Making a "bread board" for LN2

I recently started with Extreme cooling and have had a few mishaps along the way. So I decided to post a technique I have found quite effective for the life span of my parts. This isn't a "How to Prep your Mobo" thread. This starts under that!
I bought all my equiptment from BMWBaxter but it didn't come with instructions. He had this board that you could put the motherboard onto and it was cool but after using it a few times I found there were things i liked and things I didn't. So I made one of my own.
The first thing I learned is how terrible I did waterproofing the first time. Do yourself a favour and read the guides, they're full of valuable info and will save your parts. Keeping the air out is the key. If it isn't airtight, the water will get in!
Let's get to it.
I started with a bamboo cutting board from the dollar store for $3, marked it out for the motherboard i'll be using, which is a Z87 Hero 1150 socket. The one in the pics is a Giga EP45, it was handy and not in use at the time.
Here you see the board marked out, prepped for the drill.

I used a 1/2 inch forstner bit to countersink the bolt holes.


Here's a couple pics of the finished product, as you see by the backside shot, I counter sunk 4 holes around the socket. I found that the back plate for the pot gets very cold and attracts a lot of water so I eliminated it all together and just use some threaded rods with a nut and washer.


A bunch of 6x32 screws, washers and nuts.

Test fit.

Cutting a new piece of insulation. This was a workout mat that I picked up cheap. You wan to get good closed cell foam like this.



Trimming the foam. i like to leave a bit of extra to help seal around the edge of the board.

Almost done.

I oil the cutting oard to help keep it from holding water.

Ahhh now I see!!!

That foam can be a b*tch to work with. (splitting it in half anyway )

Looks great Johan!

Thanks Silver.

Nice job Johan,

I use a similar method, Cheap and works great for cold

That's purdy Witchy
I like having the rigidity. That pot is heavy and I always need to move things around. This way you can pick the whole ting up and not worry about flexing the board too much.

I buy the cheap rubber feet at Lowes , keeps it from moving around on you

Also allows you to tuck an SSD under to get it out of the way

Thanks, good tip man!

Very smart setup; thanks for sharing!

Johan45 said:

I started with a bamboo cutting board from the dollar store for $3

Click to expand...

Don't you feel cheated ? It's not three dollar store

But really looks nice. Simple but effective and that's most important. It just proves you don't need much to start benching on cold. I was using thick PSU box for longer and I probably would make something like you or just keep the box but I got bench table for review and now I have no more space for anything else.

Woomack said:

Don't you feel cheated ? It's not three dollar store

But really looks nice. Simple but effective and that's most important. It just proves you don't need much to start benching on cold. I was using thick PSU box for longer and I probably would make something like you or just keep the box but I got bench table for review and now I have no more space for anything else.

Click to expand...

I guess to be fair it was "The Buck or Two"
I have a bench table too but this is more portable and convenient. I also wanted to get away from using that big bracket on the back since it gets so cold and attracts a lot of water of it's not covered properly. I also didn't like the bulge it made under the board when I used the insulation behind it. I found it would cause some flexing that I didn't like.

The board is always faster to prepare for benching. Setting all on bench table takes more time and if anything isn't right then it's additional waste of time. I have no problems with flexing but I know what you mean. X79/X99 boards are nice as they're thick and have quite large plate on the back so it's hard to mount it wrong and flex anything. New AMD ( except maybe CHV/Z and similar boards ) and cheaper Intel boards have thin PCB and it's easy to damage something if you put too much pressure.