Custom backplate for heatsink/pot mounting

Getting a few steps closer to going cold, I've just got all my parts in for my benching rig, and I have a question. I went with a Cogage True Spirit from Muddocktor for my heatsink/air testing, which only comes with 1366 mounting hardware.

So I pulled the standard AM3 retention lug thinger off the top of my Biostar TA890FXE, and took the backplate off too. I'm about to head to home depot to buy the parts I'll need to get this heatsink latched down good and tight.

As my intent is to go LN2 asap and I already have a dewar, I'd like to use the same backplate technique for both air and subzero. I'm going to follow 3oh6's MDF approach - 5/8" thick MDF, 1/2" thick armaflex sheet in the middle, motherboard on top.

Is this a bad idea for air testing? With a backplate like this, there will be no airflow at all over the back of the board, and the tiny surface mount components at the back for the CPU socket will be buried in a 1/2" of insulation. On LN2, they'll be plenty cool. Do I have any reason to worry if they'll get too warm on air cooling?

BTW, the backplate fits perfect on top of the True Spirit heatsink base, so if I use the MDF method for the new backplate, I can use the original backplate as the hold down on top... which save me from fashioning anything to hold down the heatsink.

Why not use cutting board as a backplate? I belive cheaper and easier to work witH?

Ya wood doesn't really matter, I picked something up that was about the size I needed. Not sure what you call it, think the price tag said "handyboard".

Forgot to take the screws with me and got the wrong size bolts. : No loss tho, home depot didn't have any suitable sheet insulation. Only thing I found was armaflex pipe insulation. Gotta go out tomorrow to get a couple power cords from radio shack, for monitor and projector, insulation, and bolts that will do the trick. Swung by microcenter and all they had was Intel mounting hardware, go figure... guy said they just sold the last one.

But I did get the benching dungeon setup and ready to go. Snapped some pics I'll post shortly... just need a video card and I'm ready to go.

Patience is a virtue. One I do not enjoy.

Got the True Spirit mounted with string... Same lousy stuff I tied the christmas tree to the top of the car with a week ago. It worked fine on the tree, and the heatsink hasn't blown off yet. Working on uploading the video now, will update this post once its on youtube. Sitting in BIOS at 26C and holding, working on getting an OS loaded on this SSD and we'll see if we can get some air benches in tonight.

Stole a GPU from my HTPC, and the power cord from the TV in the living room.

Put a book on top of the heatsink. Its what I do when I'm too lazy to properly mount a heatsink

Thanks for the tip, I'll do that if I need to in order to run 2d benches. Holding 25C currently in BIOS, while I try to get a windows install on this drive.

The video was shot in HD, and is about 10 minutes long, so its going to be about 50 minutes until its entirely uploaded to youtube.

Video in HD, mostly boring, with occasional commentary thats equally boring:

I.M.O.G. said:

Video in HD, mostly boring, with occasional commentary thats equally boring:

Click to expand...

Oooh, boring videos with boring commentary. Sounds boring

looks like you are well on your way to becoming one of us hoodlums. hehe

I don't know about anyone else, but I REALLY wanted to reach through the screen and help you tie that thing down, lol. Your man cave is quite empty, plenty of room for hardware shelves And the Dewar should sit right next to the hot water heater, seeing how they're about the same size.

i really felt for you with that TIM, I used that stuff on a friends build and ended up squirting it all over the motherboard cause the plunger stuck just like yours did lol

Heh, I could have used the help tieing the bugger down. Even though the tie downs were super loose though, they actually served a purpose. Without them, the heatsink tended to want to slowly blow away from the fan, even when weighted down. So while they didn't apply any downward force, they did at least limit horizontal movement and keep the whole shebang from falling over if blown or bumped and gouging my board.

The fan works great it seems. Idle temps were a degree or two warmer on the lowest fan setting, but the highest setting did pull it down a little bit more... I'm hoping to do load testing tonight, but need to figure out why the USB stick I was trying to load XP from wasn't recognized as bootable. If I have to, I'll pull a CDROM and install from disc, but I was really hoping to avoid that and long term I'm not going to be screwing with discs for installs. Down the road, I'll have some images setup to make things quicker, but for now I just want to get a windows install online that I can get my 10 benches in with.

As for the plunger of thermal paste, what a freaking pain. Not sure what the deal is with that but after I cleaned things up and dropped a different CPU in, it did the same thing to me even though I knew it was coming. Just tends to get stuck and gush I guess. Tried picking up some ceramique from Microcenter but they didn't have any, so I'll get an order in for that eventually, though I was hoping to be a cheapass and get a sample. In the meantime, I now have paper towels by my bench so I don't keep wiping more gunk on my pants. lol

svc.com has free tim shipping, i use them or petras for most/all of my tim needs.

Narrow width zipties work wonderfully for attaching heatsinks, you can even get a decent amount of pressure out of them!
Hit harbor freight or some such store and grab some, you'll never use string again

Bobnova said:

Narrow width zipties work wonderfully for attaching heatsinks, you can even get a decent amount of pressure out of them!
Hit harbor freight or some such store and grab some, you'll never use string again

Click to expand...

+1 to that. Lowes has a ton in all sorts of lengths. They're in the electrical tools section with the electrical tape (right next to the liquid electrical tape in case you need that too)

I think I woulda done the string a bit differently, I woulda run the other side through the heatsink like you did the first, then back behind the board and tied it off so you had 2 wrappings all the way around, tied off in the back.