IHS Removal and Waterblock mounting.

I've heard and read great things (5C load/idle drops) about IHS removal. I am worried about cracking my core, are A64's more brittle/fragile than say a thunderbird core (last naked core I used)? I read several IHS removal guides but they only mention waterblocks in passing, they seem to be focused on stock cam mounting methods?

Does anyone sell shims for the A64 or Opteron64? Does anyone have experience mounting a swiftech block to a naked core, are the supplied springs too much? I like the temps that I have heard but am worried about crushing my core?

A64 cores are definitely not as easily cracked as the old t-birds. TSANDABAAA!!!

sry...


What swifty block do you have?

The only swifty mounting that I didnt like was their 6000 series for socket-A. The rest are pretty much all the same. Place the block on the CPU, then screw down the four (or in your case, two) bolts with compressions springs on them.

You just have to worry about screwing them down unevenly. Cores usually crack when whatever is being mounted on it is being mounted slanted so all the pressure goes to the very corner. Just make sure you screw both bolts down evenly and just do half/quarter turns.

I have a 6000, but plan to upgrade to a apogee or possibly a storm. I had the 6000 on my old t-bird [email protected] and the edge of the core was beat up on it but it still worked.

I tighten the screws evenly by habit, I would think it would reduce uneven pressure and at the very least spread out the AS5 a bit better.

with either the 6000 or the storm you going to be using the through motherboard mounting holes and dont need to worry about the stock retention bracket.

sorry for my ignorance, but what exactly is the IHS?

Integrated Heat Spreader

thanks.. isn't taking the IHS off a little risky? that's my first impression...

sure, but for some its a risk we dont mind taking Honestly its like all things in life there is risk involved the question you have to ask your self is if you can afford to take that risk and if the benifits of that risk out way the loss to you.

I accentally chipped the corner of the core of my Opteron 170. You've got to be extremely careful when mounting the waterblock to the naked core. Make sure the you start of both threads tightening equal amounts. The water block will want to shift at an angle during the first turn of each screw. I believe that's where I chipped mine. Luckily mine still works fine

With my Apogee, there are plastic sleeve spacers that go between the board and the block. Do I just leave these off?
I'm considering naked-ifying my 165...but i don't want to do it and then find otu that my block isnt' going to make good contact.

Or is there some spacer or something? what do I need to do?

I removed the IHS off my Opty 146 and use a Apogee. I too cracked the corner of my core on my first mounting attempt but that was using a lot of force concentrated on the corner due to a improper mount but it still works (had me sweating though until I got it up and running heh). Hardest part I had was trying to get it even on the core, since its cross section is small and doesn't give the water block enough space to really settle on it and prevent rocking. What I ended up doing was getting a "ok" mount and booting up to BIOS and go to the computer health section and watching CPU temps as I tightened down the screws I could tell when a excellent contact was being made compared to a good contact. Once I got that excellent contact made, I tightened both screws down a little more (exact same on both at the same time).

I tried to use the plastic spacers that came with the Apogee but remember when you remove the IHS you are removing some 2mm of seperation between the cpu core and the water block. I removed the same amount from the plastic spacers and even with the water block mounted with what I considered acceptable, the spacers still didn't make contact.

Was it worth it? The benefit seems negligable for me, had I the choice again I probably wouldn't. However, people are reporting much better results with dual-core processors though.

I'm just figuring it might help me a little. I had a 4400+ before this at 2.7 it would idle like 1-2Degree over ambient....and would rarely go over 30.
I've changed the fans on my RAD, but the performance shouldn't really beany different. In fact I was hoping it would be better since I'm now using a shroud.

But with my opty 165 (even at stock) it idles at like 33 and maxes at like 41-42
I dunno if it's just the different temp sensor in the chip that makes it read that differently....or if it's really running that different (for whatever reason)

But my reason for wanting to try it...is that I can run at 3.0Ghz and never have any issues...but it won't prime on core 0 for more than a couple minutes. And I'm too scared to put any more voltage to it. So I'm hoping better cooling might help.

Voltage FTW it can take up to 1.55v no problem!

infinitevalence said:

Voltage FTW it can take up to 1.55v no problem!

Click to expand...

So 1.55 on my naked Opty 170 should be my limit? It's pretty much where I get diminishing returns anyway.

One thing about mounting on a naked core: Make sure you apply felt circles to each corner of the processor pcb. I didn't do this and I believe it's the reason I chiped the corner of the core > uneven pressure upon mounting and turning those first screw turns before the block stop sliding around.

well I'm at almost 1.6v ....so I don't think I'd like to go higher

one advice...dots, you know like the ones on XP CPUs. you should be able to find them at hardware store or check the clasiffided I know a member sell thoses for really cheap...

Yeah but how thick? I have a duron 800mhz and a few thunderbirds sitting around I could liberate the dots from, but if they are too tall it wont be too good for the core.

Eh, I'd think those dots would compress just fine ....I can't imagine there's a big enough difference in core height to matter.

I removed the IHS on my Opty 144 and seen a VERY NICE improvement on temps.

323x9 1.44vcore

On Air, XP-120, IHS On
Idle: 33C
Load: 46C

On Air, Xp-120, IHS Off
Idle: 30C
Load: 38C

On Water, Apogee BIP II, IHS Off
Idle: 26C
Load: 34C

Yes, low ambient temps, add about 3 ~ 4C if room is 'hot'

So its definitly worth it imo...as for the mounting. I had to take that plastic mounting bracket off the board because it wouldnt sit all the way down. I used some dots from a dead AXP, put it on the corners of chip and screwed it down, all the way. Once it got to the point of alotta resistance, just hand tighten, not over do it, works perfecto.