will LET get me out of the eraser game?

Hi Folks

As evidenced by my lack of benching activity, am having trouble running longer sessions with the cascade. I tape the cpu down with electrical tape...good seal. Fill the gaps with eraser. Eraser the top of the board all around the cpu holdown and out to the ram slots, heatsinks, etc. Apply some eraser to the back of the board the way Woomack described in Johan's thread. Shop towel gasket around the cpu. Layer of armaflex across the bottom, etc, etc. I use ~2.25" of stacked, dense neoprene gaskets then fit the evap/clamshell (which is 2") inside the gaskets and clamp it down tight. Wrap everything around the assembly with shop towels. Really take my time with the insulation job so it's frustrating when things start going whacky after 1-5 hours :/

Don't see any condensation. Really wondering if it's the eraser that's the problem. Always get a good seal between the evap head and cpu but have noticed that the head makes contact with some of the eraser (the evap head is larger than the cpu and there's a little space between the edges of the cpu and the shop towel gasket).

So...if LET is applied across the top and bottom of the board, will I still need to use eraser or would I still need to use eraser around the cpu holdown assembly? Being as exposed metal is bad, are there any alternatives to eraser?

Hoping to get some time tomorrow so will try re-cutting some cpu shop towel gaskets that come much closer to the edges of the cpu. Except for the head touching the eraser I can't think of anything else that I'm doing wrong over here :/

Could definitely use thoughts to help me fix this issue once and for all. TIA!!

Third time's the charm? Insulation!

On Intel it does still require a tiny bit of eraser to seal around the CPU socket, but that's it. Worked great for a plenty long session on an X79 setup.

For real; give it a try.

Thanks hokiealumnus! Saw that and will definitely give it a try. You never had condensation issues on the top of the board? Am thinking that LET on the front/back of the board then 3 layers of armaflex (and as little eraser as possible around the socket) could do the trick.

Didn't get a chance to bench this weekend ('tis the season so to speak) but cut fresh cpu gaskets and prepped the rex and xpower. The rex/e8600 is on the bench now with the cascade mounted...just have to hit the switch. Depending on available time will give it a try in the next few days (also have a 6800k set up under water for country cup so may spend some time with that) and report back. If it fails, will strip everything down and go with your method.

Never did, no. That Crossfire board you see has gone through seven or eight CPUs now - including at least three in one night amidst heavy drinking with IMOG, ghost_recon88, splat, mdcomp & myself (there was one other person there too, but I forget who...Enabling Wolf maybe?). We torched it, removed the pot & CPU, plopped the other CPU in, re-mounted and went right back to full pot benching. I'd say it was under a good five hours total that night.

(Re: bold/italics, I'm just giving you crap because I mentioned it in two other threads. Not trying to be a jerk. )

Where do you get that stuff ?

Would not mind trying it as I have always used eraser.

Works but is a PITA to change CPU's

hokiealumnus said:

Never did, no. That Crossfire board you see has gone through seven or eight CPUs now - including at least three in one night amidst heavy drinking with IMOG, ghost_recon88, splat, mdcomp & myself (there was one other person there too, but I forget who...Enabling Wolf maybe?). We torched it, removed the pot & CPU, plopped the other CPU in, re-mounted and went right back to full pot benching. I'd say it was under a good five hours total that night.

(Re: bold/italics, I'm just giving you crap because I mentioned it in two other threads. Not trying to be a jerk. )

Click to expand...

It's all good hokie. Did try your method some time back but failed miserably. Odds are that the fail was the result of some other issue but got decent results (5 hour sessions) so moved on. Now that I'm trying to get past that wall (and sometimes I fail after only 1-2 hours), am re-looking at everything again.

Witchdoctor said:

Where do you get that stuff ?

Would not mind trying it as I have always used eraser.

Works but is a PITA to change CPU's

Click to expand...

It's Frost King duct insulation. You can get a length of it from Lowe's for $20 that will last a long time. Swapping CPUs is the easy part to me...it's getting the metal backing off the insulation in the first place that strikes me as the biggest PITA about it. It's not hard with a heat gun/hair dryer, just tedious.

Sorry brother hard to answer seeing all your pic's looks like you are benching in your basement so moisture might be high

that being said when i first started I use this http://www.walmart.com/ip/21015329?www=true&productRedirect=true on front and back for board and using paper towel as instillation and had no problem .Mat tested it naked and had on problem mean no instillation just plastic dip with LN2

ME I prefer eraser to much work spraying board I'll post pic of my board with eraser don't go as far as you but I'am in central air so not so much moisture in the air