The Jelly Saga: Breaking Dawn

For those of you who haven't been following this tale, I'll catch you up quickly. As often good stories do, this one began with its main character set on a troubled path to glory: Vaseline was the leading man, and 8GHz was the goal. It went pretty well. 8.2GHz happened.

What can I say...



Following on this success, my love affair with Petroleum Jelly grew stronger. Until one fateful day, when I thought tape should work and be quicker to apply than eraser retention walls ...

I.M.O.G. said:

Oh god, the humanity... This day shall henceforth be remembered as V-day. The day Vaseline fought back.

The lower bathroom was the battlefield, and I might have left the hairdryer at its task unattended a touch too long. Too much heat. Too much liquid. Too much flowing Vaseline. Wave after wave. That bathroom has never seen anything like it... I'm considering drywalling over the door, writing it off as a total loss.

Tape retention walls suck.

Click to expand...

But in this most recent issue of the vaseline tale, I once again have triumphed. I have refined my methods. Honed my craft. Tamed the jelly...

1. Prep board with eraser



Seal mobo mounting holes with eraser:





Seal socket mounting holes with eraser:





The back of the board:



Seal PCIe mounting holes with eraser, heated vaseline flows like water, and will leak through these if not sealed:



2. Set oven to just under 200F



3. Cook vaseline until melted (5-15 minutes)



4. Apply liberally to area of interest with spoon. Ladle small amounts, allowing it to flow and spread around and under components. Small amounts ensures coverage without piles solidifying excessively in a given area. (this is excessive enough without literal piles)

Melted vaseline will be clear:











Socket:




Dimms:






So that's how vaseline insulation is done. This is a sandy bridge board, so its probably overkill - but its been rainy and humid here in Ohio, and that's likely to keep up through the spring. Using my blower, at temps of -20 to -80 I'll see a decent amount of condensation and melt. With insulation like this however, past experience has shown you can let everything melt, pick up the board to pour off the water, and just start running it again.

And its good practice for running AMD cold, the way cold is meant to be run.

Having tried this method myself.... It really does work well.

I did a few things different though... First thing I did was prep the back of the board with Frost King.

Then built the eraser retaining wall.

I didn't end up plugging (with eraser) any of the board mounting holes or the the backside of the DIMM and PCI Slots.

Great write up Matt...

Did prepping the back with frostking keep any leakage from coming through the back? I'll do that next time.

ewwwww lol

I haven't pulled the Frost King yet to check Matt....

I do know though that after 3 all night benching sessions I don't have any Vaseline leaking anywhere.

IF it's getting between the board and the Frost King... It doesn't appear to be hurting anything or seeping out to make a mess.

As always, quality write up and great pictures... especially love the frosty pic!

I feel all greasy just watching this play out!

Wow, thats a very interesting method.

Back in the day when I was using sub-zero OC'ing I used tubes of clear silicone to cover the back of my mobo. But the liquid vaselene trick looks like it would do a much better job of filling all of the micro spaces that would accumulate frost in. Very innovative bro-mog!

Couldn't you put the vaseline covered board in a plastic tub with a cover that has largeish vent slots in it and fill the plastic tub with LN2? The slots would vent the evaporating gas and the mobo would be suspended in LN2, that would provide some really cold temps.

That wouldn't work so well, because a lot of the mobo doesn't like being too cold. Many mobos have cold bugs, and need some fan action in order to keep them warm enough even when just using a CPU pot as a cooler. The ram often doesn't like being that cold as well. You also need the mass of a cooler on the CPU to control temp swings, so all things consider, using a pot like the F1EE or the F1 Dark is pretty much the best option.

I have thought about dipping the board in melted vaseline, rather than pouring the vaseline on, but hard to do that without getting the back of the board all gooey which makes it more annoying to handle.

i use vaz too, but this is way too messy lol

I actually don't touch it really, during application or usage - looks worse than it is.

It is overkill. But I did just stop benching tonight, and leave it sit. I will start it up tomorrow without even drying it off first.

just a noobish question, what's the use of putting vaseline and eraser?

Just wondering, how do you install the CPU after you flood the socket with vaseline?

Good questions.

Eraser is just a retention wall, to contain the melted vaseline from pouring off the board. If it pours off when melted you get a mess. If it gets on the back of the board, it is messy any time you pick up the board.

Vaseline is insulation against moisture. When you go subzero, you get frost. The longer you stay cold, the more frost you get. Frost breaks off, blows around, melts, drips... Water shorts stuff out, and kills stuff. If you do a vaseline pool like this, its hard to kill anything, unless you just kill it by pumping it full of volts... And I'm ok with that. Moisture related death is just a bummer though.

As for installing the CPU, the vaseline just squishes out. It does the same thing when you install the video card and memory. In all cases, it ensures the contacts are covered in vaseline, and makes it very unlikely any electrical contacts are exposed or susceptible to moisture. There is a pretty good chance with the way I prepared this board, it would run alright if I put it under the faucet while it was powered on.

Definitely not my preferred method, but amazingly effective! Nice write up!

I.M.O.G. said:

As for installing the CPU, the vaseline just squishes out. It does the same thing when you install the video card and memory. In all cases, it ensures the contacts are covered in vaseline, and makes it very unlikely any electrical contacts are exposed or susceptible to moisture. There is a pretty good chance with the way I prepared this board, it would run alright if I put it under the faucet while it was powered on.

Click to expand...

I was rather curious about this myself - do you have to apply a lot of pressure to make sure you make proper contact? Has it ever caused any issues?

wouldn't it be better if you install first the memory and ram before putting the vaseline? just curious..

Nope. There could be air pockets or 'unlubricated' areas if its done that way potentially having frost built up between it is my thinking.

David said:

I was rather curious about this myself - do you have to apply a lot of pressure to make sure you make proper contact? Has it ever caused any issues?

Click to expand...

This is actually a good question and I sometimes wonder if contact is an issue. Thinking through it, all the pins have to do is touch the pads, but I find it difficult to believe there isnt any lube between the pad and pin. One thing I can say, is performance doesnt lie so apparently if it is an issue, its not too frequently.

i see.. thanks!