Extremely easy. No heating or cooling was necessary for me.

The SLF-1 is awesome. With all my case fans turned up and with the system under load, it actually drops down to 32-33C, so it runs cooler under load with greater airflow. The NB doesn't budge with all the fans on high. It runs very cool. I would definitely recommend the upgrades I did, they're cheap, easy, and extremely effective. No more 60C+ on my northbridge baby, 41C is the highest I've ever seen.

You'll be surprised how big the X38 is. Its heatspreader is bigger than the heatspreader on my E3110!

Randyman... said:

BTW - It was YOUR Freezer posts that scared me off!

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Unfortunately, I really believe the sole reason why it did not work the first time around was because I did not have a thought out plan and was impatient. If you follow the guide I posted, somewhere in these threads, you'll have no problem. Although, I do understand your reluctance. It's not everyday your mobo shares space with your fruit.

chawks2 said:

It's not everyday your mobo shares space with your fruit.

Click to expand...

Maybe I'm just funny that way, but I always prefer my fruit to not have the same texture as ICE!


As far as removing the coolers off the Maximus, if you don't want to deep freeze the entire board, there is always the Freezer Spray approach where you localize the freeze.

Nice "how to" guide for anyone that might be interested (part way down the long first post):

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=162085