Paraleyes

I have been wanting to cool down my P5N7A-VM so I could reach some more respectable overclocks on the board. I noticed there were holes available to hold down some aftermarket mosfet cooling and then remembered I have an extra set of stock heat pipes from another 650i board just sitting around collecting dust, so I went to work.

Here is a picture of the stock heat pipe I decided to use before I modified it.



Here is my way under-cooled P5N7A-VM media center motherboard and the highlighted area that is getting the new mod.



At 1st glance, it looked as though I'd be able to simply swap it directly over, but a couple issues quickly became evident:

1. The mosfet holes have about a 1/2" inch narrower mounting layout on the mod board.
2. The 650i board uses a bolt-through system to mount the north bridge heat sink while the 730i board uses a hook and spring system.
3. The overall distance between the location of the mosfets and the north bridge is nearly an inch further on the 650i board compared to the mod board.

So here's a couple pictures of the mod and how I made it work.





















Before the mod, I could barely hit 2.7GHz with my E6600 and it would become unstable. Now I'm at 3.2GHz and completely stable. Of course that's partially due to the better HSF on the CPU, but it was mostly a FSB issue. I also swapped out the memory from 4g of DDR2 800 to this PC2 8500.

This entire mod was done salvaging old parts; nuts, bolts and such- Even the RAM was sitting on the shelf. As was the CPU cooler, but that's just because I never RMA'ed it from before. At the very least, I figured it would be a good way to spend my Friday evening, but the O/Cing benefit has been outstanding in comparison.

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UHAF 932 "Ultra High Air Flow" Prototype Concept Rig Build Log
Ultimate Aggressive Cooling Mod - How I Lowered my MB temps by 25C!
How to Modify, Cut Down & Upgrade Your Stock Heat Pipe System
Old Heat Pipes Moddded on a New P5N7A-VM Old Heat Pipes Modded on a New P5Q3

legoman786

Nice work man

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September 1, 2009 - Never forget.

Paraleyes

Thanks legoman!

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UHAF 932 "Ultra High Air Flow" Prototype Concept Rig Build Log
Ultimate Aggressive Cooling Mod - How I Lowered my MB temps by 25C!
How to Modify, Cut Down & Upgrade Your Stock Heat Pipe System
Old Heat Pipes Moddded on a New P5N7A-VM Old Heat Pipes Modded on a New P5Q3

non-vtec

good job.

i have the same mobo. im planning to add this to the northbridge to keep it cool: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...4118&CatId=498


currently my pentium dual core d925 which was stock 3.0ghz is running a cool 4.43ghz with the help of my new massive cooler master hyper 212. it dropped the cpu temps ALLOT. i hope i can fit that NB cooler with the CPU cooler i just got.

does the southbridge need as much cooling as the northbridge? i just noticed the mounting holes since you posted this so im gonna look for a heatsink to mount to it.....

sLowEnd

Nope

Southbridges don't produce much heat
(That's why you see tiny heatsinks on them)

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Swiftes

Nice idea!

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apt2vanish

You really should blur out your name and address on that pill bittle before you post....
Good job though rep+

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robertoburri

that looks bada** you need to do that for me lol!

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Paraleyes

YES!!! It needs it! Check the link in my sig. I used that same cooler you mentioned. Keep a look out though; it's available for a buck less and free shipping from the egg on and off.

Correction! The 570 MCP South bridge on my 650i got hot enough that I could not comfortably hold my finger on it. Check the link to the mod in my sig for info! I say cool that thing down the best you can!

Also, the P5N32-E sli/Striker Extreme has a 1/4" thick heat block with a heat pipe leading off from the SB. That is not tiny. And it is barely enough.

Thanks Swiftes!

Oh crap! I had no idea that was there. thanks! ...fixing...

Send it over! Or, PM me and I'll talk you though any questions you may have.

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UHAF 932 "Ultra High Air Flow" Prototype Concept Rig Build Log
Ultimate Aggressive Cooling Mod - How I Lowered my MB temps by 25C!
How to Modify, Cut Down & Upgrade Your Stock Heat Pipe System
Old Heat Pipes Moddded on a New P5N7A-VM Old Heat Pipes Modded on a New P5Q3

mothow

Wow werent you afraid of knocking that one cap off?And what H/S is on the heatsink?Nice work by the way

I gave you rep but it wouldnt let me add a comment sorry.I dont know why

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