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FEATURED Insulating without eraser

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funsoul

Senior Member
Joined
May 3, 2004
Location
NJ, USA
Hiya Folks!

Learned this technique from steponz at the 2016 Party in PA. Generally....I'd always tape the cpu in the socket then throw a layer of eraser down from the edges of the cpu to out around the pci-e and dimm slots, etc. Took literally close to a couple hours to get set up for benching. It was a bummer when sometimes, after the 90-120 minutes of effort, I'd get 15-60 minutes of run time (or, worse, the system wouldn't post at all). That said...when it did work, was able to go for long-ish (4-5 hour) sessions.

The end of my eraser days started with lochekey showing me his insulation job at the party. Since it was a lot less than I normally use, thought we'd ask steponz/Joe. Joe doesn't use any at all and gave me a bit of a lecture ;P. Basically...the idea is get benching as quickly as possible. If it fails, plenty of time to correct and go again (he also showed us the hot box technique which is crazy excellent for quick dryouts). Less setup time = more benching time.

This insulating method is really quick (10 minutes to prep/setup with a new cpu) and I've gotten 2-3 hour runs without too much hassle.

Step 1) Waterproof your board with LET, vaseline, dragon skin (which I love), conformal, whatever.
Step 2) Use thick shamwow and cut 3 gaskets like in the pics below. Cut your piece of 1/2-1" neoprene.
Step 3) Slide the backplate, rubber gasket and mounting rods through the board.
joeprep1.jpg

Step 4) Put on the pre-cut (and re-usable!) shamwow gaskets. I usually don't clamp the cpu until the first layer is down so the holdown goes on top of the shamwow. Not sure if it makes a difference.
joeprep2.jpg
joeprep3.jpg

Step 5) Slide down the neoprene gasket.
joeprep4.jpg

Step 6) Apply TIM, mount the pot and finish setup.
joeprep5.jpg
joeprep6.jpg
joeprep7.jpg

Update:
Wanted to add some additional thoughts to this...
- The number of shamwow layers can vary from 2-3 (or 4?) depending on the thickness of the waterproofing. On the setup above using LET, it takes 3 layers to get it built up to just below the same height as the top of the cpu. If you use something like dragon skin, it may only need 2 layers.
- If you hit CBB/CB...be careful in warming up so you don't let the temp rise too much. For example, with my 6700k (CBB ~ -130C), I don't let the temp go warmer than about -120C.
- If you use the hotbox technique, be sure to let all components return to ambient temp before hitting the setup again with ln2. I tried with the parts pretty warm and had more or less instant frost and condensation issues.
 
Last edited:
Going to put a Featured tag on this and stick it, great info here!!!
 
Greets SwartHack!
FX-Pro is the one. Look forward to hearing about your experience with it!
 
Nice guide funsoul! :thup:

I've had an FX-Pro kit in the closet for years so I thought I would give it a try, going to let it setup and see how it works out tomorrow.

20170226-194643-resized.jpg
 
Thanks!

Nice...glad you're trying it out (the skin and no eraser)! You went to the edges of the socket, right? Best results seem to be mixing a small amount at a time, pouring it heavy in a single area then tilting the board around so it flows a little. Repeat until you've covered the board.

Let us know how things work out!
 
Nice!

Yeah...you want to flow it all around the socket next time. I don't use any insulation on the top of the board anymore...just 3 layers of shamwow. I also don't bother taping the cpu down anymore.

Thanks for sharing the pic and experience! As an aside...I've heard good things about the hotplate. You should start a fresh thread to go over your experience with it!

PS- Looking at your pic, it looks like you have some plastic covering some of the caps. You should gently remove some so the tops of the caps are exposed to the air.
 
Don't want to make a new thread so I will leave it here.
I've finally found Dragon Skin in local store (the only distributor had last one on stock) so I thought I will check it and share.

2.jpg

3.jpg

1.jpg

All heatsinks on as I will switch between various types of cooling. Everything is covered so it won't make a difference (as long as pot fits :) ).
 
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