milling my northbridge block

[frostmeister]

I started milling my northbridge block tonight, which I've posted a pic of so far. It looks a little shabby at the moment, but that's going to be tidied up with an end mill once the channels are cut to dpth using a rounded edge wall tile cutter. That's the best thing to cut through the copper I'm milling out that I've found so far. I haven't tried a round mill though, as I had the wall tile cutters handy at the time. They're attachments for dremmels by the way. I'll post more as I'm done. My method at the moment is drilling the holes where the channels are going, and joining them up with this tile cutter bit before tidying them up with the end mill...

 

[[EG]~NaTz~]

loooks good are the channels 3/8

 

[SemiCycle]

Looks good so far. When you are done mounting the WB on the north bridge, can you post any FSB OCing improvement you recieve (if any) when compared to the stock cooled North bridge.

I've been asking this almost everytime I see someone abot to setup a watercooled NB because I'm still considering added a NB cooler to my setup.

 

[JFettig]

wow! that looks really nice! that looks like it woudl perform great on a cpu!

-edit- be sure to post pics in the gallery, upload them to a server like theforumisdow.com or soemthing

 

[Liss]

looks amazing.. excellent job

 

[frostmeister]

Well, thankyou very much for the positive feedback. You should wait till I get it completely milled out and tidied up. The chanels are approx. 10mm deep, and will be about 4 / 5 mm wide when finished. This is only a start so I can mill them out wider and make a nice job of it. Yeah, I'll post improvements - or not - as the case may be, when the block's milled out and it goes in. Bearing in mind though, I've only got a 133 fsb to start with, and ECC ram, which may make a difference. I'll try with everything taken out that'll make a difference, like CD's, soundcard, etc, and see what's holding me back, if anything. I'm basically doing this becuase I can though

 

[JFettig]

stick it on your 486

 

[ziah]

you doing it with a drill press? im about to embark on the same procedure.


~z

 

[SemiCycle]

stick it on your 486

ROFLMAO. I noticed his sig earlier too, but I couldn't think of anything to say.

 

[#Rotor]

Damn I had a Dx4-120, can still remember it running circles around my Bosses Pentium 75 man that was centuries ago..

 

[frostmeister]

Yeah Ziah, I'm doing it with a drill press, and a cross vice. I've included a pic of my setup here, but it's not come out too well because of the bright backlight. You can see my cross vice though, which is almost a must. It alows you to move your work in a straight line in the X and Y directions while your drill is going. Errrm. So, yeah, any questions you've got I'll try and answer if you like.

486's hmm? Those were the days - I remember a freind and I sprayed arctic freeze over a 486SX 20, and got it to boot at 80Mhz - 400% overclock!!! Try getting that these days eh?

 

[JFettig]

holy crap! rite on your computer desk!!! i wish i could stick my mill on my puter desk i would have metal shavings all over my room

 

[Borgy]

swaff every where ... not quite a good idea ????
Borgy

 

[BabyEater]

One question are those x-y tables very dear as i might want to get one.

 

[frostmeister]

Just thought I'd clear one thing up - that computer is kind of my second rig, a P2 300Mhz. It's not in use at the moment, and is just gathering dust till I get my main rig sorted. I will put a dust cover on it though, just to satisfy you all and keep any swarf out That aside, the X/Y table or cross vice, whatever it's known by in your area, cost me about £50, so I think that's about $70. You can get expensive ones and cheap ones of course, but this one seems to work just fine. You have got to be carefull of "play" in the vice, as if you don't tighten things up, you'll get bad edges and your bit will be going all over the place. Same with the drill. There' one thing I can't get rid of on my drill press, it's about 1-2mm play up and down in the drill chuck. It just means a bit of extra time when I'm finishing off a channel in the block.

 

[Stalka]

looking good!

 

[[EG]~NaTz~]

yes once again not bad and hey is it an amd 486 that is so rare and everyone is looking for cause i have 2 im not sure if they work though i bet u could cool them with that puppy...

 

[frostmeister]

LOL, it's not to cool the computer in my signature - that's like just a joke. I did have an amd 486 - and do you remember the 386DX 40's they had? they rocked. Anyway, yeah, the block's coming along nicely, I'll post another pic tommorow when I get home.

 

[ziah]

cant wait to see it. i bought some copper blanks from overdrive in the for sale section. i cant wait to start drilling out these puppies!! i was thinking of using a titanium bit and getting an end mill off ebay to clean it up with (is there anything special i would need?). i have to find an axis vice now. im going to have a mega post soon with a ton of questions. keep an eye out.

~z

 

[-J-]

great job man.

cant wait to see it finished.