My insulation of annoying LGA775 24/7 (56k warn)

[Gautam]

Nothing fancy...I was just switching CPU's in my daily driver today and thought I'd snap some pics of how it looks like under the hood in case it might help someone. I've been running like this for 9 months straight 24/7, so you know it works. Overkill, perhaps, messy, definitely, but it gives peace of mind. This is the Asus P5W-DH, one of the first boards to give LGA775 insulation such a bad name.

 

[Gautam]

This is how I started out. This is all Armaflex tape, which is very similar to soft neoprene with an adhesive backing. You can cut it easily to any desired shape. As you can see, I cut it to fit some of the capacitors, and then stuck it on the board. Two layers, 1/8" apiece. I left the inductors and mosfets above alone, as they get hot while running and shouldn't be insulated. Everyone knows I'm a big fan of grease, and I gooped up the socket good with Vaseline. However, I didn't directly put much on the board itself.

 

[Gautam]

Pictured below is a 1/4" neoprene sheet, cut to fit the socket and allowing for the evaporator head. It goes above armaflex layer in the last post. Never mind all the imprints; they're only there because this gasket is already used.

 

[Gautam]

And this is how it looks flipped over and placed on top of the armaflex layer, with the CPU installed. The opening allows the evaporator head to touch the CPU, while blocking everything else for an airtight fit.

 

[wa77ss]

Nice job Guatam

Good pics, I definitely had to think it over when trying to insulate my P5W-DH.


Messy, but gets the job done and thats all that matters

 

[Jame Gumb]

Approximately how much grease is that, Gautam?

I need to go through w/ the extra effort like this w/ my P5WD2. Too much sweating under there.

 

[||Console||]

I really do need to do some reading on insulation before I get my ss this summer . I have tryed reading about phase chaneg systems but I im the type of person that needs it in front of me to get it totaly . I saw a friend use Vaseline but with a tec and the Vaseline got runny and ran down the board . Was that because of the hot side of the tec does this not happen with a ss ( i dont mean a hot side i jsut mean it run down ) ?

 

[Gautam]

Approximately how much grease is that, Gautam?

I need to go through w/ the extra effort like this w/ my P5WD2. Too much sweating under there.

Hey, nice to see you around again. The grease isn't nearly as bad as it looks. I always fill the socket up, and IMHO, this is sort of a necessary step with LGA775 for 24/7 usage. Otherwise corrosion is pretty likely on the pins and backside of CPU. Besides that its just a very thin layer on all the insulation just for peace of mind. Not fully necessary. Filling any cracks though is advisable.

I really do need to do some reading on insulation before I get my ss this summer . I have tryed reading about phase chaneg systems but I im the type of person that needs it in front of me to get it totaly . I saw a friend use Vaseline but with a tec and the Vaseline got runny and ran down the board . Was that because of the hot side of the tec does this not happen with a ss ( i dont mean a hot side i jsut mean it run down ) ?

I know watcha mean. It won't be bad at all once you get one.

Vaseline is always what I swear by. Liquid chilling, direct-die, dry ice, and liquid nitrogen...I use it for all of the above and have never had a problem. Never have used a TEC before though. I think you might be right about the hot side. Vaseline doesn't get thin unless its heated. When its cold, it just hardens a bit. When I have some around the mosfets it sometimes "runs," but that's why I don't put it there any more. If its running it means its getting hot and shouldn't be there anyways. In the case of a TEC it should only be very close to the CPU/GPU I'll bet since the temps aren't all that low.

 

[greenmaji]

Rock on Gautam!

 

[maxfly]

well done man.that helps me to understand the mounting/insulating process alot better.now if i can just get the nerve up to actually try it myself :/ is it essentially the same with a tec?

 

[Hazaro]

Wow, that's pretty crazy, I'm scared to water cool let alone slather my P5B in Vaseline.

 

[Vento1]

It sure does look messy 2 questions how do you clean the vaseline out of the socket and what do you use.

 

[||Console||]

Y would you take it out =)

 

[Drinkyoghurt]

lol when i looked at the first pic at first i thought your board and cpu had melted , then i looked a bit better and noticed the mounting hardware

 

[deathman20]

Man thats messy, defiantly cool though. BTW I think you got a little dust there on the heat sinks you might want to clean out

 

[Vento1]

Y would you take it out =)

When its time to change boards, i change mine every 8 months.

 

[Gautam]

Acetone and a toothbrush is what I use. However you can never get the socket fully clean unless you're a nut. The only place its actually messy is just in the socket, but I feel its kind of necessary to have it gooped up. Too many tales of corrosion etc.

How do you do yours vento? The Commando is way easier which is why I pictured the P5W.

 

[EmAn]

so let me get this straight...

YOU WANT VASOLINE IN THE SOCKET???

i would think that would mess up something

 

[Vento1]

When i had my Abit AW9D-max i also filled the socket with vaseline but i did not put it over the pins Big mistake as one of them shorted out killing the board, on the commando i was a bit keen to get it running and put nothing in the socket when i changed my cpu to a quad for the first time ever it was all nice and dry. The layout around the socket is perfect for getting a good seal. But when i do a vdroop mod on the board at the weekend just to be on the safe side i will be aplying plenty of vaseline.

 

[Gautam]

Are you sure the board actually droops? On my Conroe, I put a droop mod on immediately, and then when I took it off, I gained well over 100MHz on LN2. Turned out at stock the board only drooped .005V, not enough to care about, and after modding, the voltage went up under load...very bad for it clearly.

However the board certainly has a large drop...1.75v BIOS set = 1.66v in reality as I'm sure you've noticed. You can fix that by vcore modding it and putting the resistor at about 14K ohms...gets you pretty much exactly what you set in BIOS in reality.