Adventures with IFX-14 - Overclock.net

Kirmie · 06-26-09

*This thread is going to be covering the installation of the IFX-14 into my NZXT Zero on the Asus P5n32-e motherboard with two sticks of 2GB Corsair XMS2, a 9800GT, and an e6600 Core2Duo. Please pardon what will intialy be slow updates because I have a busy weekend due to a Toledo Mud Hens game tonight, Sumerfest (drinking and blowing stuff up followed by going to a place where I drink more and they blow stuff up), and possibly house hunting on Sunday. Pictures will be included at some point.*

Installation:

I received my IFX-14 earlier this week and I thought I might share my experiences with this cooler since there don't seem to be many, if any, threads going over how the install of this heatsink went. As many of you know, the IFX-14 is a gigantic cooler that has the possiblity of beating or equaling most other coolers though its downsides are size and sometimes price (thank you TankGuys for the great price!).

My first impression upon receiving the IFX-14 was that you can't really appreciate how big this cooler is without seeing it first hand. This thing is so big that if the made it any wider in the middle it would be fairly easy to work with, but would have almost zero chance of ever fitting into a case. Many people will have trouble with this cooler so please remember to check the space around your processor to be sure that it will fit in the orientation that you would like to use.

After going through the instructions and the included items there were a few things that could be confusing. The first was the plastic "sticker backing" attached to the backplate and the backplate cooler. Do not remove them! Removing the backplate backing will make the backplate close to imposible to remove while adding to the possibility of creating a short, while removing the backing on the backplate cooler will almost guarantee a short will be created. There was also some confusion with the thermal pads. The thicker one that attached to the top side of the backplate cooler only needs one sticky side removed, though both sides look like they can be removed. I left the yellow side on since I have found a few others who had done the same. Finaly, the instructions have two mistakes in them. The first is that the mounting brackets are reversed in the picture with the screw hole on the inside (toward the processor), rather than on the outside. Install the brackets like that and you will have no chance of fitting the IFX-14 into the gap. The second mistake is that the instructions tell you to put the fan clips through the holes where the arrow points. The closest arrow is no where near the picture so I can only guess that they meant the holes for the screws on the fan.

The actual items themselves arrived in good shape, packaged with a large amount of the plastic styrofoam stuff. The base of the IFX-14 didn't seem to be particularly flat after close inspection but the machining seemed to be fairly decent with a semi-reflecting surface. Cleaning with a coffee filter and isopropyl alcohol made an interesting zzzzzippp noise though. The backplate backing looked flat but had very visible grooves from the machining, though this shouldn't matter since the sticky thermal pads are many times thicker than the grooves are deep. There is an anti-vibration pad that came with the cooler that looks like it can be split in two, but that is a trick and you will likely need a pair of scissors. I did not bother with the anti-vibration pad yet though since it annoyed me and some other complications made it almost useless.

The actuall install itself was not too difficult as long as you avoid the mistakes above and account for some spacing issues. I decided to errect mine horizontally so that my fans could immediately exhaust the air straight out of the case. Following the backplate instructions is simple as long as you completely remove the motherboard and have it on a flat surface. Trying to do this while being lazy and not fully removing the motherboard is very difficult because the four screw holes that the backplate uses to screw in the mounting brackets did not want to line up without the help of screws holding them in place. When actually inserting the IFX-14 I suggest trying this first without any TIM. This will allow you to insure that the IFX-14 will fit and that you will be able to reach all of the screw points for the spring loaded screws and the motherboard screws. There is a good chane that you will not be able to reach the motherboard screws so you will probably need to install the motherboard again before installing the IFX-14. Please make sure that you have your RAM installed before installing any fans or the IFX-14 because there will be a close fit and installing the RAM afterwards will likely be impossible. There is a small wrench included with the cooler that might be usefull if you can install the IFX-14 with the motherboard outside of case and for some reason you don't own the philips head screwdriver that was required to instal the mounting brackets. If you can use the wrench with the motherboard in the case then bravo because you must have the tiniest hands in the world. When screwing everything down though I would like to emphasize that you slowly tighten each screw in a crossing/circular style to keep one side from becoming lopsided. Do that as well for the spring load screws.

Once finished the IFX-14 seems quite nice. There does not seem to be any play that would require the instal of a pressure modification like the TRUE tends to need. In my particular circumstance the IFX-14 overhangs the northbridge cooler and comes very close to my ram so slightly taller ram sticks in the first slot might come into contact with the cooler, this fact also makes it seem like installing a 140mm fan in that space would not be possible since my 120mm fan is barely capable of not touching the ram sticks. The backplate cooling heatsink fit with no issues in my situation since I have a lot of open space between my motherboard and my PSU. Some people might require a slight bend with a larger PSU but the heatsink seems like it would bend fine without too much force being required, but stable enough that it will not randomly bend on its own.

Kirmie · 06-26-09

*At the moment these are just initial results based on a small amount of time playing with this setup. More detailed results with the use of different stress programs and updated bios settings to come once I have the time and the AS5 has a chance to cure.*

Initial Test Results:

The first thing I should mention as that this testing is being done with a lapped e6600 Core2Duo shaved down to copper and will be using AS5 as the TIM until further notice.

Using OCCT I did some new measurements and testing today. With the stock FSB,1.31vCore, and one fan on my CPU idled at ~33C, occassionaly touching 32C with the max temperature using Linpack at 50C. These may seem a bit high to some but I would like everybody to know that my current room temperature is 31C or about 88F. Testing with an overclock proved fruitless as the high ambient and lack of cooling for my northbridge continue to lock up my rig when testing using Linpack. I did get some testing done using OCCT though and the results showed a maximum temp of about 48C with idle sitting at 33C. I am currently looking into how I will effectively cool my northbridge so I can get some better results. I should have 2 80mm fans and a Rheobus controller appearing at my door on Monday so some temporary fancy work might get me some results to play with.

Kirmie · 06-26-09

*Reserved for any other space needed for pictures and splitting up the text*

tK FuRY · 06-26-09

looking to see the results man! I love the IFX-14.

Sorry if you needed to reserve this post also =[

sLowEnd · 06-26-09

Cleaning caused a zip sound? o_o

Kirmie · 06-26-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by sLowEnd

Cleaning caused a zip sound? o_o

Yes, it seemed as though there were tiny grooves that are barely visible when the light hits it right. These made an interesting sound when running the filter accross that I found interesting and I thought was worth mentioning. I am quite certain it was on the IFX-14 and not the backplate cooler but I did the work last night so there is a possiblity of mistake. I will be double checking this after I get the chance to fully test this setup and I take the IFX-14 out to lap it and get comparable results.

rpgman1 · 06-26-09

Does the IFX-14 come with the LGA 1366 bolt-thru kit when you bought it at TankGuys? I emailed them about that and I get no response. Only CrazyPC and FrozenCPU sell the IFX-14 with the LGA 1366 bolt-thru kit. I was interested in buying either the IFX-14 or the Megahalems and putting a Delta 38mm fan on them, then buy another fan for a push/pull setup.

Kirmie · 06-26-09

Nope, sorry. Probably helps TanGuys cut the costs and lets them sell it so cheap. The 1366 kits cost about $10 online it seems.

The_0ctogon · 06-26-09

Pictures por favor!

Kirmie · 06-26-09

^^ Hopefully I can get some of the pics up by tomorrow morning. Never used pics on a forum so it will take me a few minutes to figure out imageShack or something and then upload the pics. If they are not up tomorrow they will be by Sunday night when I know I will have time.

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Adventures with IFX-14

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