Bassplayer's Insulation Guide (Lots of Images)

Welcome everyone, I've decided to go ahead and make one of these because it's as easy as taking photos while I'm setting up for a session. The whole process takes about 30 minutes.

So on to the good stuff!

This time I was setting up the UD9. It's not as easy to insulate as my RIIIE, but here it is anyway!

Here's the board before insulating. I like to take the socket cover off (requires a #20 hex bit) to get better coverage.



My next step is to cover the entire area around the socket with kneadable eraser. This is the most important step, in my opinion, as it is the strongest and last line of defense against condensation.



Then I drop the chip in and get some eraser around it to seal the socket shut!





I like to cover the first ram slot with a piece of electrical tape. I put it on there and then use a razor (or exacto knife) to cut it to size.



The next step would be to insulate the back of the board. I forgot to take pictures of this, so I'll just describe it. I have some grey armaflex that I stick to the back of the board. I then put a shop towel and a piece of construction foam between the armaflex and the back plate. After putting the backplate on, this is what the front looks like:



Next I put a shop towel with a square cut out (torn out) for the processor over all of the kneadable eraser.



Then a piece of construction foam:



Then another, larger shop towel:



Next comes the two thick pieces of insulation. These are cut with a slight angle to make a sort of "cup" around the processor to allow the pot to fit in tightly.



Then the thermal paste!



And finally (a few steps), the pot with its custom insulation and mounting. I think everything is clear enough in the images.





With the memory installed:



Here it is in action:



Hope it helped! It's worked flawlessly for 20+ hours of benching over 4 different sessions and on 3 different boards (RIIIE, UD4P, UD9).

That's true! I was looking that that and I saw the fingerprints as well. I made sure none of them were full prints though. I don't even want to know what the internets could do with full prints!



I reuploaded the photos after a bit of resizing and rotating.

Since I take the socket off, the armaflex is pressed directly against that part.