Planning to attempt DICE in a few weeks, have some questions

Well after reading about as much as my mind can handle I think I am just about ready to try some dry ice benchmarking. I am planning to purchase an ASUS Crosshair IV motherboard and a Phenom II 1090T black edition processor. I just have a few questions before I get started.

1) If I were using art eraser to insulate the board, would I also need to coat it with brush on electrical tape/nail polish?

2) When insulating the board, would I just coat around the base of the MOSFETS or is it okay to get some liquid tape on the sides of them?

3) What is the minimum distance from the socket that would need to be insulated for cooling with dry ice?

4) Is it necessary to coat the socket in dielectric grease/petroleum jelly or is this only necessary with LN2?

Any input would be very appreciated as I hope this will open up a new world of fun for me.

Thanks in advance,
ARMYCABOOSE

Check this out...it's a review for the Koolance V2 dice/Ln2 pot, but they dabble into mobo preparation. Same things I have done in the past with some of my sub-zero escapades...only the article has pretty pictures.

http://www.pureoverclock.com/review.php?id=1033&page=5

As for me, I don't do fingernail polish...pretty much kills your chances of RMA. I think painters tape is the way to go. Maximum distance, ummm, well from the RAM to the Mosfets, from the NB to the top is what I do. One thing to think about, pretend the art gum is your last line of defense when prepping, so what you put on top of that is crucial in my opinion. I would use dielectric grease in the socket just to be safe...though I have heard many opinions on this to the contrary. I figure it cant hurt, so why not.

Sham-wows, foam sleeves, and papertowels are you friends. As well as a hair dryer.

1) As long as you get a good seal and cover everything that will get cold, no. That is the point of running something like an eraser. You can put it on and remove it without leaving any residue on the board.

2) Since it isn't conductive, you can. Why are you using liquid tape if you are using eraser?

3) When I put my processor under, I did 2" around the socket. I'm still using it to this day, so it did survive.

4) I did not do this when I benchmarked and I had no problem.

Wow, thanks for the quick response, guys! Your replies answered all my questions and now I feel like running dry ice shouldn't be a very hard thing to do at all as long as I get the board and processor insulated properly.

Thanks very much ,

ARMYCABOOSE

ARMYCABOOSE said:

Wow, thanks for the quick response, guys! Your replies answered all my questions and now I feel like running dry ice shouldn't be a very hard thing to do at all as long as I get the board and processor insulated properly.

Thanks very much ,

ARMYCABOOSE

Click to expand...

If all my parts come in I'll be doing my first dice run on a TA890FXE this weekend...I'll be sure and post pictures!

Brolloks did a good write up, it should answer most of your questions and has good pics for examples.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=640477

If you're going cold, you should join us in the benching lounge. We do dice all the time .

xokeman's DICE bench thread is an excellent resource on what your system should look like and what methods work best.